Library Research SkillsMA Film Studies

Ronan Madden Arts & Humanities Librarian

1. Basics: Library resources, catalogue, website 2. Journals and e-journals:

- what they are, how to source a journal article

3. Resource discovery using electronic databases: full-text, bibliographic: Boolean searching, fields, keeping up-to-date, Searcher4. Off-campus access to e-resources

Topics 1.

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Topics 2.

5. How to use the web more effectively e.g. advanced searching, Google Scholar, gateways, etc.6. Evaluating web and other information resources for quality7. Keeping up-to-date with RSS, alerts, bookmarking

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Library Resources for Film Studies

A-V Collection Q+3:-DVDs: 2297+ titles-VHS: 2407 titles (in store, can be retrieved)-Blu-ray: 56 titles

Multimedia area (for more see here)-View DVD, Blu-ray and VHS -Access audio and visual material from the web

Group research rooms:-2 have large screens + DVD/video combis-Bookable at the Q+3 desk (2 hours)

Open Reserve:-4 hour loan, DVDs and videos included

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Library Web Site

N.B.

•Catalogue•Journal Portal•Databases A-Z•Searcher•Subject Guides•How do I?•Study & Research Help

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Subject Guide

Starting point for relevant library & web material

- databases- journals- websites

See ‘Film Studies’ subject guide

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Catalogue: Tips

• Title searches: word-perfect• Keyword searches: you can ‘modify

search’ e.g. material type ‘Video/DVD’• Consider synonyms, American spellings• Use the ‘bag’ to export records• Use ‘Worldcat’ link to search beyond UCC• Use ‘My Library Account’ to request

books on loan, to see your reading history, to access e-resources from home, and to save ‘lists’ of books

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Off-Campus Access

• Use ‘My Library Account’(like when renewing or requesting books)

• Name + student number + six digit password (alpha-numeric)

• N.B. You should access e-resources through the Library web pages so that the ‘My Library Account’ screen will appear

• Contact Information desk on Q floor for queries e.g. forgotten password

• See: Learn about Pin NumbersRonan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

What if an item is not in UCC Library?

Aside from Googling it:

• Inter-library loanSee: Inter-library loans service

• Visit other libraries: ALCID, SCONUL or ‘Cork PAL’, ‘Music PAL’ Check with customer services in Boole Library

See: Accessing other libraries

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Journals

• Serials/Periodicals: published continuously• New research, cutting-edge• Print and/or electronic (30,000+ e-journals

in UCC)• ‘Peer-reviewed’/‘refereed’ =academic

journals‘The process by which an academic journal passes a paper submitted for publication to independent experts for comments on it’s suitability and worth; refereeing’

• Quality control: Papers accepted/rejected based on contribution to the field/new ideas, bias/conflicts of interest, suitability for journal etc.

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

• Popular Magazines: (articles written by journalists)

- Newspapers

- Substantive news e.g. ‘The Economist’, ‘National Geographic’, ‘Film Ireland’, ‘Sight & Sound’

- Magazines e.g. ‘Empire’, ‘Hot Press’

• Trade Journals (specific industry, enable practitioners share market and product information within an industry) e.g. ‘Restaurant Business’, ‘Chemical Week’, ‘Moviemaker’, ‘Film Journal International’

Other Periodicals

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Finding a Journal Article

Example:

Kilker, Robert. “All Roads Lead to the Abject: The Monstrous Feminine and Gender Boundaries in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.” Literature Film Quarterly 34.1, (2006): 54-63.

• Check the Journals Portal first• See online tutorial:

‘Learn how to find the full-text of a journal article’ on the ‘Study & Research Help’ page

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Practice

Find the following article online:

Koepnick, Lutz P. “Colonial Forestry: Sylvan Politics in Werner Herzog's Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo.” New German Critique 60, (1993): 133-159.

Is it also available in hard copy in the Library?

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‘Searcher’ Federated Search

• Good starting point

• Some results will be from non-academic periodicals

• N.B. you should still search specific databases individually

• You can set up an alert Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

What are Databases? 1.

• Collections of logically related data e.g. library catalogue

• A bibliographic/research database: usually an electronic index to journal articles and books, containing citations & abstracts. Sometimes information about conference proceedings, theses, and other information formats is also included.

