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Useful Shortcuts
Library
Catalogue
Libraries
Australia
Ask a
Librarian
Other
tertiary and research institutions
Databases
for sources of general coment see
the databases which cover a
wide range of journal and newspaper articles such as
Factiva
Academic
OneFile
Academic Search Elite
eLibrary
Expanded Academic
index
Scopus
ScienceDirect
There are a number of specialised databases, by
subject content or by type of material.
- for technical and engineering issues try
EiCompendex
Civil
Engineering
DataBase
INSPEC
ENGINE
- for business and
management isues try
Business
Source Premier
Emerald
- for social aspects try
PsycINFO
Sociological
abstracts
Which
library has this journal?
Intercampus
Requests
SBIGs - Subject-based internet
gateways
Essay,
thesis, report writing
How
your references should look
EndNote
Image and
Copy Centre
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You may be
interested to learn about how to read references and interprete citations
before you start looking for articles on your topic and writing your
report.
Finding information
(1) Encyclopaedias
and handbooks
These
are often useful sources of information and ideas.
Engineering handbooks aimed at professional
engineers are useful sources of
reliable information. For
a list of available engineering handbooks in
electronic
format, click here.
for all aspects of science
and technology see
McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of science and technology.
10th ed. 2007.
Reference collection 503 M14.10
for aspects of engineering
see
Engineering handbook. 2nd ed. 2005.
Reference
collection 620 D695e.2
Standard handbook for
civil engineers. 4th ed. 1995.
Reference
collection 624 M572s
Kirk-Othmer
encyclopedia of chemical technology.
Ullmann's
encyclopedia of industrial chemistry. 6th ed. 2001.
Marks' standard handbook for
mechanical engineers. 10th ed. 1997.
Reference collection 621.02 B347s.10
Encyclopedia of electrical and electronics engineering.
24 volumes. 1999.
Reference collection
621.303 W381w
for social issues
see
Social science encyclopedia.
2nd ed. 2003
Encyclopedia of business in today's world.
(2) What does the Library
have about aspects of your topic?
At the Library
Home page there are two search
options; the Catalogue
and Summon.
Summon
The Search bar across the Library home page uses the Summon program to
find a selection of newspaper comment, journal articles and books that
may be relevant
to your topic. This program searches across a range of databases
including the Library Catalogue.
Be careful with this search option; it does not search all of the
content of all of the appropriate databases. 'Find everything' does not mean
that you
will find everything that is available through the Library's resources,
however, through Summon
you can get a feel for comment on the topic
To use Summon,
Leave the default at Find Everything;
then in the search bar, type
in words (keywords or a phrase) to
indicate your topic, eg.
characteristics of
the graduate engineer
Click on [go]
to get a list of results across a range of time and types of
material.
For more information
Put your cursor over the title of the article to bring up the preview
giving an abstract and all of the subject headings for the article.
Refine
your search
From the column on the
left-hand
side, click in the box to the
left of Limit to articles
from scholarly publications to restrict the results to
academic articles only.
Collect a set of
useful articles
Put your cursor over the
record
of an
interesting item, to bring up
two icons in the top right hand corner; click on the folder
icon. Before you end your search, scroll down to the bottom
right-hand side of the screen and click on Saved
items to get the Email
and Print
links.
Summon
is useful for a
quick, simple search; to do a specific search with more flexibility and
with the ability to transfer your search strategy to databases, use
the Library
Catalogue.
Catalogue
At the Library Home page
there are seven rectangular boxes across the top of the screen; click
on the
one
labelled [Catalogue]
to bring up the Basic
Search bars
At by:
pull down on the arrow-head and select Keyword (use and, or,
not, " ")
This is a specific search system in which
you
specify the exact words and the relationship of those words.
The
AND
operator indicates that the words either
side
should be found somewhere in the text,
in the Search for:
bar type words to describe your topic, then click on Search,
eg.
energy
AND sources finds 586 records
which include both of these words in the title, abstract or subject
headings of the record.
Results
The screen shows your search strategy, what You search for
Keyword (and, or, not, " ") and
the number of entries which match that search strategy, followed by
a
numbered
list of the titles arranged alphabetically by title.
If you want
to see the most recent publications first, go to Sort
by: at the top or bottom of the titles list, and pull
down
to Date
(latest first).
Use the <previous
and next>
icons
to
move backwards or forwards through the list of titles. <>For a title
that looks useful, click on
the title, for a full
description of that item.
<>
The Brief Record
format indicates the location of the book and whether
it
is on loan.
Click on the title for more
details in the Full
Record.
