This document provides an overview of library skills training on effective searching, reference managers, and accessing articles not subscribed to by UCT Libraries. It discusses searching databases like Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore and using keywords, boolean operators and other search techniques. It also covers reference managers RefWorks and EndNote for organizing citations, as well as interlibrary loans and open access repositories for obtaining articles not available through UCT.

1. Computer Science
Library Skills Training
October 2016
Pepler Head
pv.head@uct.ac.za

2. In this session we will be looking at:
• Effective searching
• Searching using Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library &
IEEE Xplore
• Article/publication metrics
• Reference Managers, RefWorks & EndNote
• Access articles that UCT Libraries does not subscribe to

3. Effective Searching:
How?
Using Boolean operators
Identifying key words
Conducting phrase searching and using quotation marks
Why?
Helps find relevant/accurate results
Saves time
Goes beyond finding anything and everything

4. Effective Searching:
Topic:
Perceptions of Cloud Computing in South African Government
Identify Keyword:
Cloud Computing
South Africa
Government
Search phrase:
“Cloud Computing” AND “South Africa” AND Government

5. Effective Searching:
Searching on Google Scholar (20 October 2016):
Search Result
“Cloud Computing” 286,000
“Cloud Computing” AND “South Africa” 7,630
“Cloud Computing” AND “South Africa”
AND Government
5,370

6. Effective Searching:
Makes use of the following:
“ “ – Quotation marks keep phrases together:
• Searching for South Africa as one concept rather than looking for South
and Africa as individual words.
( ) – Brackets around key words allow that which falls inside of it to be
processed first (often in cases of synonyms)
• (eBooks OR “electronic books”) searches for both eBooks and electronic
books.
AND/OR/NOT – typing your operators in capitals helps Databases with
the identification thereof.

7. Effective Searching:
Makes use of the following:
Truncation:
• Usually the asterisk sign (*) to indicate various forms of words, plurals
Eg. Educat* searches for Educate, Educating, Education,
Wildcards:
• Usually the Question mark symbol (?) to search for variations in
spelling. Eg. P?ediatric searches for both American and British spelling.

8. Effective Searching:
The Metrics:
Part of effective searching is evaluating the information you are using by
looking at:
• Citations
• Downloads
Do not grab the first article you find, but evaluate it by looking at the
Abstract, citations and/or downloads.

9. Where to search:
Google Scholar
ACM Digital Library
Computer & Applied Science Complete
ScienceDirect
IEEE Xplore
Web of Science

10. Google Scholar:
• Search all scholarly literature from one convenient place
• Explore related works, citations, authors, and publications
• Locate the complete document through your library or on
the web
• Keep up with recent developments in any area of research
• Check article citations

11. Google Scholar:
• If the search results are too specific for your needs, check out
what they're citing in their "References" sections. Referenced
works are often more general in nature.
• Similarly, if the search results are too basic for you, click "Cited
by" to see newer papers that referenced them. These newer
papers will often be more specific.
• Explore! There's rarely a single answer to a research question.
Click "Related articles" or "Cited by" to see closely related work,
or search for author's name and see what else they have written.

12. Google Scholar:
Google Scholar does not search in exactly the same way as the
“academic” databases.
Truncation:
• Google Scholar does not recognize truncation symbols,
instead it uses automatic stemming. It looks for the word
you type in plus additional letters (“South Africa”, “South
African”)
Exact Word searching:
• By Default Google Scholar will search for synonyms of your
search word. To avoid this, it is best to use quotation marks
“ “

13. Google Scholar:
Boolean Operators:
• Google Scholar automatically inserts the AND operator
between words, unless you insert the OR operator.
• When using the operators, always capitalize it so it can be
identified as a command and not as part of the search
phrase
• Insert a dash (-) in front of a word to exclude results that
include that word

14. Google Scholar:
EZ-Proxy/Off campus login

15. Google Scholar:
EZ-Proxy/Off campus login
http://www.lib.uct.ac.za.ezproxy.uct.ac.za/

16. Google Scholar:
Accessing Google Scholar:
Library Home Page: www.lib.uct.ac.za
Search & Find
Databases by Platform
Google Scholar: https://scholar-google-co-za.ezproxy.uct.ac.za/
- All UCT Library pay walled items are also indexed

17. Using Google Scholar:

18. Google Scholar:

21. ACM Digital Library
The ACM Digital Library (DL) is the most comprehensive collection of full-text
articles and bibliographic records in existence today covering the fields of
computing and information technology containing
• 407,367 Full-text articles
• 2.0+ Million Pages of full-text articles
• 18,000+ New full-text articles added each year
• 44+ High Impact Journals with 2-3 new journals being launched each year
• 275+ Conference Proceedings Titles added each year
• 2,000+ Proceedings Volumes
• 8 Magazines (including the flagship Communications of the ACM, the most
heavily cited publication in the field of computing according to Thomson-
Reuters)
• 37 Technical Newsletters from ACM's Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
• 6,500+ Video files
• 594 Audio files

