Library & Research Skills- MSc GIS & Remote Sensing

- MSc in Coastal and Marine Management

Ronan Madden Arts & Humanities Librarian

1. Basics: Library resources, catalogue, website

2. Journals and e-journals:- what they are, how to source a journal article

3. Resource discovery using electronic databases: full-text and bibliographic: Boolean searching, fields, keeping up-to-date, Searcher

4. Off-campus access to e-resources5. A word on Google and information

quality

Topics

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Geography in the Boole Library

• Read: Geography guide (see Subject Guide)

• Books Q+1, Q+2, Q+3 N.B. check the Library catalogue for location

• Dewey decimal: class numbers are assigned based on subject content of book/journal

• Maps (mostly in Special Collections Q-1)

• Open Reserve (4-hour loan)

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Library Web Site

N.B.

•Catalogue•Journal Portal•Databases A-Z•Searcher•Subject Guides•How do I?•Study & Research Help

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Subject Guides

Starting point for relevant library & web material

- databases- journals- free web

See Geography

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Catalogue: Tips

• Title searches: word-perfect• Keyword searches: ‘modify search’ e.g.

material type ‘Video/DVD’• Consider synonyms, American spellings• Use the ‘bag’ to export record• Use ‘My Lists’ and ‘Preferred Search’• Use ‘Worldcat’ link to search beyond UCC• Use ‘My Library Account’ to request books

on loan, to see your reading history, access e-resources from home, and to save ‘lists’ of books

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Off-Campus Access

• Use ‘My Library Account’(like when renewing or requesting books)

• Name + student number + six digit password (alpha-numeric)

• N.B. You should access e-resources through the Library web pages so that the ‘My Library Account’ screen will appear

• Contact Information desk on Q floor for queries e.g. forgotten password

• See: Learn about Pin NumbersRonan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

What if an item is not in UCC Library?

Aside from Googling it:

• Inter-library loanSee: Inter-library loans service

• Visit other libraries: ALCID, SCONUL or ‘Cork PAL’ Check with customer services in Boole Library

See: Accessing other libraries

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Journals

• Serials/Periodicals: published continuously• New research• Print and/or electronic (30,000+ e-journals

in UCC)• ‘Peer-reviewed’/‘refereed’ =academic

journals‘The process by which an academic journal passes a paper submitted for publication to independent experts for comments on it’s suitability and worth; refereeing’

• Quality control: Papers accepted/rejected based on contribution to the field/new ideas, bias/conflicts of interest, suitability for journal etc.

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• Popular Magazines: (articles written by journalists)

- Newspapers

- Substantive news e.g. ‘The Economist’, ‘National Geographic’, ‘New Scientist’

- Magazines

• Trade Journals (specific industry, enable practitioners share market and product information within an industry)

Other Periodicals

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Finding a Journal Article

Example:

O’Connor M.C., Lymbery G., Cooper J.A.G., Gault J., McKenna J. (2009). Practice versus policy-led costal defence management. Marine Policy, 33(6), 923-929

• Check the Journals Portal first

• See online tutorial:

‘Learn how to find the full-text of a journal article’ on the ‘Study & Research Help’ pageRonan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Exercise

Is the following journal article available a. In print form in the Library?b. Electronically through the Library?

Connolly, J., Holden, N. M., Seaquist, J. W., & Ward, S. M. (2011). Detecting recent disturbance on Montane blanket bogs in the Wicklow Mountains, Ireland using the MODIS enhanced vegetation index. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 32(9), 2377-2393

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‘Searcher’ Federated Search

• Good starting point

• Some results will be from non-academic periodicals

• N.B. you should still search specific databases individually

• You can set up an alert Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

What are Databases? 1.

• Collections of logically related data e.g. library catalogue

• A bibliographic/research database: usually an electronic index to journal articles and books, containing citations & abstracts. Sometimes information about conference proceedings, theses, and other information formats included.

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What are Databases? 2.

• Sometimes the full text of the articles is included, or links to the full text.

• Some are indexing and abstracting only: i.e. metadata – not necessarily a link to the full text.

• Some are general e.g. Web of Science, others are more subject-specific e.g. PION

• Essential for literature searches. • Other types of databases: ARTstor for

images, Music Online for streaming music, ACLS & Ebrary for e-books

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How are Databases Organised?

• Records: one record for each article, book etc.

• A field is the basic unit of entry in a record• Journal article fields might include:

- Title, Author, Keywords, Source, Publication Year, Abstract etc.

• For each record (e.g. article) added to the database, these fields must be included, and data is entered in that format.

• Searches of the databases can be narrowed to one or more fields: e.g. Author, Title, Author + Keyword, Keyword + Publication Year etc.

