AN OVERVIEW OF RESOURCES AT THE LIBRARY

By Paul Biggs Librarian for Psychology, Sport & Exercise and

Social Work

CONTACT ME

• eMail p.biggs@staffs.ac.uk • Phone 01782 294594• Skype p.r.e.biggs• Generic eMail

ask@staffs.ac.uk• Currently located in room

D140 in the library but please eMail or call me if you need an appointment

HOW I CAN HELP YOU

• If you are having trouble locating resources I can assist you in finding library resources for your study!

• You can book appointments with me, and I can show you how our eResources work and how you can access information such as books, eBooks, journals and eJournals

• You can also eMail, phone or book an appointment via Skype with me, especially if you live off campus

• If you use our resources – it will help you get a better grade as you will be accessing primary and secondary information.

• Thompson Library has the majority of Sport and Exercise materials

• Thousands of books, eBooks, journals, statistics, reports, newspapers and online resources

• Student card is also your library card• Access your Library Account using your

student username and password

THE LIBRARY SERVICE

USERNAMES & PASSWORDS

• Your username is your student number which consists of 2 letters and 6 numbers.b123456f

• Your password is your date of birth in 6 digitsddmmyy

• Use it logon to, computers, email, Blackboard, library account and eResources

WHERE TO START

• To access the Library Resources page please navigate to www.staffs.ac.uk/library

SEARCH FOR BOOKS

• You can search for books using the widget on the front page

ACCESSING A BOOK

• You can see if we have the book as a physical copy in the library or as an electronic book

• You can also search for books using the Library Catalogue

RENEWING/PLACING A HOLD ON YOUR BOOKS• You can renew your books via your account on

the library catalogue via http://libcat.staffs.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-user.pl

• To place a hold on the book you can select the book

• Select place hold, log into your account and follow the instructions

PLACING A HOLD ON YOUR BOOKS A POSTAL LOAN• If you are a Distance Learning Student living in

the UK we provide a postal loan service. When placing a hold on a book log into your account. Make sure when you place a hold you open up the options and in the box type “Off Campus User”. Select Place Hold

EBOOK COLLECTIONS

• The Library has 4 eBook collections that are useful for the subject area of Sport and Exercise:

• Ebrary: a collection of over 100,000 titles

• Dawsonera: 1000’s of books specifically chosen by your lecturers

• EBSCO eBook collection: A collection of eBooks

• PsycBOOKS: A comprehensive collection of academic psychology eBooks

JOURNALS

• Journals like magazines, newspapers and annual reports are in a group of publications known as serials or periodicals. This is a term used to describe publications that are issued at regular intervals, either daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually. You will need to carry out further reading as your studies progress.

• Why Use Journals?– Timely – journals are published more often

than books, as a result you will find up-to-date information in recent journals

– Authoritative – articles are written by experts and in peer reviewed journals the articles are screened by a ‘jury’ of other experts before they are published

JOURNALS

Journals can be divided into 3 types:• Scholarly: written reports on research, articles

are written by researchers or subject experts, articles are peer reviewed and include references and bibliographies   

• Trade and professional : Articles relate to an industry or profession, contain information about  products or services, cover current issues affecting an industry or profession  

• Popular magazines: Written to entertain, have a glossy appearance & photographs, information is reported second or third hand by freelance reporters 

  

TIPS WHEN SEARCHING E-RESOURCES

• Think about your assignment question. Always try and identify keywords. Keywords can be taken from class literature and background reading as well!

• You can also use a Thesaurus to identify synonyms for keywords this will widen your search

• It can be a good idea to have some keywords noted on a pad before you start to search the resources. You can also speak to us if you need further help familiarising yourself with all of our eResources

IDENTIFY KEYWORDS

• Tip 1: try to identify the main keywords that describe your assignment or academic work:

“Should performance enhancing drugs (such as steroids) be accepted in sports?”

• Performance, enhancing, drugs• Steroids• Accepted, allowed• Sport, Sports

SEARCH TIPS TECHNIQUES

• Use the * symbol to find words starting with a common stem. The * is a TRUNCATION symbol.

• For example, Sport* will find Sport, Sports, Sporting etc..

• Or Dru* Drug, Drugs, etc..• You can also use a ? Wildcard for English &

American spellings of words e.g. colo?r would bring back color and colour

• AND, OR & NOT are used to combine search terms…

• and will find all search terms (probably the best to use as it narrows your searches)

• or will find one or another or both • not will exclude terms

SEARCH TIPS TECHNIQUES CONTINUED

• If you are looking for a particular phrase just typing it into a search box on a database may not give you the exact results you are looking for. However, if you use quotation marks “” you will get more exact hits as this searches for a phrase side by side

• For example, “Drugs in Sport” • “Performance Enhancing Drugs”

ACCESSING ONLINE DATABASES• From the Library Resources page at

www.staffs.ac.uk/library you can access our online databases by selecting the link titled eResources: Complete A-Z list

ACCESSING ONLINE DATABASES• Access the database using the A-Z list.

ACCESSING AN EBSCO DATABASE

• Run a search

• Access an article

• Download the PDF

DATABASES FOR YOUR SUBJECT AREA

• There are a number of databases for your specific subject area

• SPORTDiscus• MEDLINE• PsycInfo• CINAHL• ScienceDirect• ProQuest Nursing• Internurse• Web of Science (Abstracts & Indexes only)You can find a complete list via your subject resource page or you can find a list of databases via the A-Z eResources list http://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/az.php

SEARCH FOR A JOURNAL TITLE• If you need to know which specific journal titles

we subscribe to you can search for them using the eJournals by title link via the Library Resources page at www.staffs.ac.uk/library

SEARCH FOR A JOURNAL TITLE• Search for your title

• Full-text journals including:• Journal of Applied Sport Psychology • Journal of Sports science and medicine • Research quarterly for Exercise and Sport

SEARCHING FOR A JOURNAL ARTICLE USING SUMMON AROUND A TOPIC

• A good starting place to look for a Journal Article is Summon and you can search for a Full Text article using Summon Via the Library Resources page at: www.staffs.ac.uk/library

• Select the Full Text Online link to access the article. You may need to login. Most databases have an option to download the article as a PDF

OFF CAMPUS ACCESS• You can also access information regarding our Off

Campus Services via www.staffs.ac.uk/library

OTHER PLACES TO LOOK FOR LITERATURE -SCONUL

• SCONUL Access is a scheme which allows members to use each other’s libraries.

• It is free to join for staff and students and it allows members to borrow items (except for Full-Time Undergraduates, who are allowed reference purposes only.)

• An on line application form, a list of participating libraries and information about the scheme are available at www.access.sconul.ac.uk

• If you have any queries please ask at the Customer Service desk or telephone 01782 295770 for details.

DOCUMENT DELIVERY SERVICE

• If you really cannot find the book or journal article you need we have a Document Delivery Service

• This sources the item from the British Library at a cost of £5

• It can be posted to you if the item is a book. If your item is an article it will be scanned and eMailed to you

• For more information please visit http://www.staffs.ac.uk/support_depts/infoservices/library/docdel/index.jsp

• You can also visit our Off Campus support page at http://www.staffs.ac.uk/support_depts/infoservices/off_campus/

REFERENCING

• The library can offer advice and guidance on referencing

• We have a custom built resource called RefZone

• RefZone contains numerous examples including how to reference books, eBooks, journals and a wide variety of online material

• We also have a reference management system called RefWorks

YOUR SUBJECT RESOURCE PAGE• You have a Subject Resource page where you can find

subject specific resources. This page will also be updated throughout the year with guides and help videos. You can access it via http://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/sportexercise

Any questions?