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Drama and Theatre Research Methodologies http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/drama

15 October 2013

Kim Coles

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Session Outline

2

• Accessing e-resources off-campus • Developing a search strategy • Online resources for Drama and Theatre • Citing references / creating a bibliography • … anything else?

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Access online resources off-campus

Royal Holloway ‘Campus Anywhere’ (VPN)

The only way to access all of our electronic resources off campus is to install the Virtual Private Network (VPN) service, known as 'CampusAnywhere'.

How to set up the VPN connection: http://www.rhul.ac.uk/it/home.aspx

and follow the link: Campus Anywhere

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Developing a search strategy

1. Identify keywords that define your research question

2. Select relevant information sources

3. Evaluate and modify your searches

4. Select and save results

5. Locate copies of promising texts

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My essay question / research topic:

What do I want to find out?

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6

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Identifying key concepts & keywords

Alternative terms e.g. governance / policy / regulation

Alternative spellings e.g. colour or color; theatre or theater

Changing terminology e.g. global warming / climate change

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Analysing your query - an example

Finding information on: ‘depictions of madwomen’

Main aspects Alternative terms

1. madness Insanity, mental illness,

hysteria

2. women Female, gender, sex

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Exercise 1

Think about your own dissertation / essay topic / research interests and spend 5 minutes planning your search.

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Now that I know what I want to find out:

What resources would I use?

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Types of Resources

Books Journals Statistics

Websites Databases Reports

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Selecting information sources

Drama and Theatre Subject Guide

Online databases

LibrarySearch

Senate house library catalogue

Other internet resources

These can also be found on the main Library webpage

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Activity 2

Spend 2-3 minutes browsing the Drama Subject Guide and the suggested resources, and tick the box in the handbook which resources or types of resources/information you think you would use to carry out your research.

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Now that I know what I want to find out & where to find the resources:

How do I search for information on my topic?

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Wildcard searching – hints & tips

Use wildcard characters ($ ? * -) to replace letters in

search terms

Examples

theat* - finds theatre, theater, theatrical etc.

*owl* - finds howl, howler, owl, owls, bowl, etc.

wom*n - finds women, woman, etc.

NB: Help pages in online databases will explain

which character is used as the wildcard

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Reviewing your results – hints & tips

Too many results?

Narrow your search using: AND

e.g.

female AND madness

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Reviewing your results – hints & tips

Too few results?

Broaden your search using: OR

e.g.

sex OR gender

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Now that I have found information on my topic:

How do I know that it is what I want and good quality

material?

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Reviewing your research

Do you have enough / too

much information?

Is it relevant to your research?

Does it answer the whole question?

Is the information

current / within the date you

require

Do you need to review your underlying

research question?

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Activity 3

Read the section on Web of Knowledge and conduct some searches. Try out a few searches using your keywords and some of the search techniques we’ve just looked at. Try saving and emailing useful results to yourself.

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Now that I have the information (books, chapters, journal articles, webpages

etc) that I need:

How do I manage & reference them?

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Citation and referencing

Acknowledge the author of the source

Enable the item to be traced

Evidence of scope and depth of your research

Reference style – the layout & format of your bibliography - CHECK WITH YOUR DEPT

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MLA 7th edition

Gralla, Preston. How Wireless Works. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Que, 2006.

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Legal & ethical issues

Copyright:

http://www.rhul.ac.uk/library/helpandsupport/teachingsupport/copyright

advice.aspx

Plagiarism:

http://www.rhul.ac.uk/forstudents/studyresources/home.aspx

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RefWorks

Bibliographic management software

Capture, save and organise references

Access it via the Online Resources A-Z lists

Contains online self-help tutorials

Library RefWorks sessions:

Check the Library Information Skills Training Sessions from the Drama Subject guide:

http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/drama

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Selecting & saving results & full text

Most databases allow you to:

Select and save results to a ‘folder’

Save, download or email results to yourself

Save search ‘history’ & re run them

Always make a note of your search queries and which database you used.

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Any questions?

For more help & guidance on any of the topics explored in this course, or for one to one training sessions, please contact the Library Information Consultant for Drama & Theatre: Kim Coles, k.coles@rhul.ac.uk

or email: library@rhul.ac.uk

Further information can also be found on the Library website: www.rhul.ac.uk/library