22. Using ACM Digital Library
Basic Searching
• Type key word in lower case
• You can enter a question or concept in plain language (ACM
accommodates both plain language searching & key word searching)
• Capitalize proper nouns
• Use quotation marks (“”) for exact phrase searching
• Use + or – to include or exclude terms
Topic Searches
• If your key word matches an existing topic, you will find that your results
list includes documents that contain more than just the word itself,
because ACM automatically expands the search to include all the words
defined as part of the topic.
• If you don’t want the term expanded as a topic, use quotation marks for
exact phrase searching

23. Using ACM Digital Library
Searching with Wildcards:
• Wildcards function as truncation in ACM Digital Library
• Works with the asterisk symbol (*)
• Col*r returns results for color and colour and all words beginning with
col ending with r
Zone Searches:
• These are specific regions of documents that can be searched
• Available in Markup Language
• To search a document zone, type the name of the zone, a colon (:), and
the search terms.
• Searching h1:cloud computing returns results with the word cloud
computing in the <h1> tag of an HTML document.

24. ACM Digital Library

27. ACM Digital Library
Advanced search

30. IEEE Xplore
The IEEE Xplore digital library is a powerful resource for discovery and
access to scientific and technical content published by the IEEE
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing
partners.
IEEE Xplore provides web access to more than 3.5-million full-text
documents from some of the world's most highly cited publications in
electrical engineering, computer science and electronics.
The content in IEEE Xplore comprises over 160 journals, over 1,200
conference proceedings, more than 2,500 technical standards, over
1,000 eBooks, and over 300 courses. Approximately 25,000 new
documents are added to IEEE Xplore each month.

31. IEEE Xplore
Searching:
• Use key word for searching the database
• IEEE does automatic stemming, searching for plurals and other
forms of the key word.
• Nesting the keyword ensures that the search is performed as you
intend (Advanced search can assist with this)
• Quotation marks (“ “) is used for exact searching.
• Use wildcards, asterisk symbol (*) for words with different spelling.
Example searching computer will return computers, but searching
computer* will return computers and computerize.

32. IEEE Xplore

33. IEEE Xplore

34. IEEE Xplore

35. IEEE Xplore

36. IEEE Xplore

37. IEEE Xplore

38. How to access material that UCT Libraries does not have access to?
Interlibrary Loans

39. How to access material that UCT Libraries does not have access to?
Interlibrary Loans

40. How to access material that UCT Libraries does not have access to?
Open DOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories)
Check to see whether any version of the article is not sitting on an
Institutional repository.

41. Citation Managers:
• RefWorks and EndNote are reference management tools that enables you
to store and organise your references in your own personal database.
• Both have a write-n-cite plugin for Word that allows you to insert your in
text references and reference list directly in Word

42. • Build up your OWN PERSONAL DATABASE of references
• FREE for Students and Alumni at UCT
• Store references SAFELY on the RefWorks server
• ORGANISE your references in folders
• IMPORT REFERENCES from databases and the Web
• SEARCH your references with the RefWorks search engine
• SAVE the abstracts of articles
• Link to FULL TEXT
• CREATE BIBLIOGRAPHIES automatically
RefWorks:

43. RefWorks:
To access RefWorks, go to the
library home page:
www.lib.uct.ac.za
Under Research Help, you
will see the RefWorks tab.

44. RefWorks:

45. RefWorks:

46. EndNote:
• Mainly desktop based
• Update and maintain references across EndNote and sync with
other devices
• Set preferences to create clear, organized, and easily searchable
names for your PDF documents as you import them.
• Read, highlight and comment on PDF’s within EndNote’s PDF
viewer.
• Organise your research materials better by using new reference
types such as Interview, Podcast, Conference Paper, and Press
Release
• Create your bibliography automatically

47. To access EndNote, go to the
library home page:
www.lib.uct.ac.za
Under Research Help, you
will see the EndNote tab.
EndNote:

48. EndNote:

49. Further Assistance:
Please feel free to email me:
Pepler Head - pv.head@uct.ac.za
Remember the Computer Science Library Guide:
http://libguides.lib.uct.ac.za/chemistry
Also have a look at UCT Libraries’ YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/UCTLibraries
Check out the Savvy Reseacher Series:
http://www.lib.uct.ac.za/lib/savvy-researcher-workshop-series

53. Thank you,
any questions?