Using library resources for research

Paul Johnson

Bedford Library

The size of the literature problem

• Total world science journals– about 100,000

• Royal Holloway Library– about 1,500 print and 8,000 online

• University of London– about 6,000 print titles over all the colleges

• Science Citation Index (within Web of Science)– about 5,000 titles covered

Aids to help with the problem

• Bibliographic databases• Electronic resources• Library collections

Library Services

• At Royal Holloway• In the University of London• In M25 area H.E. institutions• SCONUL Access scheme• At the British Library• By Inter-Library Loan

At Royal Holloway

• ALEPH web catalogue• SFX button

– links to online resources & other catalogues

• MetaLib– gateway to the library’s electronic resources

Electronic journals

• All Royal Holloway subscriptions are listed on the Aleph library catalogue and on the MetaLib service

• Click on SFX for years covered and links• Password free from campus network• Most accessible off-campus with College/Library

barcode and PIN• Campus Anywhere allows further access

Science Citation Index

• Available on ISI’s Web of Knowledge service• data back to 1970, abstracts from 1991• about 5,000 science journals covered

– core journals, those which are heavily cited– citation indexing, trace research through time– save searches for re-use

• SFX button in full record for RHUL users

Scopus

• Claims to be the “largest abstract and citation database of research literature and quality web sources”

• Covers 25 million abstracts from over 14,000 titles across 4,000 publishers

• Rival to Web of Science!

ZETOC

• Coverage from 1993• About 20,000 journals on all subjects• About 16,000 conference proceedings• Indexing service with some abstracts• Alerting service

MathSciNet

• Comprehensive database of world mathematical literature from 1940 to date

• Online version of Mathematical Reviews and Current Mathematical Publications

• Includes abstracts

Electronic Full Text Databases

• ScienceDirect service for full text of all Elsevier journals since 1995

• JSTOR journal archive for major science journals• Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Springer series

– includes Artificial Intelligence and Bioinformatics sub-series)

Other Electronic Databases

• Online newspaper collection – for items of topical interest

• Business Source Premier– includes current affairs weeklies, such as Newsweek,

Economist

• Oxford Reference Collection– includes dictionaries of computing, physics, astronomy and

mathematics

In the University of London

• Good Computer Science holdings at:– Imperial College– University College

• Catalogues on the web• Full access to read and copy journals

Union List of Serials (journals)

• Shows all journal titles and holdings held at any College in the University.

• Searchable from the SFX button– your Aleph search is automatically copied over– press + to see the full holdings of a title

M25 Web Guide

• M25 Web Guide at– http://www.m25lib.ac.uk– search by subject strengths– union search engine for books– direct links to opening hours, access arrangements and

online catalogues

Other library catalogues

• Comprehensive union catalogues include:– COPAC: combines the catalogues of 24 major academic

research libraries in the UK and Ireland– WorldCat: millions of bibliographic records from libraries

worldwide

SCONUL Access

• SCONUL Access card allows all research postgraduates and academic staff access and borrowing rights at most UK university libraries

• Card obtainable from Royal Holloway library enquiry desks

• Card also now available for Masters level students

The British Library

• At St Pancras• Library of last resort• Complete holdings of U.K. print publications• Good holdings of journals, but not all in London• Catalogue on the web - check before applying

Inter-library loans

• Vouchers available from department• Submit to library help desk or online via library

catalogue (my account)

Resources on the Web

• Useful links from the Library’s MetaLib resources pages• Intute gateway for science, engineering and technology:

http://www.intute.ac.uk• BUBL catalogue of internet resources for computing: http://

www.bubl.ac.uk• Google Scholar: “a simple way to search for scholarly

literature”: http://scholar.google.co.uk• Scirus: “the most comprehensive science-specific search

engine available on the Internet”: http://www.scirus.com

RefWorks

• Web based bibliographic software package that allows you to– Organise your research– Include citations while you write your paper– Build a bibliography in a variety of formats– Import references from many data sources

• Guides to citing internet resources at:– http://www.ifla.org/I/training/citation/citing.htm#style

Contact details

– Paul Johnson, Information Consultant– Room 2-08 Bedford Library– 01784 414424– paul.johnson@rhul.ac.uk