Masters in Economics

Library Module 1

24th Sept 2010

Lorraine Foster, Liaison Librarian

Lorraine.foster@ucd.ie

Topics:

•Library Website: Alcid Card, Study Rooms, Subject Portals, Endnote

•Theses: UCD, Irish, UK & World wide

•Search Strategy: Phrase searching, wildcards, boolean operators

•Database Searching: Econ Lit

•Google: Using the advanced feature/Scholar

•Worksheet

Library Websitewww.ucd.ie/library

Up-to-date current information on

• Borrowing

• Opening hours

• Staff contacts

• Subject related resources

• Collections

Postgraduate Services

•ALCID Card: Access to other university libraries in the country

•Postgraduate Research Centre: 35 workstations & PCs - book at the level 2 information desk.

•Individual Study Rooms: James Joyce Library, priority is given to masters by research students

•Laptop loans: free use of laptops in the library (2 hours at a time)

•Group Study Rooms: Located on the 2nd floor in the James Joyce Library - please book at the information desk.

RIAN : Ireland’s national research portalContent includes hundreds of full-text doctoral and master theses from Irish universities as well as DIT.

EThOS (Electronic These Online Service) The British Library's EThos service offers bibliographic details of over 250,000 British doctoral theses. The service also offers free access to over 12,000 doctoral theses stored electronically at the British Library as well as other theses harvested from university repositories around the UK.

DART - Europe E-theses portal (DEEP) The DART-Europe portal offers free access to over 130,000 full-text European doctoral theses. Includes significant German content.

Digital Theses

EndNote is a software application that allows researchers store and manage all references in one place.

Date Time Class Location

Wednesday 22nd Sept 13.00-14.00 Endnote Health Sciences Library

Friday 1st Oct 13.00-14.00 Endnote Health Sciences Library

Monday 4th Oct 13.00-14.00 Endnote Web Health Sciences Library

Tuesday 12th Oct 13.00-14.00 Endnote Health Sciences Library

Wednesday 20th Oct 13.00-14.00 Endnote Health Sciences Library

Thursday 28th Oct 13.00-14.00 Endnote Web Health Sciences Library

Friday 5th Nov 13.00-14.00 Endnote Health Sciences Library

Monday 8th Nov 13.00-14.00 Endnote Health Sciences Library

Tuesday 16th Nov 13.00-14.00 Endnote Health Sciences Library

Wednesday 24th Nov 13.00-14.00 Endnote Web Health Sciences Library

Searching

• What kind of information are you looking for?

– Academic

– Government

– Current

– Historical overview

– Research

• Biggest mistake – looking in the wrong place

Searching• Reference – dictionaries, encyclopedias

– Starting point

• Textbooks– Overview of a topic

• Journal Articles– Current research

• Websites– Overview of current information – always treat with caution!!

What to use?

• A Database covers published journals in subject area

– Use the subject search in the electronic resources tab

– Select economics from the drop-down menu

– See a choice of databases/resources for your subject area.

Search Techniques

• Take time to think about what you are looking for before beginning.

• Successful Search

– Removes irrelevant references

– Manageable number of highly relevant references

Search Techniques

Topic:The impact of EU Enlargement on European interest rates

Research Topic…

Pull out any key concepts or keywords

Think of synonyms or alternative terms – the resources that you use may use controlled vocabulary.

Think about the language that you’re using (European & US)

Search Techniques

Key Terms

• Europe

• Enlargement

• Interest Rates

Alternative Terms

• EU

• Accession Countries

• Accession States

• Integration

Searching Techniques

Truncation & Wildcards

• Retrieve all records that include a common stem

– Europe*» Europe» European

Phrase Searching

• Searches for records where words appear together

‘Interest Rates’

Search Techniques

Boolean Operators: AND OR NOT

OR – increases the amount of items retrieved

AND – reduces number of items retrieved

NOT – will not retrieve items containing term

Boolean Operators – AND OR NOT

Business OR Economics

Business AND Economics

Business NOT Economics

Business Economics

Business Economics

Business Economics

Search Statement

The impact of EU Enlargement on European interest rates

Concept 1Europe*

OREU

AND

Concept 3‘interest rates’

Concept 2Enlargement

ORIntegration

AND

• Google Scholar: “scholarly literature” including work from from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.

• Advanced Google: Increased functionality.