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Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Search Skills

college OR university

poverty AND crime

Boolean Operators: AND, OR

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Search Skills

cats NOT dogs

Boolean Operator: NOT

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Some Youtube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tm-sDKCnO4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1LpTbzSKd0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsSZps3NH-Mhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vube-ZcJFk4

Search Skills

• migration AND women• (migration OR emigration OR immigration) AND

women • (migration OR emigration OR immigration) AND

(women OR woman OR gender OR feminin* OR female)

____________________________________________• GIS OR geographical information systems OR

“geospatial information systems”_____________________________________________• “global warming”• “coastal zone management”_____________________________________________• emigration NOT (Ireland OR Irish)

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How to Find Relevant Databases

• Subject Guide: Geography• Databases A-Z: Drop-down menu ‘Browse

databases by Subject area’. Use ‘Geography’ list as a starting point only. Depending on your topic, you may need to search other lists e.g.

- Law - Government

- Environmental Science - Humanities- Economics - Political Science- Sociology - Science- Geoscience

See online tutorial: Find the best databases for your assignments and research on ‘Study & Research Help’

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Databases without full-text

• Indexing and abstracting databases • Metadata – descriptive information i.e. not

necessarily a link to the full text • Full-text might be available in UCC through

another database/resource N.B. always check the journal portal to find out

• Check the Journals Portal to find out (or Searcher)

• You should use as many databases as possible for a thorough literature search (don’t ignore just because full-text seems unavailable)

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Exercise

• Look for scholarly articles on the following subject:

Using GIS as a tool in crime prevention (look for material from Britain and Ireland)

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Getting Started

Example:Using GIS as a tool in crime prevention (look for material from Britain and Ireland)

Keywords & terms: GIS, “geographic information systems”, “geographical information systems”, “geospatial information”, geoinformatic*, crime, criminal*, unlawful, Ireland, Irish, Britain, British, London etc.

Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), truncation etc. to create appropriate search strings and apply the search (or variations of the search) to all relevant resources

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Getting Started

• Initial reviews: identify broad problem area, potential research problem, theoretical background, relevant terminology (keywords and terms): Scoping

• Once approved, further searches to refine research problem and methodologies: ‘Trawling’ and ‘Mining’

• There may be a number of strands to your lit search• Keep a record of all of resources searched, and the

search terms and strings that you applied• Keeps a record of all books/articles that you are

likely to need for your bibliography e.g. Endnote, Zotero

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Further Resources 1.

[N.B. See also subject guides for links to free resources]

•Online Reference Resources: (alternative to Wikipedia) see: Reference Resources under ‘Search the Library’

•Images: ARTstor and others: See Images page

•Online Newspapers: Irish Newspaper Archive,

Irish Times Digital Archive, Irish Times Newspaperand see other news resources

•E-books: ACLS Humanities E-book (HEB), Ebrary, See:

here for more Ronan Madden Info Lit 2012/13

Further Resources 2.

• Thesis Databases: Library: ProQuest Dissertation & Theses UK & Ireland , Index to Theses (UK/IRL), Proquest Dissertations (North America), Free: ETHOS (UK), DART-Europe E-theses Portal , RIAN, NDLTDAlso: How do I find a thesis?

• Conferences Proceedings:Proceedings (OCLC), ZETOC

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Practice:

Find:

•Definitions/explanations of the term ‘geovisualization’ using resources like ‘Oxford Reference’ and ‘International Encyclopedia of Human Geography’•Irish Times articles that mention ‘coastal erosion’•UCC theses on your topic

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Google?

• Use Google scholar advanced search to improve quality and quantity of results

• Works better on-campus, or from home through the Databases A-Z

• If no full text, check the journal portal and the Library catalogue as usual

• See email alerts on Google Scholar• Look at ‘Cited by’ and ‘Cite’• See tutorial: Search the Web More

Effectively for your Assignments and Research.

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Information Quality

• Fundamental to developing a literature review that will be a solid foundation on which you can build quality research and assignments

• See ‘Learn how to Evaluate information for your assignments and research on the ‘Study & Research Help’ page

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Recap: What to use?• Catalogue: what does the Library hold? Books, e-books, DVDs

etc.• Journal portal: to see if the Library provides access to a

particular journal/serial title• Searcher: search box on the library website - one quick search

for books, articles, and more.• Library Databases: to locate articles and other resources for a

specific subject area - a more thorough literature search• Worldcat: to discover resources that are not available at UCC

Library• Subject Guides: sources customized for a particular subject

area• Internet Search: for quick facts and a general introduction to

topic. Google, Bing, Wikipedia, etc.• Google Scholar: to locate academic (journal articles, books)

information on a topic. For full text check the Library’s resources.

• Social Web: for the latest news and updates on a topic/fieldRonan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

• Referencing: - See Study & Research Help

- See catalogue: Style guides

• Endnote training:- Contact Richard Bradfield r.bradfield@ucc.ie and look for details on Library news

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Slideshare

www.slideshare.net/rmadden1/ma-geography-gis

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