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What are Databases? 2.

• Sometimes the full text of the articles is included, or links to the full text.

• Some are indexing and abstracting only: i.e. metadata – not necessarily a link to the full text.

• Some are general e.g. Web of Science, others are more subject-specific e.g. LION, Film Indexes Online.

• Essential for literature searches. • Other types of databases: ARTstor for

images, Music Online for streaming music, ACLS & Ebrary for e-booksRonan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

How are Databases Organised?

• Records: one record for each article, book etc.

• A field is the basic unit of entry in a record• Journal article fields might include:

- Title, Author, Keywords, Source, Publication Year, Abstract etc.

• For each record (e.g. article) added to the database, these fields must be included, and data is entered in that format.

• Searches of the databases can be narrowed to one or more fields: e.g. Author, Title, Author + Keyword, Keyword + Publication Year etc.

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Search Skills

college OR university

poverty AND crime

Boolean Operators: AND, OR

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Search Skills

cats NOT dogs

Boolean Operator: NOT

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Some Youtube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tm-sDKCnO4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1LpTbzSKd0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsSZps3NH-Mhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vube-ZcJFk4

Search Skills

• film noir AND women• film noir AND (women OR feminism OR

gender)• “film noir” AND (women OR woman OR

femini* OR female OR gender OR “femme fatale”)

_____________________________________________

• (radio OR “broadcast media”) NOT television

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

How to Find Relevant Databases

Use Databases A-Z: (See ‘Search the Library’)

•Drop-down menu ‘Browse databases by Subject area’. Use ‘Film Studies’ list as a starting point. Depending on your topic you may also need to search other lists e.g. – Humanities•You could also check the Subject Guides•See online tutorial: Find the best databases for your assignments and research on the ‘Study & Research Help’ page

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Databases without full-text

• Indexing and abstracting databases • Metadata – descriptive information i.e. not

necessarily a link to the full text • Full-text might be available in UCC through

another database/resource• Check the Journals Portal to find out (or

Searcher)• You should use as many databases as

possible for a thorough literature search (don’t ignore something important just because full-text not immediately available)

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Bibliographic Databases/Indexes

• Relevant examples:

- Film Indexes Online- OCLC incl. Worldcat, Articlefirst- Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Web of Knowledge)- British Humanities Index- MLA International Bibliography- Historical abstracts- ASSIA- Socindex

Same applies to many of the references you might find through Google Scholar!

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Exercise:

Look for scholarly articles that discuss explore race in American film

Try: Wilson Omnifile, Project Muse, Academic Search

Complete, JSTOR

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Getting Started Example:

Race in American cinema

Keywords:

race, racism, racial, discrimination, blackness, whiteness, “black power”, African American, Afro-American, “black America”, blaxploitation, blacksploitation, cinema, film, movie, “motion picture”, Hollywood, America* etc.

Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), truncation etc. to create appropriate search strings

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Getting Started

• Initial reviews: identify broad problem area, potential research problem, theoretical background, relevant terminology (keywords and terms): Scoping

• Once approved, further searches to refine research problem and methodologies: ‘Trawling’ and ‘Mining’

• There may be a number of strands to your lit search• Keep a record of all of resources searched, and the

search terms and strings that you applied• Keeps a record of all books/articles that you are

likely to need for your bibliography e.g. Endnote, Zotero

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Further Resources 1.

[N.B. See also subject guides for links to free resources]

•Online Reference Resources: (alternative to Wikipedia) see: Reference Resources under ‘Search the Library’

•Images: ARTstor and others: See Images page

•Online Newspapers: Irish Newspaper Archive, Irish Times Digital Archive, Irish Times Newspaper and see other news resources Also: British Newspaper Archive

•Music: Music Online, Oxford Music Online , Naxos Music (See Music Subject Portal)Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Further Resources 2.

• E-books: ACLS Humanities E-book (HEB), Ebrary, See: here for more

• Thesis Databases: Library: ProQuest Dissertation & Theses UK & Ireland , Index to Theses (UK/IRL), Proquest Dissertations (North America), Free: ETHOS (UK), DART-Europe E-theses Portal , RIANAlso: How do I find a thesis?

