WISER: HistoryFinding journal articles

Valerie Lawrence, History Faculty LibraryKate Petherbridge, Upper CameraJane Rawson, Vere Harmsworth Library

Aims

• Why not use OLIS?• Sources of information• What is a bibliographical database?• Selecting the most relevant source• Basic information searching skills• Demonstrations• Questions• Hands-on• Finding help

Why can’t I use OLIS to find journal articles?

Librarians catalogue journal titles - but not individual journal articles.

Why not use OLIS???

Search in OLIS under journal title not article author/title.

Sources of information

• TDNet• Bibliographical databases• Bibliographical reference works

What is a bibliographical database?

• Database holding bibliographical data• Index publications on a particular topic

e.g. Historical Abstracts e.g. Philosopher’s Index

e.g. British Humanities Index• Often referred to as A & I databases

(Abstracting & Indexing databases)

What is a bibliographical database?

Tell you what was published, not what is in Oxford!

1. Use Tour button to locate full-text.

2. Search OLIS to locate printed Full-text.

Selecting the best resource

OxLIP Subject guide History

Bibliographic databases General By topic By area

Information searching skillsA few principles

The success of a search largely depends on the choice of the database.

The larger the database, the greater the chances of getting irrelevant information.

We want to find everything that is relevant.

There is usually more than one way to get results, but some are better than others.

Information searching skillsA few tools

• Boolean operators• Indexes• Limits• Sorting

Boolean operators

AND + narrow search

e.g. apple and crumble

apple + crumble

Boolean operators

OR broaden search e.g. apple or crumble

Boolean operators

NOT refine search

e.g. apple not pie

Information searching skillsA few tools

• Limits• Date• Language• etc.

• Sorting• Title• Author• Date• etc.

Demonstrations

• Historical Abstracts / America: History & Life

• Royal Historical Society Bibliography

• International Medieval Bibliography

Historical Abstracts

• Global coverage, excl. US & Canada• 1450- present• Journal articles, books, dissertations, essay collections, some book reviews• Publications from 1955-• Update monthly

• Limit by historical period• Foreign language titles are translated into English and are searchable• CLIO Alerts

• Off-campus: Athens & VPN

America: History & Life

• US & Canada• Prehistory- present• Journal articles, books, dissertations, essay collections, some book reviews• Publications from 1964-• Updated monthly

• Limit by historical period• Foreign language titles are translated into English and are searchable• CLIO Alerts

• Off-campus: Athens & VPN

Royal Historical Society Bibliography

• British Isles, British Empire & Commonwealth, special focus also on London and Ireland• 55BC – present• Journal articles, books, book articles, some collections of essays, some book reviews, dissertations only for London history, excl. more primary sources• Publications from 1901-• Updated 3 times a year

• Limit by historical period & place

• Off-campus: free on web

International Medieval Bibliography

• Euro-focus, but also covers Africa, Middle East etc.• 1st cent. – early modern period• Journals articles, articles from conference proceedings, Festschriften, exhibition catalogues, etc. • Publications from 1967-• Updated quarterly

• Limit by historical period & place

• Off-campus: VPN

Stay up-to-date electronically

• Set up e-mail alerts

Historical Abstracts, ZETOC Alert, Oxford Journals

Online, etc.

• Re-run saved searches

Arts & Humanities Citation Index, etc.

Questions & hands-on

Finding help

Library staff in HFL, Upper Camera, Upper Reading Room and VHL

HFL, library@history.ox.ac.uk, 2-77262

Ask a Librarianhttp://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/readerserv/ask/

History Librarian, isabel.holowaty@ouls.ox.ac.uk, 2-77263

Useful web addresses

OULS E-resources

http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/eresources

OULS Information Skills courses

http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/services/information_skills

OULS Libraries’ directory

http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/libraries/byname/

HFL webpage

http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/history/