<>The Full Record
describes the book and lists the Subject Heading(s):
which may give leads to more books on the topic.
<>
<>
to find the text
For a book in print form,
go to the bottom of the record to see how many copies are in the
Library,
the Location:
and Call
Number:, where the book is shelved,
and the Status:
(whether or not the item is on loan).
If the book is not in the Barr Smith Library use Requests:
to get an item that is on loan or in the Joint Store.
For a book in electronic
format you will see the words Link
to e-Resource at the top of the record. Click on
the words to the right of Link
to e-Resource: to go to the text of the book.
<>
Improve your search
Some books will look useful; so click at the ful Catalogue
record for 'useful' books, click on a Subject
Heading(s): eg. Power
resources,
to see a list of similar
headings and links to books which are on the same topic.
Scroll up and down the list of Subject headings, and notice that there
may be Headings with place names as well as sub-headings for 'Economic
aspects', 'Environmental aspects',
'Government policy', 'Safety aspects',
or 'Social aspects'.
Click on a Subject Heading:
to see a list of other books that may be useful.
<>
Click on History:
to see your search strategies in this session and get the results of an
earlier search.
Click on Other Catalogues
to see if there any useful material at Flinders and UniSA
libraries.
Use History:
to re-run your Keyword search strategy. You can borrow from the
other university libraries with your University of Adelaide student
card
Output
Click in the check box from the column to
the
left of a title to mark that record to be saved in a set to
Print/Save or E-mail later.
Important NOTE - if
your search results
in more than 50 titles and you want to mark titles from the second or
subsequent
screens, click on the Retain
Selected button before going on to the next
screen of results.
Use PrintSave
Options (at the bottom of the display) to save
records
to your
Bookbag
and/or Print/Save
or E-mail results to
your
account.
<>Improve
your search
strategy
to get' better' results.
Think about other words that an author might use in the title of
their book, which would interest you,
eg. (energy OR power) AND (nuclear
OR atomic OR solar OR wind OR hydrogen)
Where
the search word could be
singular or plural, use the truncation
symbol *
to tell the Catalogue to find all words beginning with the
letters you have typed.
eg. fuel? AND (energy OR power) AND
(nuclear OR atomic OR solar OR wind? OR hydrogen)
Where one word will always follow
another in your search terms you can
use the phrase search command " "
eg.
"problem solv*"
Before you start a
Keyword search -
- Think about the concepts
in your topic.
- Think of terms, words and phrases,
to cover each concept in your topic.
- Truncate search terms
using a *
- Combine terms with
the operators and or " "
- Remember to use
brackets ( ) where you
separate words with the OR operator
<>(3) Using Databases
(indexes) to find journal articles and conference papers
You
cannot use the Library Catalogue directly to find out which journal or
newspaper articles or conference papers are available in the Library.
To do this you need to
search individual databases
to find out what relevant
articles or papers have been written, and where they were published.
The Library
subscribes to a number of these commercial services which list millions
of articles. In many cases the Library's subscriptions provide access
to the
full text of the article through the Database.
Where this is not the
case,
to find out if the Library provides access to a specific
item, search the Library Catalogue by:
Journal or Newspaper Title.
First,
choose a database or index depending on your topic.
Remember
that aspects of your project may cover more than engineering so
consider using databases
indexing business issues, social issues, politics, psychology,
etc.
Some databases that may be useful :
for engineering aspects
EiCompendex 1884-
CEDB:
Civil Engineering DataBase 1973-
for general aspects
APA-FT:
Australian Public Affairs, 1978- with full text 1995-
for social
aspects
for business
and management aspects
Business
Source Complete
<>This is
only a selection of available databases. If you need information not
covered by the databases above or in the column to the left, click here for a detailed list of
databases for aspects of Engineering and related subjects or click here to get ideas for other
databases for other subjects such as geography, environmental studies, public health, architecture. Contact the Engineering Librarian for
more possibilities from other subject areas.
Second,
searching
effectively.
Most databases use the the same basic
search strategy as used when searching in the Library's Catalogue by Keyword
(use and, or,
not, " ") so start by pasting in a copy of
your search strategy from the Library Catalogue,
- combine search terms with
the
commands and, or, " "
- remember to use
brackets ( )
around search keywords separated by the or command,
-
use the asterisk * for
truncation in most Databases,
eg.
(engineer* or
designer*)
and (graduate* or
profession*)
and
(knowledg* or
technolog*)
and
(milit*
or
municipal* or
academ* or
standards or
commerc*)
and (ethic* or
philosoph*)
Remember
that journal articles
are usually on a specific
topic - avoid using
general search terms.
