1. BIO1010
Finding
good quality
MST8011:
academic
information
Finding and
Managing
academic
information
Moira Bent
Faculty Liaison
Librarian

2. Information overload?
Experimental data
Maps
Books
Internet E-Books
Government reports Chemic
Informatio al and
n physical
resources
data
Journal
Commercial material Theses
articles
Conf
Papers Digital images
Statistical data

3. Don’t sink
under the
weight of all
the
information!

4. Having a search strategy keeps you
afloat
• Main
• Logical terms
approach • Related
• Use proper terms
strategies • Synonym
Search
Keywords s
Techniques
Limits Info type
• How much? • Primary data
• What date? • Secondary
• How quickly? sources
• Which • Maps/images
language

5. Search techniques
 Use AND, OR and NOT to make logical
connections
 biodiversity AND
fish
 sea OR ocean OR marine
 Use truncation
 Conserv*finds conserve, conservation,
conserving (and also conservatory!)

6. sea OR
ocean OR
marine
biodiversity fish

7. LibrarySearch is a good place to
start
Includes the library
catalogue and a
range of electronic
resources
Full & mobile views

8. Use Library Search
 To find printed books in the Library
 To find electronic books
 To get a general overview of a topic
 To find a few journal references for an essay
DON’T rely on Library Search as the only source –
not all our resources are included.

9. Journal articles
Report original academic research
Published in academic (high-quality) journals – published regularly
Up to date
More detailed than books – can be very technical
Peer-reviewed for quality (by other academics / experts in the
field)
Available in Print and / or Electronic formats
Types of regular publication
• Academic / trade / magazines / newspapers / professional

10. Use databases to trace journal articles
Databases are:
 Collections of references and full text
articles
 International in scope
 Subject specific
 Essential for academic research
 Expensive resources

11. LibrarySearch is fab!
Why use specific databases?
 Proquest
 Unique content for biology
 Search in images, figures and tables
 Use taxonomic terms
 Set search alerts
 Scopus
 Unique content for biology
 Set search alerts
 Search within results
 To download results to EndNote

12. Use your Library Guide to
identify key databases:
libguides.ncl.ac.uk/biology

13. Our electronic
RAS – Remote Application
resources are Service https://ras.ncl.ac.uk/
available any
time, anywhere Use Library Resources
folder
Library Web pages &
Library Guide for Marine

14. Google’s always worked for me…

15. Finding websites
http://www.intute.ac.uk
• Portal to quality information on the internet
• Resources selected by subject experts
• Provided for UK academic community
http://scholar.google.co.uk/
• Google’s search engine for academic literature
http://www.scirus.com
• Scientific search engine – filters out non-scientific sites

16. Now you have
all the info you
need – relax!

17. Referencing: boring but important
 Makes clear what
your own ideas are
– this is what you
get marks for!
 It’s good academic
practice
 It helps you track
down the info
again in future
 Avoids
accusations of
plagiarism

18. School of Biology guidelines
Author-date style
 refer to a source by author’s surname and
publication year in the text. (Bent 2009)
 Alphabetical list of references in the bibliography
Check the Guidelines for Presentation of Written Work
for full details.

19. School of Biology style
Journal
Stockdale, E (2003) How to keep first year students
awake. Education today 34:122-134.
Book
Bent, M (2002) The psychology of eating, Facet,
London.
Web site
Park, J, Finn, J, Cooke, R, Lawson, C (2008)
Agriculture and the environment: the current
situation. University of Reading.
http://www.ecifm.reading.ac.uk/subject2.htm
Accessed 1 Dec 2008

20. Citing in an essay
Research has shown that giving students
chocolate helps them to concentrate
(Stockdale, 2003). Bent (2002 p 45) also
claims that “chocolate reduces stress”. It
therefore seems appropriate that universities
provide chocolate fountains in all halls of
residence.
References
Bent, M (2002) The psychology of
eating, Facet, London.
Stockdale, E (2003) How to keep first year
students awake. Education today 34:122-134.

21. What do you do with all the references you
find?
 Keep a record as you search
 Saves time later
 what was that big red book I read?
 Allows you to build on previous work
 I’m sure I found a good article last year
 Creates accurate citations
 Easy marks
 No chance of plagiarism

22. EndNote
Create your personal EndNote “Library”
• Enter references manually
• Download the results of online searches
• Add images, files and PDFs
Organise the information
• Sort and search your Library
• Label and group references
Cite your references in Word
• Choose your citation “style”
• Create formatted bibliographies

23. Help
EndNote web pages http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/endnote
EndNote workshops First Thursday @11.30-1.00
EndNote surgeries Tues@ 1.00, Thurs @ 12.00
EndNote helpline lib-endnotehelp@ncl.ac.uk
EndNote blog http://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/Endnote_Users
Access EX5
• On clusters and
RAS
• EndNote Web
• Personal copy £77
Download the workbook:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/teaching/endnote/

24. What next…
• Do the quiz and bring your
answers to your tutorial next week
• Use the hand out (on Blackboard)
to
• Investigate the Library Guide
for Biology
• Experiment with finding
materials, using databases
and EJs
• Download the EndNote workbook
or sign up for an EndNote
workshop

25. Things to do
Explore the Download
Biology the hand out
Library and try the
Guide exercises
Download the
EndNote workbook
or book onto a
workshop