1. PCUL 5P02
Library Research
Justine Cotton, Liaison Librarian for CPCF

2. Welcome!
Virtual Tour of the Library
RefWorks
Conducting a “literature review”
• First steps
• In-depth
Getting what you need
• Borrowing/Browsing the stacks
• RACER Interlibrary Loan
Other Useful Tips

3. The Library Website
Links to
RACER,
RefWorks
and more
Access to
library
catalogue,
articles and
more
Renew
books,
see fines,
etc.
Get to
the
Research
Guides

4. 5P02 Research Guide
This is also
linked from
your Sakai
page

5. “Literature Review” – first steps
 Use a general tool, like SuperSearch
 It’s a great way to test the water and see what’s out
there.
SuperSearch is basically a
Google-like
DISCOVERY LAYER,
Bringing together the library
catalogue and a number of
library databases.

6. WorldCat
Is a union catalogue
of libraries from
around the world.
Use it to find books
that we don’t have
at Brock.
Amazon is another
tool.

7. Other Databases
 We have over 500 databases
 Individual databases (vs. SuperSearch) often include
special search features and limiters.
One example – includes
fields for director/film title
And is entirely focused on
film and television periodicals
so less sifting.

8. Let’s do section 1 together
 Use the Research Guide for all the links to the resources
mentioned.
 Use the RefWorks account to store what you find:
 Login Name = PCUL5P02library
 Password = lovethelibrary

9. More in-depth research
 Reference Sources –
why??
 Mainly for the
bibliographies &
further reading lists
 But also helpful for
the historical
significance and new
angles to take

10. Proquest Dissertations
 Provides subject, title, and author access to almost all
American dissertations accepted at an accredited
institution since 1861 and full-text of over 100,000
dissertations and theses.
 Again, very useful for checking out the bibliographies
AND…
 Dissertations are often revised into books and the names
you see (advisors, authors) may be key researchers in
the field now.

11. Tracking Citations
 A number of tools exist (Google Scholar, Web of Science,
JSTOR)
 Citations are of great importance in the sciences esp.
STEM, less-so in the Humanities and Social Sciences –
but still important for seeing articles/books that have
had a lot of influence
 Demo of Scholar vs. Web of Science vs. JSTOR

12. Finding Journals
 Library Catalogue
 Ulrichs
 MLA Directory of Periodicals
 Why?
 Ideas for publishing
 See if it’s peer-reviewed
 We don’t subscribe to every journal out there

13. Part II – hands-on

14. Final Tips
 Useful Websites
 Questions/Comments?
 Getting in touch.