Jennifer ThiessenLiaison Librarian, Education

Finding books and articles Library Catalogues and Databases Citation chasing (using a reference list)

Google Scholar; Google BooksSaving, storing and managing

articles (Refworks)

• Know what is appropriate:– Scholarly, academic, peer-reviewed material– Balance between non-scholarly and scholarly, if

appropriate– E.g. curriculum documents, contemporary thought, gray

lit– Material that presents empirical data/evidence to

back up claims, not just opinions– Web?

• Know where to begin searching:– Library catalogues– Library databases – Education Research Complete,

ERIC, Educational Administration Abstracts, Sage Journals Online

They gather a lot of information on one topic in one place

They can provide a good overview or good background information on a topic

They often offer extensive bibliographies

Consider reference materials E.g. 21st Century Education [electronic resource]

Our library catalogue

Other Ontario universities

WorldCat – http://www.worldcat.org

Use keywords

Journal articles discuss one perspective

Each article makes a unique contribution

Articles can supplement information found first in books

Articles can offer more up-to-date information

Click on Education to see a list of

databases for that subject area.

Click on Research, then Databases.

Click on a database name, then start

searching.

Recommended: Education Research Complete; ERIC, SAGE

Tips: Limit to scholarly (peer reviewed) journals Look for descriptors (or subject headings) for more

focused results Use quotation marks for bound phrase searching

(“standardized testing”) Not all articles are available online in full text format “Get it” button looks for the full text throughout all

of the Library’s databases

• http://scholar.google.ca/

Caveats:• Google Scholar does not have nearly the

number of publisher agreements as are available through our 300+ library databases.

• Use the Get it! @Brock option to get back to full-text items from our databases (rather than going to a publisher’s page and paying them for information).

• Use Google Scholar in conjunction with RACER, our interlibrary loan system at Brock University.

Have you found a fantastic article (either from a database search or your reading list)?

Use the reference list of that article (esp. if it is a recent article) to find additional relevant articles

Search for TITLE (of book)OR JOURNAL TITLEhttp://www.library.brocku.ca/

What if Brock doesn’t have it? Use RACER (Interlibrary Loan) to request

it Borrow from another University library

Refworks• Build your own database of information

• Citations and links to the full text• Create multiple folders• Allows you to create formatted

bibliographies (in APA, etc.)• RefWorks allows you to create in-text

references.

The Concept:

databasereference(s)

* optional *produce bibliography

bibliographic management

software

export

Visit the Graduate Education Research Guideor Education Course Pages

See the Help pages

Contact the Library Help Desk 905-688-5550 x. 3233 or use email form

Contact your liaison librarian: Jennifer Thiessen (phone, chat, email)