Library HITS Library HITS: Helpful Information for Trinity Students/Staff Library eResources for...

Library HITS

Library HITS: Helpful Information for Trinity Students/Staff

Library eResources for Sciences

Michaelmas Term 2013Trinity College Library Dublin, College Street, Dublin 2

Trinity College Library Dublin

Before we begin…

• Don’t forget our physical resources – not everything is available online:– Six million volumes– Dozens of thousands of print journals

• And the Library is one of the best places you can study:– Housemates annoying you? – Neighbours too loud?– Printer out of toner?– Internet dongle out of credit?

• Most Science material is in the Hamilton Library, not here in the BLU


Library eResources

An eResource is a term which can be used to describe, for example:

–A database–An electronic journal (e-journal)–An electronic book (e-book)–An online newspaper–CD-ROMs – not used much now!–The Library catalogue (Stella Search)


Will this work at home?

• All our online resources can be accessed off campus by username and password

• You have to go from a link on the Library website, or you won’t get a working link – you can’t just Google the name of the journal or database if you want it to work off campus

• Click a link in Stella and you’ll get the following off campus…


Off Campus Access


Where are these resources listed?

• All our databases are listed on our Databases and E-Books page

• All our e-journals are searchable on our E-Journals Only page – there are thousands!

• HOWEVER, they are all listed in our Stella Search too…

• Most e-books will also be in Stella• Individual resources will be listed on your

Subject Librarian’s page – use the Subject Guides link


How do you access the Library's eResources for your subject?


What is a Database?

• A database is an organised collection of data

• Databases allow you to find a specific sub-set of data – subjects, authors, journals, title words…


Basically…

• Use databases to find items you don’t know about already – for example, on subjects you need to write about in an essay

• Use the Stella Search Catalogue tab to find items you already know exist – e.g., articles from reading lists or mentioned in lectures

• Using databases means you don’t have to go to each journal individually to search it


What can you find in a database?

• Trinity College Dublin Library subscribes to 350+ databases, and there are further databases that are available free on the web

• Some databases cover only books• Some cover only journal articles or newspaper

articles• Some cover only theses• Most databases cover a range of publication

types


Doesn’t Google have all this?

By searching only subscription databases and limiting your search to scholarly or peer-reviewed sources, you can virtually guarantee that all materials retrieved will be appropriate for a research paper


Which are the best databases to use?

• There are links to the FULL list of dozens of databases for your subject on the Databases and E-Books page, and on your Subject Librarian’s page

• This can be a bit overwhelming, so…• On your Subject Librarian’s page, look for

“Subject Librarian Recommends…” for a short list of the most useful ones


Which are the best databases to use?

• Some databases cover all subjects, such as Google Scholar or the Web of Knowledge

• Some concentrate on the sciences, such as ScienceDirect and Scopus (searchable together as SciVerse) or the Web of Science

• Some concentrate on one science only, such as Reaxys for chemistry


“Search Strategies” for Databases

• Create a search statement using keywords • Use databases appropriate to your topic. Use

keywords and controlled language • Use Boolean searching (AND, OR & NOT)• Change approaches as necessary – gathering

information is not a linear process • Continue to identify applicable keywords and

controlled vocabulary to go back and check in the selected database(s) and other resources

• You will often be asked to include your search strategy in your essay


Utilising Database Features

• To search effectively it is important to become familiar with the database. Knowing shortcuts and quirks of the database, will save time

• Some important characteristics to identify are which element truncates words, how to search for a phrase, and how the Boolean operators are used, and what limits can be applied

• Refer to the database guides for help


Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT

• Using the operator AND will retrieve articles that mention all the terms somewhere in the article

• Using the operator OR between the two terms will retrieve articles that mention any of the terms– The use of AND generally will retrieve a smaller set of

results– The use of OR generally will retrieve a larger set of

results• If you wanted to exclude terms, you would use

the Boolean operator NOT• Effective use of Boolean operators is essential to

sophisticated research


Basically…

•AND will give you less

•OR will give you more


Truncation

• Truncate search terms to retrieve all variants of a termTruncation symbols vary between e-resources. Examples include: *, ?, !, % and $– For example: If you search on the term plagiar* in ProQuest

databases, you will retrieve articles that contain any words that begin with the letters plagiar, including: plagiarism, plagiarize, plagiarizing, plagiarized, plagiarizer, plagiarizers, plagiarist, etc.

• Using the truncation symbol will allow you to broaden your search to include materials on any variant of a term


Limiting

• Most databases have limiting features that will let you focus the results of your search

– You may be able to limit your searches to retrieve only scholarly or peer-reviewed articles

– You can also limit to particular date ranges or particular journals

• Limiting your searches will allow you to narrow your search, resulting in a smaller list of more relevant materials


Types of Searches

• Most databases have an Easy and an Advanced search function

– Easy or Basic Search• Often these only have one search box and operate in

a similar way to Google

– Advanced Search• Gives more control to the user• Allows for a more refined search• Often allows multiple search terms in multiple fields

• You’ve done a search, found a reference…• And the full text is there, great!

• However, if there’s no full text link button:– Find and click the “link resolver” TCD button - may show the

text: “Check TCD e-journals”; or an image, such as

• This links to a piece of software which checks if the Library has the article you want, either in another database or in hardcopy, anywhere in the Library’s collections


Where’s the full text?

Link resolver (Linksource) menu


Clicking on the TCD icon searches the Library’s e-journal collections and the full Library catalogue, for both electronic and hardcopy forms of the required title


E-Books

• E-book collections are listed with our databases under Databases and E-books on the Library’s homepage

• Most e-book single titles, within those collections, can be found by searching Stella

• A small percentage of e-books in our collections can only be found by searching the provider or publisher’s database or platform


Questions?

• For SUBJECT queries, contact your Subject Librarian via the Subject Guides page

• For TECHNICAL queries, contact Clíona Ní Shúilleabháin at [email protected]

• For GENERAL queries, contact the Duty Librarian in the Berkeley or Hamilton Libraries

Library HITS Library HITS: Helpful Information for Trinity Students/Staff Library eResources for...

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