1. Linda Crane Liaison Librarian for the Arts lcrane@liverpool.ac.uk
English
Information for your Dissertation
Library Skills
2. What today is about
If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn‟t be called
Preparation
research, would it?
Search tips
Albert Einstein
Resources - some searching – mainly
Guide to „getting there‟
what is ‘out there’
Reference management software
Research is the act of going up alleys to see if they are
blind.
Plutarch
Stop you going down the same alleys
3. What today is about
Types of information you will need
Preparation
Search tips
Importance of preparation – the bare bones of your
Resources - some searching – mainly
dissertation in less than an hour???
what is ‘out there’
Reference management software
Resources – not just the obvious
Bringing it all together – a brief mention of reference
management software
4. Looking for a variety of relevant, quality resources
Need to evaluate and analyse those resources
Google
The leading Internet search company,
whose primary business mission is to
organize the world's information.
Anyone can write a webpage
Anyone can write/edit a Wikipedia entry
5. Types of information
Primary, Secondary & Tertiary
sources
Primary. Tertiary.
Secondary.
Original materials which Information which is a
have not been filtered Information about primary, distillation and collection of
through interpretation, or original, information, primary and secondary
condensation, or, often, which usually has been sources
even evaluation by a modified, selected, or
second party. rearranged for a specific
purpose or audience
Dairies
Letters
Manuscripts
Article critiquing the novel Encyclopaedia with an
Novel entry on the author
The types of information that can be considered primary sources may vary
depending on the subject discipline, and how you are using the material
6. Types of information -decide what you need
Established facts and figures Reference books- encyclopaedias,
‘companions to’, biographies
General information on a topic Books of collected articles, text books,
research monographs, scholarly websites
Reviews of the literature of a topic Journal articles
Books of collected articles
Publications of recent research results Journal articles
Proceedings of conferences
Primary sources – actual documents On-line digitised collections,
or scanned images of original texts Library’s Special Collections and
Archives.
National archive organisations
Scholarly debates
Journal articles, newspapers
Websites of relevant organisations
7. Define your topic.
What is it you want to say? What is the scope?
Literature, women and politics in Renaissance
England
Literature
Fiction Women
Female Politics
Play
Government Renaissance
Drama Gender England
?
Preparation is key
8. Do a rough and ready keyword search on the catalogue
Choose a few relevant items - organise your thoughts
10. Added keywords. Defined your topic.
Defined the scope.
Literature, women and politics in
Renaissance England
Literature Women Politics Renaissance
Fiction Female Government England
Play Gender Parliament Tudor
Drama Monarch Ministers Elizabeth I
Poetry Whore Northern
Renaissance
Linguistics Witch
Compare
two
Investigate the portrayal of real
dramatists
people in drama
17. Relationships between your keywords (Boolean searching)
Shakespeare AND Sonnet
Playwright OR Dramatist
Renaissance NOT Italian
18. Search tips
Truncation Wild card
Wom?n
Politic*
Globali?ation
Politics
Politician
“Search for a phrase in quotation
Political
marks”
Check the Help pages on
electronic sources before you start
19. Record what you find
Take a photocopy Record search Be flexible –
of the title page strategies review searches
Make sure you have enough detail to find the
information again
Source used and the date you used it
Searches undertaken and results found
Keywords used, date range searched, location of material
Full bibliographic details of the material found
20. Remember to:-
Plan ahead Keep up to date
Inter-Library loans RSS feeds
Visits to archives Set up alerts in databases
Interviews
24. Catalogue – all the items, print and electronic the Library has.
Mainly used for in-depth works (print & ebooks)
25. Catalogue features
Click on the 'Search' link associated with
any of your preferred searches in the list
and your search will be quickly executed
for you again, finding any new items that
have been added to the catalogue as well
as the ones you found before.
26. What books are ‘out there’ that the University of Liverpool
doesn’t have?
Visit
Inter-library loan
31. Primary resources: external archives – the
Archives Hub – available via LibGuides or Google
search
Full record: where it is, what it consists of,
how to access
Archivist will advise you as to copyright
33. Use University catalogue to search for a journal (s) that
fits your topic.
(Search for it using keywords and limit to journals)
Browse through back
copies – don‟t just
search
Catalogue can only
find journal titles – not
articles
34. Easy to search as Google
Cross searches a number of databases at any one
time
Contains peer reviewed material
Can search for journal articles
Is largely material not freely available on the Internet
Can find articles that are full text or just bibliographic
citations
Also has the University of Liverpool Library Catalogue
loaded on to it as well – in theory a one stop shop for
information
DISCOVER
43. Why bother if DISCOVER so good?
Not all databases are loaded onto DISCOVER
Easier to customise individual databases.
Easier to manipulate individual database
LibGuides brings resources for English together
44. Where can you find individual databases?
Electronic library LibGuides
59. Conference papers
Conference proceedings papers are often more up to date
than journal articles
Often published in journals together as body of work.
Brings together ideas in a particular area of interest
Shows who is working in the field – can look for other
articles written/books
Good for projects were there is little established literature &
„hot topics‟
Not peer reviewed
Often need time to see how effective these ideas are. This
can be a plus – what didn‟t work (and why?) – what made
an academic change their opinion?
62. Just the record is good for
authors / keywords
http://www.conferencealerts.com/search?searchTerm=english+literature&x=0&y=0
63. Conference papers 2
Subscription element - browse for contact names / website
for no charge
What conferences do your lecturers attend /speak at?
Sometimes authors will put up their papers on their websites via Google Scholar
Web of Knowledge contains ISI Proceedings, so you can search by keywords for
conference papers on your subject
64. Just to mention a few more resources.
Don’t forget TLS Historical Archive!
The back numbers of the TLS have long been legendary as a
store of treasure for anyone interested in 20th century literature.
66. Lexis Library
Pros Cons
Average date of digitization No foreign press
1996 (decent archive) No photographs
Contains UK nationals and Difficult to interpret gravitas
many local papers of a story
Good for comparing tabloid
and broadsheet
Good for seeing how a
national story is treated
locally
69. Library PressDisplay
Pros Cons
Foreign & UK Press 60 day archive
Fully digitised University has only 4 licences –
only 4 people can use it at any
Fully searchable one time
Can browse latest editions
Good for comparing how the
same story is treated in
different countries
73. Evaluating sources - websites
Accuracy - is the information reliable and error free?
Authority - is the source of the information reputable?
Coverage - does it provide the evidence or information
you need?
Currency - when was the information published / updated?
Objectivity - Does the information show bias?
74. If unsure of how to use internet
http://www.vtstutorials.co.uk/default.aspx?s=1
