The document provides an overview of library resources for engineering and IT students at Conestoga College. It discusses the library catalog and databases, different types of sources, evaluating sources, searching databases, and getting research help from the library.

1. LIBRARY RESOURCES MELANIE PARLETTE, BA, MLIS ENGINEERING & IT LIAISON LIBRARY RESOURCE CENTRE CONESTOGA COLLEGE

2. TODAY YOU’LL LEARN . . . About the Library website and that you have an Research Help Guide (and that this is helpful) How to search the library catalogue What a database is, how to search it and why you need it for your assignment Different types of sources and why they are important How to evaluate different types of sources

3. PIN NUMBERS You can use your PIN to: Access resources from Off-Campus Renew a book, place a hold Review your account

4. LIBRARY HOMEPAGE (AND YOUR EXPLORE GUIDE) www.conestogac.on.ca/lrc Highlights: LRC Hours AskON Library Catalogue Research Help E-Resources Contact Us

5. LIBRARY CATALOGUE Q: What can you find in the library catalogue? A: Anything that is physically housed in the library! Let’s take a look…

6. TYPES OF SOURCES What’s the Difference? Scholarly Journals Popular Magazines Trade Journals Conference Papers Technical Reports Scholarly research or projects. Illustrations are usually charts and graphs. Authors are authorities in their field. Often professors or researchers. Peer review process is in place where the content of an article is reviewed by one or more experts in the field. Examples: IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics General interest articles, entertainment, or information aimed at the consumer. Usually colour photographs and illustrations. Articles are usually written by magazine staff, freelance writers, or may be anonymous. No peer review or refereeing process. Examples: Wired, Popular Mechanics Industry related information, news and trends. Some illustrations. Authors are industry experts, professionals, or practitioners who are not always identified Typically no peer review or refereeing process. Examples: ASME Mechanical Engineering Magazine Author is scholar in field, academic or researcher Conference papers tend to be more recent than journal articles, but may be considered less authoritative depending on the review and acceptance process Peer Review Process may or may not be rigorous Example: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science Author is often a scholar or a scientist, engineer, government contractor, or technical personnel. Published by a corporation or educational institution Reputation is everything Typically not peer reviewed Example: 2010 Energy Efficiency Indicator

7. WHAT’S A CREDIBLE SOURCE? There may be times when you don’t know exactly where your resource fits. This test can help you determine if your information is reliable. Depending on the question you are asking, different part of the criteria might be more important than others. The CRAAP Test C urrency The timeliness of the information R elevance The importance of the information for your needs A uthority The source of the information A ccuracy The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the information P urpose The reason the information exists

8. CRAAP TEST The CRAAP Evaluation Tool

9. WHAT IS PEER REVIEW? When an author submits his or her research article to a scholarly journal, an editor will review it to see if it meets the criteria of that journal. If it does, the editor will send the article out for Peer Review . [Peer Review is the process where other experts in the field will thoroughly review and evaluate the article and the research that was done. They check for accuracy of the information presented, validity and repeatability of the research, quality and appropriateness for the journal.] Based on the feedback from the experts (i.e. “peers”), the author’s submission will be accepted, rejected or accepted with revisions. It is uncommon to accept a paper with no revisions. In most cases an author will need to make some changes before final publication. Source: Simon Fraser University

10. ACADEMIC PUBLISHING PROCESS A researcher carries out research The researcher submits their paper to a journal. The editor reviews it and sends it out to multiple experts for peer review The reviewers examine the article. Sometimes the article might be outright rejected The researcher makes some edits. This process may be repeated until the article meets the standards of the reviewers. The publisher and experts review the paper. The paper is published in the journal Other researchers incorporate the findings in their research People engage with the findings of the article through social media People comment on the article through letters to the editor Open Access is revolutionizing this process.

11. FINDING THE BEST JOURNALS IN MY FIELD Impact Factors How frequently the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a particular year (i.e. the average number of times that articles published in the journal in the two previous years (e.g. 2003-2004) were cited in a particular year (i.e. 2005). http://www.eigenfactor.org/ What is the Review Process?

12. DATABASES What is an electronic article database? Online / web-based collection of: Magazines Newspapers Journals Includes professional journal articles Databases are usually organized by major subject i.e. nursing, business, science, etc. You choose a database based on your topic Each database contains millions of articles, searchable by keyword

13. WHAT DO I SEARCH FOR? Mechanical Engineering Electronics Heat Transfer Design Aerodynamics Accuracy and Precision Fluid Mechanics Automation Systems Materials

14. SEARCHING A DATABASE. . .

15. SEARCHING A DATABASE. . . * (the asterisk wildcard) As the name implies, * can be substituted for any number of letters. This is particularly useful to include all words with a certain term and any suffix after it. Simply apply the asterisk to the end of a term and it will return all documents containing that term, followed by anything. For example: biostatistic* will find biostatistician or biostatistics or biostatistical

16. SEARCHING A DATABASE. . . Quotation Marks: " " Enclose specific phrases in quotation marks. This will direct the search engine to search the database for documents containing that exact phrase. A search for analytical chemist (without quotes) will return any document containing analytical and chemist with anything in between. If you place quotes around the phrase, searching for “facility management“ it will only documents with facility and management right beside each other.