• Conferences Proceedings:Proceedings (OCLC), ZETOC

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Practice:

• Search for the term ‘poetics’ in Oxford Reference Online

• Search for material on AgnesVarda in Film Index International

• Search for Alfred Hitchcock in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

• Search for ‘Man of Aran’ in Irish Times Digital Archive

• Search for theses relating to your area of interest (held in other institutions)

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Search the Web More Effectively: Overview

• Anyone can publish: quality control?• Google: uses index/database of web pages

compiled from sites found by it’s spider programs. Full text of sites sent to Google index. ‘Pagerank’ retrieves based on word occurrence, proximity, location on page, links to the page, traffic etc. about 100-200 ‘ingredients’. For the most part a keyword search.

• Problem: finding relevant scholarly material

Quantity and quality of information• Use the Library’s resources first!

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

5 Tips1. Use ‘advanced search’ techniques on Google

and other search engines

2. Use Google Scholar, Google Books & ‘more’

3. Try other search engines – not just Google

4. Don’t always use search engines, go straight to good portals and sites suitable for your

topic

5. Always evaluate your findings for quality

See tutorial: Search the Web More Effectively for your Assignments and Research. Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

1. Use Advanced Search Techniques.

Won’t guarantee that you find quality , but may help you to control the sheer quantity

•Consider: word order, word choice, ‘stop words’, •Use Google advanced search, operators, domain search, phrase search etc. see: Inside search and Googleguide•Remember that Google personalises your search. See ‘Verbatim’ tool.

See: Google Basic Search Video and Google Advanced Search Video on Library website here Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

2. Use Google Scholar/Books & ‘more’

• Works better on-campus, or from home through the Databases A-Z

• If no full text, check the journal portal and the Library catalogue as usual

• See advanced search and email alerts on Google Scholar

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Practice

• Look for scholarly web material for the following topic (try a basic search first, then advanced search, then Google Scholar & Google Books):

‘The American road movie’

Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

Tip 3. Use Other Search Engines

Don’t use same search engine for everything - try others (examples below). See here also:

Exalead, BING, Blekko, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo, etc.

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4. Don’t Always Use Search Engines

Save time by going straight to sites likely to be the most useful - Look at subject guides

•Search catalogues from other libraries:

COPAC,  British Library,  Library of Congress,  The European Library,  Worldcat, World Digital Library, Cornucopia Also: Hathi Trust Digital Library, Project Gutenberg, OAPEN, JURN

•Open Repositories: RIAN, OAIster, CORA , Driver,

Institutional repository search U.K. Ronan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

5. Evaluate your Information Sources

• Quality information: fundamental to developing a literature review that will be a solid foundation on which you can build quality research and assignments

• See ‘Learn how to Evaluate information for your assignments and research on the ‘Study & Research Help’ page

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Alerts and Feeds

• RSS Feeds: ‘Really Simple Syndication’ Information comes to your reader/aggregator of choice (you don’t have to go looking for it). E.G. Netvibes, Feedly, The Old Reader , NewsBlur , Bloglines, Feedreader, etc. (Feeds from websites, blogs, databases, journals etc.Note: Feed reader apps for mobile devices

• Email Alert: Save searches on databases, Searcher, Google Scholar & receive alerts

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Social Bookmarking

Bookmark web pages or journal articles on the web and share with others who have a similar research interest

Examples: General: - Evernote - Diigo Academic: – Mendeley – Papers – Zotero

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Recap: What to use?• Catalogue: what does the Library hold? Books, e-books, DVDs

etc.• Journal portal: to see if the Library provides access to a

particular journal/serial title• Searcher: search box on the library website - one quick search

for books, articles, and more.• Library Databases: to locate articles and other resources for a

specific subject area - a more thorough literature search• Worldcat: to discover resources that are not available at UCC

Library• Subject Guides: sources customized for a particular subject

area• Internet Search: for quick facts and a general introduction to

topic. Google, Bing, Wikipedia, etc.• Google Scholar: to locate academic (journal articles, books)

information on a topic. For full text check the Library’s resources.

• Social Web: for the latest news and updates on a topic/fieldRonan Madden Info Lit 2014/15

• Referencing: - MLA made easy

- See Study & Research Help- See catalogue: Style guides

• Endnote training:- Contact Richard Bradfield r.bradfield@ucc.ie and look for details on Library news

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