The workshop aims to enhance research skills for history students undertaking an honours project by teaching the use of various scholarly sources and discipline-specific databases. It emphasizes the importance of creating a well-rounded bibliography and utilizing reference software for managing citations. Participants are encouraged to seek assistance from librarians for comprehensive support throughout their research process.

1. Research Skills for
the Honours Project
Library Workshop for History Students
Chris Chan
Information Services Librarian
http://about.me/chancp
27 April 2015

2. Learning Outcomes
• Recognize the variety of scholarly sources you will
be expected to use in the Honours Project so that
you conduct research of appropriate scope and
depth
• Understand the benefits of discipline-specific
databases in order to effectively find information on
your Honours Project topic
• Select the best reference software for your needs so
that you can easily manage your sources

3. How you will learn today
• Mini-lectures
• In-class quick polls
• Demonstrations

4. Get set up for the quick
polls!
Go to this URL:
http://pollev.com/hkbulib

5. 1. Information Sources for
the Honours Project

6. Quick Poll #1
• Imagine that you are an Honours Project supervisor
• You have three students - on your handout you can see
the bibliographies of their Honours Projects
• Which student has produced the best bibliography
showing a good variety of sources?
• Spend 2 minutes discussing with the person sitting
next to you and then respond to the poll:
http://pollev.com/hkbulib

7. What makes a good
bibliography?
• Your bibliography reveals the quality, reliability, validity,
and authority of the sources you have consulted
• Books, scholarly journal articles, dissertations, and
primary sources should make up the bulk of your
bibliography
• Websites can be useful, but make sure the source is
authoritative. Not sure? Ask a librarian!
• The easiest way to locate and obtain scholarly sources is
to use the tools and services on the Library website

8. Need some real-life examples?
Library Honours Project Database
• The Library maintains a database of past Honours
Projects that have scored high marks - the link is on
the Library homepage and on the course guide
• Apart from the bibliography, you can look at
examples of how to organise your project

9. Finding Scholarly Sources:
Disciplinary Databases

10. Quick Poll #2
When you need to do a piece of academic writing (essay,
project, etc.) what is the first information search tool that
you will use?
http://pollev.com/hkbulib

11. Why Use Databases?
• General search engines (e.g. OneSearch, Google Scholar) are great
for getting started on a topic
• However, for in-depth scholarly research like the Honours Project,
disciplinary databases are important
• Example: Historical Abstracts

12. Focused Search
Broad search of the
scholarly literature on
ALL topics - science,
education, philosophy,
etc.
Includes 2,300 academic
historical journals,
covering world history
from 1450 to the present

13. Specialized Search Limits
Databases provide special
ways to limit results that
are useful to the
discipline.
For example, Historical
Abstracts allows you to
limit the results to those
that cover a specified
historical period

14. Citation information
It is vital that you note down all of the citation information
for articles that you use in your Honours Project...
Article
title
Journal
title
Author Publication

15. Automatic Citation
Generator
Databases help by providing automatic citation
generators
You still need to double-check the result!

16. China Academic Journals
For Chinese-language articles, China Academic
Journals is a key source:

17. Historical Abstracts Live
Demo

18. Quick Poll #3
We have looked at a lot of the features that databases
offer. In your opinion, what is the most important reason
for using databases instead of Google when doing
Honours Project research?
Provide your answer in a couple of sentences:
http://pollev.com/hkbulib

19. No PDF?!
Sometimes you will find results where there is no
full text available from the database:

20. Click this button:Citation (no full text)
Check for direct
link to Library e-
subscription
Check Library
Catalogue for access to
electronic/print
version
Yes
FULL TEXT!
Interlibrary
Loan (ILL)
YesYes
NoNo

21. Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
• Obtain journal articles from libraries all over the
world
• Free service - no quota or charges
• Article PDFs are delivered online within 3-4 working
days
• More info: http://library.hkbu.edu.hk/about/ill.html

22. Obtaining Full Text
Live Demo

23. Reference Software

24. Quick Poll #4
What software do you use to organise your research?
http://pollev.com/hkbulib

25. Reference management
• In your Honours Project, you will need to keep track
of dozens of different sources (maybe even over 100)
• Keeping track of them will be difficult if you are not
organised
• Generating citations for your sources will be
extremely tedious and time-consuming
• Reference software can help!

26. Mendeley demonstration

27. Other options
• Depending on your specific needs, Mendeley may
not be the best option
• Another choice is RefWorks, which is recommended
if you will be using China Academic Journals a lot
• Links to more information on both are provided in
the Course Guide

28. Summary
• You are expected to consult a range of different
scholarly source types when completing your
Honours Project
• Use disciplinary databases to make finding and
citing scholarly sources easier
• Reference software can make your life a lot easier,
but you need to start using it now
• Need help with searching, citing, organising, or
anything else? Ask a librarian!

29. Honours Project Research
Consultations
• This workshop has given a brief overview of the
major skills and tools you will need to be successful
in your Honours Project research
• For more help, you can request a one-on-one
consultation with a professional librarian
• Information on how to get in touch with us is
provided on the Course Guide

30. Thanks and Good
Luck!