1. Research and resources
How the LRC can help you
with your studies

2. We are in the ‘Information Age’
• Did You Know?

3. Where do I start?
• Make it easy on yourself
• You can’t control the AMOUNT of information
• You can control the QUALITY of information
• Think about what you really need

4. 6 key questions
• What? Why? How? Where? When? Who?
• Eg) Discuss the impact of colonial rule on
British Burma before 1870.
• This should give you a starting point to look
for the information you need

5. What resources can I use?

6. Start with the library catalogue

7. Discovery@Liverpool Community
College

8. Check out our e-resources

9. Beware of Google
• Google is ranked
• Google is funded by advertising
• Google is the ‘white bread of the mind’*
• “Google offers easy answers to difficult
questions. But students do not know how to
tell if they come from serious, refereed work or
are merely composed of shallow ideas,
superficial surfing and fleeting commitments”
*According to Dr Tara Brabazon, University Of Brighton
http://www.browsermedia.co.uk/2008/01/17/google-is-%E2%80%98white-bread-for-the-mind%E2%80%99/

10. Evaluating websites
• Who is the author of the site?
• Do they have sufficient knowledge, credentials
and authority ?
• Are there any contact details?
• Is there an organisational or corporate
sponsor?
• Is the page authentic or a hoax?
• Is there a reference/reading/citations list?

11. How can you tell?
• .gov Government agency
• .net Internet Service Provider
• .com Commercial site
• .edu Education
• .ac Academic
• .mil Military
• .org Organization (non-profit)
• Countries are abbreviated to 2 letters –eg)UK,
FR (France), US (USA), TW (Taiwan)

12. Some plausible hoaxes..
• http://www.rythospital.com/2011/
• http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
• http://www.hetracil.com/

13. A very useful tutorial
• The Internet detective
http://www.vtstutorials.ac.uk/detective/

14. Using Boolean operators
Boolean Logic on YouTube

15. To summarise....
AND Use to narrow search and retrieve
information containing all of the words it
separates.
OR Use to broaden search and retrieve
information containing any of the words it
separates.
NOT Use to narrow search and retrieve
information that contain none of the
words following it.

16. Give me two subjects to search and
I’ll apply Boolean operators........

17. Make notes......
• What have I used?
• Where did I access it?
• Have I made reference to it?
• Have I acknowledged it?

19. Making referencing easier....
Harvard Referencing Generator - CiteThisForMe

20. Come and ask us!
• We are here to help you
• Qualified librarians
• IT qualifications
• Teaching qualifications
• If we cant answer your question straight away
we will endeavour to find out!

21. Exclusive! Coming soon....