Library & Research Skills

MA Applied Linguistics

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, etc.

4.Off-campus access to e-resources4.Getting started with a literature search

Topics 1.

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Topics 2.

5. How to use the web more effectively e.g. advanced searching, Google Scholar, other search engines, gateways, etc.

6. Evaluating web and other information resources for quality

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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 webSee ‘French’, German , Italian , Hispanic Studies , English subject guides

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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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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, cutting-edge• 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’, ‘Irish Theatre Magazine’

- 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)

Heine, B. (2001) “Comments on Christopher Ehret, ‘Bantu history: re-envisioning the evidence of language’”. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 34(1):43-81

• Check the Journals Portal first

• See online tutorial:

‘Learn how to find the full-text of a journal article’ on the ‘Study & Research Help’ page

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Practice

Find the following article online:

• Kramsch, C.(2000) ‘Second Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, and the Teaching of Foreign Languages’. The Modern Language Journal, 84(3): 311–326

Is it also available in hard copy in the Library?

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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 is also 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. Medline, RILM.

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

images, Music Online for streaming music, ACLS & Ebrary for e-booksRonan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

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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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 language

• (migration OR emigration OR immigration) AND (language OR linguistics)

• (migration OR emigration OR immigration OR diaspora) AND (language OR linguistic*)

• “first language”

• “foreign language” NOT (English)Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

How to Find Relevant Databases

• Use Databases A-Z: (See ‘Search the Library’) Drop-down menu ‘Browse databases by Subject area’. Use ‘Language & Linguistics’ list as a starting point.

• Depending on your topic, you may also need to search other lists e.g. – Humanities

• You could also check the Subject Guides• See online tutorial: Find

the best databases for your assignments and research on the ‘Study & Research Help’ page

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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. check the journal portal to make sure

• 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 not readily available)

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Exercise

• Look for scholarly articles on the following subject:‘Motivation in foreign language learners’

Search: JSTOR, Wilson Omnifile, Science Direct, Academic Search Premier, MLA, ERIC etc.

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Getting Started 1.

Example:‘Motivation in foreign language

learners’

Keywords & terms: motivat*, persistence, stimulation,

inspiration, incentive, “foreign language”, “second language”, “non-native” maybe also: learn*, educat*, teach*

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 2.

• Initial reviews: identify broad problem area, potential research problem, theoretical background, relevant terminology (keywords and terms). N.B. 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 (Research diary)

• Keep 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’ N.B. Oxford Reference Online

•Images: ARTstor and others: See Images page

•Online Newspapers: Irish Newspaper Archive,

Irish Times Digital Archive

•Music: Music Online, Oxford Music Online , Naxos Music (See Music Subject Portal)

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Further Resources 2.

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

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

• Conferences Proceedings:Proceedings (OCLC), ZETOC

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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 ‘Your Library Record’ 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

Practice:

• Search for the term ‘reduplication’ in Oxford Reference Online

• Search for ‘Lisbon treaty’ in Irish Times Digital Archive

• Search for theses relating to your area of interest

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Search the Web More Effectively: Overview

• Web: 8 billion + pages?

• Anyone can publish: quality control?• Google: uses index/database of web pages compiled

from sites found by it’s spider programs. Full text of sites sent to Google index. ‘Pagerank’ retrieves based on word occurrence, proximity, location on page, links to the page, traffic etc. about 100-200 ‘ingredients’. For the most part a keyword search.

• Challenge: finding relevant scholarly material

Quantity and quality of information• Should use the Library’s resources first!

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5 Tips1. Use ‘advanced search’ techniques on Google

and other search engines

2. Use Google Scholar, Google Books & ‘more’

3. Try other search engines – not just Google

4. Don’t always use search engines, go straight to good portals and sites suitable for your

topic

5. Always evaluate your findings for quality

See tutorial: Search the Web More Effectively for your Assignments and Research. Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Tip 1. Use Advanced Search

Won’t guarantee that you find quality web sites, but may help you to control the sheer quantity.

•Remember: word order, choice of words, ‘stop words’ •Use Google Advanced Search , Yahoo Advanced Search etc.•Use search operators: See here.•Remember that Google personalizes your search. Try the ‘Verbatim’ search tool.

See also: Google Inside Search, Search Help Center & www.googleguide.comRonan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Tip 2. Use Google Scholar/Books & ‘more’

• Use www.google.fr , www.google.de , it, es, etc.

• Google scholar advanced search • Works better on-campus, or from home

through the Databases A-Z• No full text? check journal portal • See email alerts on Google Scholar• See tutorial:

Search the Web More Effectively for your Assignments and Research.

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Practice

• Look for scholarly web material for the following topic (try a basic search first, then advanced search, then Google Scholar & Google Books):

‘Motivation in foreign language

learners’

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Tip 3. Use Other Search Engines

Don’t use same search engine for everything - try others (examples below). See here also:

Also: Exalead, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo , Bing , Blekko

Kartoo, Zuula, Metacrawler, Yippy, Search.com, Dogpile

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4. Don’t Always Use Search Engines

Save time by going straight to sites likely to be the most useful - gateways and portals can help:

•Look at subject guides

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4. (contd.)

• Linguist List: language & language analysis   

• iLoveLanguages: catalogue of language-related Internet resources

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World   • Modern Language Association• LDC• Omniglot• WALS Online

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4. (contd.)

• Search catalogues from other libraries:

COPAC,  British Library,  Library of Congress,  The European Library,  Worldcat, World Digital Library, Cornucopia Also: Hathi Trust Digital Library, Project Gutenberg, OAPEN, DOAB, JURN, RASCAL

• Open Repositories: RIAN, OAIster, CORA , Driver, Institutional repository search U.K.

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Tip 5. Evaluate your Information Sources

Quality information: fundamental to developing a literature review that will be a solid foundation on which you can build quality research and assignments

•Scholarly: aimed at those working within a field of study, disseminate research, scholarly methods are used, valid and trustworthy. •Popular: aimed at wider public/mass audience, to entertain, inform, promote viewpoints, sell products and services.

•See ‘Learn how to Evaluate information for your assignments and research on ‘Study & Research Help’ Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

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/linguistics-ma-2012

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