1. Efficacy of E-resources on Social
Science & Humanities Research
Jayatunga Amaraweera
Member
The NSF National Committee on LIS
August 20, 2012 1

2. What is research?
• “A careful, systematic , patient study and
investigation in some field of knowledge,
undertaken to establish facts or princilpes”
(Grinnell, 1993:4)
• It is a discovery (Rediscovery); A voyage from
the known to the unknown
• An effort to be closer to the truth
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3. What is Research ?
• A detailed study of a subject, especially in order
to discover (new) information or reach a (new)
understanding. (Cambridge Dictionaries Online, 2003.)
• Systematic investigation to establish facts or
principles or to collect information on a subject (
www.thefreedictionary.com)
• Organized study: methodical investigation into a
subject in order to discover facts, to establish or
revise a theory, or to develop a plan of action
based on the facts discovered (
www.bing.com/Dictionary)
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4. Definition – Electronic Sources
Collection of Documents, Data, and other Written
material stored in Electronic “ Libraries “ or
Databases, and available Electronically.
URL:
http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/kschwalm/ccguide/defs.html
August 20, 2012 4

5. Electronic Resources
Electronic Resources represent an increasingly important component
of the collection-building activities of libraries. “Electronic
resources” refer to those materials that require
computer access, whether through a personal computer, mainframe,
or handheld mobile device. They may either be accessed remotely via
the Internet or locally.
Some of the most frequently encountered types are:
· E-journals
· E-books
· Full-text (aggregated) databases
· Indexing and abstracting databases
· Reference databases (biographies, dictionaries, directories,
encyclopaedias, etc.)
· Numeric and statistical databases
· E-images
· E-audio/visual resources
(IFLA Guide,2012)
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6. Electronic Reference Sources
Off-line Ref. Sources: Most of these materials appear
as CD-ROMs, on Diskettes ,VCDs or DVDs, sometimes as
e-cards eg. CBSL Bulletin ; Annual Reports of Banks
On-line Ref. Sources:
Institutional & Personal Websites
OPACS & WebOPACS
Electronic Databases
E-Publications: e-books ; e-journals ; e-prints ; e-articles
full-text ; e-Abstracts & Indexes ; journal Archives
Multimedia materials on-line
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On-line Tutorials

7. Internet : Surfing the Web : Search Engines
AltaVista
the fast and accurate search engine from digital produces
results within seconds
Exciteconcept-based search of the web, usenet, news, and
site reviews
HotBot
expansive web database complimented by advanced search
capabilities
MetaCrawler
offers comprehensive and fast parallel search capability of
popular databases
SavvySearchmulti-lingual keyword search of various
information resources on the net
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8. Search engines
 Search engines are
popular tools for locating
web pages, but they often
return thousands of
results.
 Search of e-resources are
more effective if you know
how to talk to the
computer systems.
 Communicating with
these systems requires
knowing certain basic
search techniques.
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10. Major Search Engines
• Google
http://www.google.com/
• AltaVista
http://www.altavista.com/
• alltheweb
http://www.alltheweb.com/
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11. A Search Engine – eg. Google
(Google Search Engine) URL: http://www.google.com/
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12. Basic Google Search Screen
Title of Web Page
URL- the website address
Choose what Set your
to search preferences
Enter Automatically
search takes you to
terms here the first site in
results
Click here when Can choose to
Get more help
ready to start search only
with your
search Canadian sites
searching
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13. Major Meta-search Engines
• SurfWax
http://www.surfwax.com/
• Ixquick
http://www.ixquick.com/
• Mamma
• http://www.mamma.com
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14. A sample of Meta-search Engine
URL: http://www.mamma.com/
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15. This Website can be used to find any information, topics
related or documents in any discipline
URL: http://www.finditonline.ws/
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26. What is an e-database?
Definition:
An e-database is an organized collection of information, of a
particular subject or multi-disciplinary subject areas.
The information of an e-database can be searched and retrieved
electronically.
Coverage:
Contents include journal articles, newspaper articles, book reviews
and conference proceedings, etc.
Update frequency:
Usually updated on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis.
Types of e-databases: Full-text vs. Bibliographic
Full-text databases contain the whole content of an article such as
citation information, text, illustrations, diagrams and tables.
Bibliographic databases only contain citation information of an
article, such as author name, journal title, publication date and page
numbers.
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27. Online Databases
• What are online databases?
Online databases are Web-based electronic
indexes that enable you to locate and retrieve
articles in magazines, journals and
newspapers.
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34. Information Gateways
• Information gateway-type resources include Internet catalogues, subject
directories, virtual libraries and gateways
• Specialising in resources on a particular field
• Usually searchable AND
• Organised into hierarchical subject categories
• Compiled by people, not robots
• More focus on sifting for relevance and quality
Good For: topics that fall into a thematic area that has a subject
directory, guided browsing in your subject area
Not Good For: Quickly finding information from widely varying themes
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35. Information Gateway Examples
• ELDIS: the Gateway to Development Information
http://www.eldis.org/
• Development Gateway
http://www.developmentgateway.org/
• World Wide Web Virtual Library
http://www.vlib.org/
• SOSIG (Social Science Information Gateway)
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/
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36. A Social Science Gateway - Sosig
Social Sciences:
SOSIG:
subject coverage: Social Sciences
Social Sciences Information gateway, an
Internet gateway to quality resources
for Social Sciences.
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/
August 20, 2012 36

37. A sample of a Gateway
(Gateway for world Libraries)
http://www.libdex.com/
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38. URL: http://www.sshub.com
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39. Powerful Subject Gateway for Information
URL: http://www.vlib.org.uk
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43. What is a portal?
Technically, a portal is a network service that brings
together content from diverse distributed resources using
technologies such as cross searching, harvesting, and
alerting, and collate this into an amalgamated form for
presentation to the user. This presentation is usually via a
web browser, though other means are also possible. For
users, a portal is a, possibly personalised, common point of
access where searching can be carried out across one or
more than one resource and the amalgamated results
viewed. Information may also be presented via other
means, for example, alerting services and conference
listings or links to e-prints and learning materials.
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44. Sri Lanka Govt. Web Portal
[ http://www.gov.lk/ ]
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45. SL –Web Portal (Sinhala)
[http://www.gov.lk/gov/index.php?
option=com_cat&Itemid=63&lang=si
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46. SL Web Portal (English)
[http://www.gov.lk/gov/index.php?
option=com_cat&Itemid=63&lang=en
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47. Web Portal – Education in Sri Lanka
http://www.lankalinksystems.com/directory/frames/eduframe.htm
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53. THANK YOU
for your
PATIENCE
August 20, 2012 53