The University of Adelaide Library

Library tutorial for agricultural and natural resource sciences

Section 7. Finding information for an assignment: summary

While there is no single way to search for information for an assignment or essay, the following example may help suggest possible approaches using the methods described earlier in this tutorial.

Assume your topic is:

The history of the development of agricultural systems in Australia has been one of continually adapting to the environment.
This will need to continue in the future to maintain the viability of agriculture.
Describe the main features of the environment that have influenced plant and animal production practices in Australia
and how successfully agriculture has developed to reflect these features.
Discuss whether you think adjustments are needed for agriculture to cope with the predicted changes in the environment.
You may want to consider the role of new or alternative cropping or animal enterprises.
(The following summary uses dryland mixed farming systems as the selected topic)

First step:

Think about the key concepts in your topic. Start looking in sources that provide definitions of terms or an overview eg dictionaries, encyclopaedias (in print or on the Web), Internet sites, textbooks.

The Library's Resource guides lead to sources that can be useful for an overview. From the Library home page, choose the Resource guides tab, then the subject of interest to you: For example:

Agriculture
Soil and land systems
Environmental studies

try using a metasearch engine eg Dogpile which will search several search engines at once
try a general search engine such as Google
try a more scholarly search engine such as Google Scholar

In searching the Internet: Use the Advanced search option, so you can specify that all the terms should be present

Check whether truncation symbols e.g. * are required, or the search engine has automatic truncation (as Google has)

See the Library's information on search engines, with recommendations and links to information on how to search them effectively.

Remember the principles of evaluating Internet resources (authors' credentials? any references? up-to-date? balanced?) when looking at web sites.

As you read, try to define the context, essentials and breadth of the topic and its literature

What terms recur in the sources you are looking at? i.e. do the same terms appear in different sources?
Are there limits you wish to set, e.g. this topic is limited geographically to Australia. Do you want to extend your search to other countries? Should there be limits to particular industries, e.g. grain crops, animal production? (if choosing a different topic)
What other aspects should you be thinking about that are relevant to your topic as suggested by your lecturer, e.g. alternative agriculture?
What are the dates of the information you find? Do you need more recent/earlier information? Is the topic well developed with extensive literature?
Do the overview sources have lists of useful references (bibliographies)?

You should consider the key concepts in this topic as being:

agriculture (in general, or more specifically, dryland crop production)
environment
Australia

Second step:

Summaries or overviews are not enough in themselves. Try to extend your view of the topic through books. Remember that a specific topic is likely to be included in chapters of more general books on the agricultural industry, as there will not be many complete books on the topic.

Look in the Catalogue subject and keyword options for books on a specific topic. Consider:

first trying more general books that give an overview. Start with general books on agriculture and environment in Australia. Find these using subject heading searches:

agriculture - climatic factors - australia
agriculture - environmental aspects - australia
environmental management - australia
sustainable agriculture - australia
land use - australia
land use, rural - australia

Search for books on more specific topics, e.g

agricultural conservation - australia

climatic changes - australia
crops and climate - australia
droughts - australia
land degradation - australia
meteorology, agricultural - australia
soil conservation - australia
soil fertility - australia
water conservation - australia

search for specific types of agriculture, e.g

dry farming - australia
arid regions agriculture - australia
pastures - australia

Other subject headings that may be relevant are:

farm management - environmental aspects
soil degradation - australia
soil erosion - australia
environmental protection - australia
environmental responsibility - australia

searching by keywords combined with AND, e.g. dry? and agric?
Try using some of the subject headings listed above, as keywords.
searching by keywords combined with OR, e.g. agric? and (climat? or drought) (reminder: use brackets around "or" statements)
limiting or sorting your search by date to make it easier to find recent books

Third step:

You need to look at journal articles for

the topic discussed in more detail than is available in books
recent developments
areas of disagreement: you often find a greater range of views than in books
gaps in information you've gathered so far
data or statistics you lack
speculation on future possible areas of research or application
how the issue is presented to the public through the general media, e.g. newspapers.

You can find articles:

cited in books you've found
through database searches

In database searches, consider:

trying several databases
experimenting with different search terms, truncated terms, combinations of terms
limiting to English or geographical regions
limiting to the last few years

Databases you could try:

are listed under the link Use databases to find journal and newspaper articles, on the Library home page.
Select the subject, e.g. Agriculture, or Soil and Land Systems, and a list of relevant databases will be displayed. Click on the link to start searching the database.
The database Agriculture and Natural Resources covers Australian agriculture and natural resources and would be a useful resource for this topic.

Try a preliminary database search with the terms you have gathered so far. If this produces a very large result, think about ways of reducing it.

add more terms - use AND to add additional terms, e.g. try agricultur* and environment* and australia (note that the asterisk* in database searches is the truncation symbol and retrieves plurals and variations on endings of words)
look at the thesaurus or subject guide, if the database has one, for preferred terms, or related terms. For example, the databases CAB Abstracts and Agriculture and Natural Resources use the thesaurus term dry farming , rather than dryland farming. Examples of some thesaurus terms that are relevant are:

conservation tillage
climatic change
crop production
cropping systems
dry farming
environmental factors
environmental impact
farm management
farming systems
global warming
land degradation
land management
soil degradation
sustainability
water use

limit the search to the title and abstract of articles, rather than full text (check search options)
limit to the last two or three years since the books you have found may have covered earlier developments fairly well and later articles will refer to earlier articles
limit to English language articles only (if searching an database with international coverage, such as CAB Abstracts)

If you get a small number of citations from your preliminary search, think about ways of expanding your search:

reduce the number of terms you are using, e.g you will get more results without adding and australia to the search.
use more general terms, e.g.if you don't find enough information using the term land degradation, try the broader term environmental degradation.
use truncation or alternate spellings.
broaden your search by adding terms using OR, e.g. (climat* or drought). Remember to enclose terms linked by OR with brackets.
look at the thesaurus or subject guide for other terms you can use.
note the author of relevant articles and search for other articles by the same author

Fourth step:

Plan and write your assignment and create a bibliography of references
to the books, journal articles and Web sites you have consulted.

Use the Faculty-preferred guidelines titled "Written communication in the agricultural and natural resource sciences " available from here. (To access this electronic resource you will be asked for your University of Adelaide ID and password)

You have now completed the library skills tutorial for agricultural and natural resource sciences.

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