Think
of words and phrases that an author could use in
the
title of an article that might give the information you need.
Consider
searching for a named device, project, company, structure, place name
etc, as well as more widely for the type of project and type of
utility.
Truncate terms
to pick up alternatives, *
is the most
common
truncation symbol.
Next,
dealing with the results
Look at the titles - are
there
other, useful words in the
titles and abstracts of the first
articles you retrieve? Consider 'improving' your search strategy!
Your initial results give
a Brief
Record; in most Databases you can click on the article title to
display
the Full Record
which will include subject terms.
Click on a subject term to find other articles on that same topic.
Look for the 'boxes' to mark,
that is to collect a set of
useful records.
Look for icons and
instructions
for emailing, printing or
saving your
results.
Finally,
once your Database search has given some references, you
need to find the full text
of the
article or conference paper.
In many cases
the Library's subscription to the database includes full text access,
so there may be a
link to
the
article.
Alternatively, look for the
blue
rectangle labelled [Check
fulltext options] Click on [Check fulltext
options] to see if the Library does provide
access to the full text of the article in electronic format.
Remember,
the Library may have
the journal in print form, so go to the Library
Catalogue and search by:
Journal or Newspaper Title.
- for journals available in electronic form
the Library Catalogue record provides a Link to e-Resource: and indicates
the years available electronically.
- for journals in print form
the
Library
Catalogue record lists the Location:
(which library), Call Number:
(where in that library) and what the Library
Has: (which issue our set starts with, and
the last issue received)
Check
the date and volume number of your reference against the Catalogue
information to make certain that the Library provides access to the
article
you want.
REMEMBER - the Barr Smith Library does
not hold all journals indexed in the databases.
To find out if a journal is
available in Adelaide, use the Other
Catalogues option to search the catalogues of Flinders University
and UniSA libraries. You can borrow books from these libraries on
your University of Adelaide student card.
before you start a
search -
- Remember that journal articles and papers given at
specialist conferences, are usually on a specific topic
- Think about
what information you would like to find to support your case.
- Think of
terms, words and phrases, that could be used in the
title of an article that might give the information you need.
- Consider
searching for a named device, project, company, structure, place name
etc. as well as more widely for the type of project and well as type of
utility
- Truncate terms. * is the most common
truncation symbol, but there are others. Check the database help
information.
- Combine search terms with Boolean operators,
and or " "
- Remember to use brackets ( ) around the search terms
separated by the or operator.
If
you need a better understanding for the database you are using, check
the help screens for that database to find out about techniques for
truncation, phrases, etc.
Next,
dealing with the results
- Gather
other, useful, search terms from the titles and abstracts of the first
articles you retrieve. Consider 'improving' your search strategy!
- Look for a refine
search option to modify your search.
- Look for the instructions to display full
references, that is to give an abstract and subject terms.
- Look for instructions to mark records.
- Look for icons and instructions for emailing,
printing or saving your
results.
Finally,
once your database search has given references to articles, you need to
find the full text of the
article.
- Sometimes,
when the Library has paid for full text access, you can go directly
through an .html or .pdf link within the database to the electronic
full text of articles.
- If not, always search the journal title (not
the article title) in the Library
Catalogue.
For journals in print form the Library
Catalogue record lists the Location:
(which libray), Call Number:
(where in that libary) and what the Library
Has: (which issue our set starts with, and if it has finished,
the last issue)
For journals available in electronic form
the Library Catalogue record provides a Link to e-Resource: and indicates
the years available electronically.
Check
the date and volume number of your reference against the Catalogue
information to make certain that the Library has access to the article
you want.
REMEMBER - the Barr Smith Library does
not hold all journals indexed in the databases.
You can also try:
Report writing
If you need help with ideas for the presentation of your essay or
seminar, try some of the guides
to report writing and presentation.
Referencing styles
When
you are listing works that you have consulted to write an essay, you
should use a definite referencing or citation style. A referencing
style is simply a standardised way of writing down the elements of
information about a book or journal or electronic source.
For this Engineering Communication E.S.L. essay you should use the Author-Date (Harvard) style.
Also useful for a wider range of examples are
Further information and examples of referencing are
available at the following places:
An
introduction to the author-date (Harvard) referencing system.
2006
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/guide/gen/harvard.html
From the Barr Smith Library
Referencing
using the Harvard author-date system (University of South
Australia)
http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/learningconnection/student/learningAdvisors/documents/harvard-referencing.pdf
Harvard
(author-date) style (University of Melbourne)
http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/cite/harvard_dis/
Referencing
using the author-date or Harvard system (University of
Tasmania)
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/assist/gpoa/gpoa2.html
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