17. WHAT IS GOOGLE SCHOLAR? A search interface for locating citations to academic research—and accessing the full-text online (sometimes). This is the definition of any research database. Google Scholar is just one more in a host of research tools similar to those offered by the library (but using it is free to all). Reading articles found in it is not free (not always, anyway).

18. WHAT CAN YOU SEARCH USING GOOGLE SCHOLAR? “… articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites.” Some resources are “open access,” i.e. free Many have a cost-per-article The LRC can help improve access to the costly articles (but more on that later) Google. (2011). About Google Scholar . Retrieved from http://scholar.google.ca/intl/en/scholar/about.html

19. WHAT CAN’T YOU FIND USING GOOGLE SCHOLAR? Google doesn’t search everything, and neither does Google Scholar Only searches “scholarly” sources So it does not search the following resources: Newspapers Trade Magazines Professional Magazines General Interest Magazines

20. GOOGLE ≠ GOOD What exactly is included? We don’t know and Google won’t say. Calls into question content providers, i.e. how does Google define “scholarly”? Good for “casual” research, but not acceptable as a single source for coverage of the literature on a topic. Coverage is unknown Relevancy Ranking of search results is questionable Narrowing/sorting search results is rudimentary No controlled vocabulary Citations may be inaccurate due to reliance of web crawling extraction (e.g. Author Name: P Login) Jacsó, P. Google Scholar's ghost authors. Library Journal 134: 26-27.

21. LINKING TO LRC RESOURCES Go to Google Scholar ( http://scholar.google.ca ) Click “Scholar Preferences” in upper right hand of the search page. On the Scholar Preferences page, in the “Library Links” section, enter for “Conestoga” in the search box and click “Find Library”. Checkboxes appear below the search box. Checkmark the Conestoga links. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save Preferences.” Your searches will now show links to Conestoga LRC resources that contain articles from your search results.

22. WEB SEARCHING TIPS Great search tools: http://infopeople.org/search/tools Search Engine Database Advanced Boolean Other Search Options Miscellaneous Google google.com Advanced Search Ranks based on popularity (# of pages linked to) Full text of web pages and other documents on the web. AND (default) OR (capitalized) - to remove words or phrases. + to include common words * wildcard to replace word(s) (to * or * ) No truncation. Quotes for phrase. Stems some words ( + to turn off). Fields: intitle:, site:, inurl:, filetype: more . Similar pages - finds related sites. Language translations. ~ searches synonyms ( ~food ) define: finds definitions Tools: math/equivalents calculator , maps , stocks .- more Bing bing.com Advanced Search Full text of web pages and other documents on the web. Type up to 150 characters, including spaces, in the search box. AND (default) OR (capitalized) NOT (capitalized) to exclude words No truncation. Quotes for phrase. For dates, type the name of the month instead of the calendar number. Left panel, suggests related searches and shows search history. Translates similar to Google. Use Instant Answers for easy field searching. Ask.com www.ask.com Ask natural language questions as well as keyword searches. Plus: Images , News , Video . Natural language questions, not Boolean searches. Right sidebar offers links to related search results and search history. Provides links to image, news and video searches. Offers AskEraser , a search privacy feature.

23. SELECTED INTERNET SUBJECT DIRECTORIES Subject Directory Database Boolean Other search options Miscellaneous Yahoo Directory dir.yahoo.com Sites are submitted to Yahoo!'s team of editors, who visit and evaluate every site added to the Directory. AND (default) OR (capitalize) - to remove. Quotes for phrase. * to truncate. Fields : t:title; u: URL Search specific types of info: News , Sports , Maps , Weather , Shopping About.com about.com Content on About.com is written by a network of more than 750 Guides. About.com adds more than 3,000 new content items each week and approximately ten new topics each month. AND (default) , OR, NOT, Nesting ( ) Quotes for exact phrase. Browse "channels" (broad subjects like Jobs & Careers) or "topics" (broad keywords).

24. GET HELP AT THE LIBRARY By Email [email_address] [email_address] Online IM Chat on the LRC Contact Us Page Or in the Mechanical Systems Engineering “Research Help” In Person Visit the Cambridge LRC Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM Wed 8:30 AM – 7:30 PM By Phone Information Desk @ 519-748-5220 x3361