2. Learning Outcomes
1) Identify keywords to construct a basic search strategy
2) Awareness of reference sources to develop knowledge and
vocabulary
3) Where to look for information and understand how different sources
of information vary in their quality and purpose
4) Identify criteria for evaluating information
5) Understand what peer review is and how it relates to information
quality
6) Construct a reference for a journal article
4. 1) Analysing the Assignment Question
• Identify the keywords from your
assignment question
• Expand your vocabulary and think of
alternative key words and variations in
spellings
• Link up your search terms to find the right
information
5. Identifying Key Words
Example assignment Q:
Discuss the possible roles of GIS in hazard management, including long-term
planning, detailed evacuation planning and management of an actual incident.
GIS Planning
Incident
‘Hazard
Evacuation Management’
8. 2) Reference Sources
Oxford Reference Online:
Incorporates subject dictionaries and reference works
• A Dictionary of Earth Sciences
• The Oxford Companion to the Earth
• The Oxford Companion to Global Change
• A Dictionary of Geography
• A Dictionary of Environment and Conservation
Access Oxford Reference Online via the Library Catalogue
http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/e-library/e-reference.html
9. 3) Where should you look for
information for your assignments?
Library catalogue should be your first
port of call when looking for resources:
• Books; print and electronic
• Journals; print and electronic
• Online databases
• Websites, blogs etc…
10. Information quality
Blogs
Twitter
More reliable
Websites
More recent
Newspapers
Magazines
Academic Journals
Books
11. 4) Evaluating your results
• The effectiveness of the search is related to the
relevancy of retrieved items.
• Relevancy is:
– Subjective: Depends upon your own judgment.
– Situational: Relates to your current needs.
– Cognitive: Your perception of the resource.
– Dynamic: Changes over time.
Entire document collection
Relevant Retrieved
documents documents
11
12. Evaluating information
When evaluating information, take CARe:
• Currency - is it up-to-date?
• Authority - is the author and/or publisher
credible?
• Relevance – how does it benefit my
research?
13. Evaluating websites
• Anyone can publish material on the internet so there is no
guarantee of its reliability
• Things to look for:
• Who produced the site? Are they credible?
• When was the site last updated?
• Does the look and feel of the site inspire confidence?
• Look at the web address – .com, .co.uk, .ac.uk, .org, etc.
• Is the site trying to sell something – a product or a point of
view (bias)?
• Look at www.dhmo.org and consider the questions above
14. Recommended Websites
• Office for National Statistics
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/index.html
• Resource for Urban Design Information
http://www.rudi.net/
• Design Council
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/
• Earth Trends
http://earthtrends.wri.org/
15. 5) So, what are Journals?
Scholarly journal articles:
• are regular publications that contain articles on current
research
• are written for and by academics
• report the latest research on a topic
• are peer reviewed or refereed (reviewed by academics before
being accepted for publication)
• include a bibliography of references
• are often published by a professional or scholarly organization
Example:
d’Albergo (2010) ‘Urban Issues in Nation-State Agendas: A
Comparison in Western Europe’ Urban Research & Practice. 3 (2)
pp.138-158.
27. 6) Don’t forget to reference!
• You must acknowledge in your assignment when you
have used ideas or words that are not your own
• The term for not identifying where your information has
come from is Plagiarism
• Your tutor will confirm which referencing style to adopt
29. How a reference is constructed
Author(s) Publication date Article title
Gallagher- Heffron, S. & Valmond, K. (2011) ‘Teaching About
Global Climate Change’ The Geography Teacher 8 (2) pp.91–95.
Journal name Volume Page no.
and issue
Apart from the obvious answers concerning the need for accurate information for research and citation purposes there is also an important underlying trend.And that is that those students who make the best use of the Library resources tend to obtain the best results.Of course just logging into a database or borrowing books won’t increase your chances of a First but continued access to current and relevant information will improve the quality of your research and assignments.
So at this stage you will either have been given an assignment Q or been asked to come up with one of you own. Either way, you don’t just put the Q into our databases or catalogue , you break it down by identifying keywords…
You may notice that I’ve used inverted commas – that’s because it will look for the search term
Another way to brainstorm is to draw a mind map… depends on your learning style…Mind map – synonyms etc…
If you’ve tried someof your search terms and you find you’ve got too many or too little, try boolean operators
If you are struggling to find keywords or synonyms… or definitionsExplain the need to build vocabulary and develop understanding of a topic before starting to search. Demonstrate how to access and use Oxford Reference Online.
All information is not the same – highlight the need to think critically about the quality of the information you’re using. Explain that the first step towards making sure you use good quality information is to choose the right source for the right purpose – books and journals are the foundation of academic study – may supplement those with magazines (trade/professional press), and may use web-based sources for the most up-to-date information. Further up the pyramid the more current the information tends to be, the further down the more reliable. Each source has a place in academic study but the higher up the pyramid the source you’re using is, the more caution you need to exercise.
Ok so you’ve gathered lots of info for your studies… there are some things to consider….when thinking of using information in their work.Once you find your information – evaluate its worth!
Emphasise the ‘democratic’ nature of the web and hence the need to evaluateweb-based sources. Ask the students to look at dhmo.org and feed back using the criteria above.
OK, we’ve had a look at some valuable information available on the internet. The major difficulty with resources on the web is that they may be subject to change, and guaranteeing the validity of the info they present. This is where resources held within the library come into their own – because all the resources are subject to peer review. We are going to look at peer review in the context of journals…
Highlight journals as a key source of academic information – explain what they are. Explain that most journals are available through online databases that collect together many different journals in one place – so are the best source of the latest information when researching a topic.During your studies at university you will be looking for research articles from scholarly journals, rather than popular sources. It is important to understand the difference between popular magazines and scholarly journals.
Ok so now you’ve found some articles that you will use in your assignment…
Explain why referencing is essential. Point out the information the students need to record from all the sources they intend to use but explain that we will return to this next week.
Explain why referencing is essential. Point out the information the students need to record from all the sources they intend to use but explain that we will return to this next week.
