Library ResearchSophomore Engineering ClinicSeptember 2014

Clinic Research DayToday’s problem:

Finding good sources for your: rhetorical analysis annotated

bibliography literature review

Your guide: Denise Brush, engineering

librarian brush@rowan.edu

Types of sourcesLess formal publication process

Websites Blogs White papers Technical reports Pre-prints Social media

More formal publication process

Newspaper articles Magazine articles Industry/trade

news Conference papers Journal articles Patents Books/book chapters

Periodicals – a brief history Published at regular “periods” – daily,

weekly, monthly etc. Each publication called an “issue” and

dated as well as numbered Can buy individual copies at stores, or

subscribe & have copies mailed to you Libraries traditionally purchased

subscriptions to many periodicals and bound the issues into yearly “volumes”

Ways to find sources – most to least “precise” searching Library E-Journals search (search by name of

specific periodical)

Search E-Resources collections from professional associations (ASME, ASCE, IEEE)

from big science publishers (Elsevier, Springer)

Search E-Resources from mega-publishing aggregators(ProQuest, EBSCO)

Use comprehensive search engines: Prof Search (Rowan library search) or Google Scholar

Magazines as a genre General audience – anyone with interest in

subject area of magazine (news, fashion, money, golf, science, technology etc.)

Writers may be subject matter experts (or not); articles reviewed only by magazine staff

Usually contain advertising, but also charge money to buy in stores or subscribe

Print format changing over to online access, with many publishers going out of business

Searching E-Journals by title

Let’s say you want to find an article in Technology Review.

Magazine article example Search by ‘title equals’

Technology Review in E-Journals, then select General Science FT

Choose: May/Jun 2014 Enter: ‘solar power’ “Smart Wind and Solar

Power” by Kevin Bullis, May/Jun 2014, Vol. 117 Issue 3, p. 44-47.

Note genre icon

Trade news as a genre Audience consists of employees of

industries covered by the particular publication (electronics, automobiles)

Like with magazines, authors are usually full time or freelance writers

Advertising is very targeted, and most publications are subscription only

Transition to online is going more slowly

Trade news article example Search in E-Journals for

Chemical & Engineering News

Choose Issues – Sept. 1 “LyondellBasell To Build

U.S. Propylene Oxide Plant” by Alexander H. Tullo

Volume 92 Issue 35 | p. 13 | News of The Week; Issue Date: September 1, 2014

What is a library database? Originally it was the digital version of an

index to scholarly abstracts in an academic field: a reference book used to find journal articles

They have evolved into online collections of articles, e-books, book chapters, and conference papers, plus some citations

Some databases still focus on certain academic fields, but others have expanded to try to be comprehensive

Search E-Resources for Engineering (databases)

Conference proceedings Every industry and academic field holds

conferences (including libraries!) A mixture of business meetings,

workshops and presentations, and opportunities to talk to vendors in the field

Academic conferences accept (or reject) research papers for presentation

Presented papers are compiled into a volume of “proceedings” at the end

ASME Digital Collection ASME Digital Collection is published by the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers, but the site is hosted by an IT company called SILVERCHAIR

ASME is a membership organization for mechanical engineers that probably has a student chapter here at Rowan

They publish many journals and run lots of conferences, even publish some books

Everything on the site is published by ASME

Conference paper example Select ASME

Use Conference Proceedings tab

Search “wind turbines”

Article: “Small scale wind turbines optimized for Class 2 Wind” (T.A. Burdett, K.W. Treuren)

“Proc. ASME 45660”

Journals Written for and by professionals in specific

academic fields (engineers, doctors, etc.) Intended to report results of research Usually subscription only, no advertising Published formally (print or online) after

extensive competitive review process Publisher may be a professional society or

a commercial publisher, and online hosting may be through third party firm

Journal article example Choose Journals tab in

ASME database Search on “solar cells” “Development of

scalable and low cost polymer solar cell test platform” B. Reeja-Jayan and others

What is the Source? J. Sol. Energy Eng. 2013, (volume) 135 (issue) 4

GREENFILE (EBSCO) GREENFILE is an example of a database

from an “aggregator” – a company that provides citation information for many articles of different types (and publishers) but not necessarily the full text

Good for finding sources from a variety of publishers, but not as targeted a search

Problems include determining genre and getting access to full text of articles

Aggregator database search - GREENFILE Select E-Resources

by Subject – Engineering

Select GREENFILE Search for ‘LEED

design’ View results list Note “Source Type”

limiter option

Getting the “Full Text” When searching in a comprehensive database

with a variety of publishers, often you’ll run across citations to articles in sources that database doesn’t offer full text access to

For this situation, select the button labeled “Get It” – this invokes the Serial Solutions Article Linker, to check for other online sources for the particular article you need

Sometimes, it takes you to another database; next, we’ll see example when it does not

Interlibrary Loan example Select first article,

”The new wave of sustainable planning”

Click on Get it! Select the Submit

a Request to Campbell Library link (next slide)

Using Iliad

Google and Prof Search Google Scholar is a specialized search

engine for scholarly articles and patents Sources found this way are usually “good”

but may be less formal (white papers) or be published in sources not accessible to us

Prof Search is a search engine specific to Rowan University library sources Also offers good sources, but can give you

less relevant or only “popular” results

Google Scholar example E-Resources by title:

G Google Scholar Search “biodiesel” Observe: articles in

journals have Full Text at Rowan links

Patents, technical reports, etc.

ProfSearch example

“all-electric cars”

Conclusions We’ve come a long way from printed journals

to digital collections and search engines With access now primarily online, it can take

some detective work to find out what the real source of content is

Often intellectual content is re-packaged and aggregated and re-hosted, so it helps to understand history & information architecture

Your librarians can help!