Discovering & using Information

Library and digital skills Discovering and using information

Emily Herron e.herron@sheffield.ac.uk

What we are going to cover ●

Developing a search strategy

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Consider where you are going to search

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Evaluating the information you find

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Listing your sources referencing

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Developing a search strategy

What is literature searching?

An organised and logical search to discover what’s already been written about a topic

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You can build on this with your own ideas, thoughts and theories

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Identify the keywords and concepts in your project title. Build a list of alternative search terms that you can use to start your search. Broader or narrower terms, technical terms or synonyms..

Example: Can urban waste be used to generate electricity?

Keywords / concepts

urban waste

electricity

Alternative search terms

municipal waste

energy

landfill

energy production

energy-from-waste (efw)

“Phrase searching” Use quotation marks to search for examples of words where two or more words would appear together as a phrase e.g. “energy from waste”.This can help to make your search results more focused Truncation Some databases allow you to replace the end of a word with a symbol so that you can search for all variations of that word e.g. produc* would find product, produce, production https://pixabay.com/

Where can I search?

Where to search will depend on the information you wish to find. Here are some examples of an information need and where you might search.

An introduction to a topic

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Texbook, lecture notes

The latest research

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Academic journal, conference paper

An opinion piece

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Newspaper, blog, industry magazine, social media

A technical report or a standard

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Specialist database, professional body website

An official report

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Government department or agency

When putting together your assignments you will be expected to go beyond what’s in your lecture notes. You’ll need to refer to appropriate academic sources StarPlus is a really good starting point Enter your keywords in the search box e.g. “municipal waste” electricity Try limiting your search results to articles using the drop down menu

Using a database will help you to search across hundreds of academic journals at the same time Scopus and Web of Science are multidisciplinary databases You can use them to search for journal articles by combining keywords Check is fulltext is available by clicking “find it�

IEEE Xplore contains journal articles and conference papers published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Nearly all of the articles are available in fulltext This is a key database for engineers and covers many disciplines and topics

You can find each of these databases by searching StarPlus Enter the name of the database and limit your search results to databases Alternatively take a look at the databases listed on your library subject guide. Click the Discovering tab

Evaluating the information that you find

Here are some areas that you can consider and questions that you can ask when evaluating the information that you find ●

Relevance and scope - does the information cover your project topic areas?

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Currency - when was the information originally published? Are the ideas still relevant? Has the author updated their ideas since it was published?

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Authority - who is the author / publisher? Has the source been peer reviewed (reviewed by other experts working in the field)? Do other authors refer to this work?

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Purpose - why does the information exist is it trying to sell you something, persuade you or give you an opinion?

Library guides to evaluating and thinking critically about information

Constructing references

Why is it important to reference your sources?

Provide evidence Back up your ideas and demonstrate that you have read widely around your topic Give credit Allow other people to track down the works that you have consulted Avoid plagiarism Distinguish between your ideas and those of other people CC0 Creative Commons : https://pixabay.com/

Referencing is a two part process. The following examples use the Harvard style of referencing. Sources are given in full at the end of your work (references) with a brief indication of the source within the body of your assignment (citation).

Part 1 Sources are cited within the body of your assignment by giving the name of the author(s) followed by the date of publication.

Example The interactive nature of the social web allows users to become participants in the process as they create content and share opinions (Oppenheim 2012, p. 2).

Part 2 A full list of references (sources) that you have mentioned at the end of your assignment Example Oppenheim, C., (2012). The no-nonsense guide to legal issues in web 2.0 and cloud computing. London: Facet Publishing.

More help and support Library guides to referencing - select the style that you need to use for your assignment

Referencing tips Be consistent - whatever style you chose stick to it and be consistent Be organised - keep bibliographic details as you make notes (author, title, publisher, date of publication etc.). Write down page numbers!

Make use of the Library’s referencing tutorials

More help and support is available on the Library’s web pages. You will find tutorials on: ●

Developing a search strategy

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Producing a literature review

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Using StarPlus

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Using databases (Web of Science, Scopus and IEEE Xplore)

Please contact me if you have any questions: Emily Herron (Liaison Librarian for Engineering) e.herron@sheffield.ac.uk