Getting Started Earth Sciences Honours Seminar 2010

1. Getting StartedEarth Sciences Honours Seminar 2010 Guido Tresoldi Lesley Truffle Earth Sciences Library

2. What we will cover today • Constructing an efficient search strategy • Accessing SuperSearch • Using SuperSearch to locate information • Searching and retrieving information from electronic databases

3. Step 1: Planning… Keywords….. Synoptic magmatic foraminiferal ENSO Analyse your topic for its main concepts

4. Keywords For example, your topic is: “The impact of global warming on Australia’s water supply." The main concepts are global warming, water supply, and Australia

5. Keywords For this topic there are three concepts so your keywords or phrases could include: Concept 1: global warming, climate change, climatic change Concept 2: rainfall, water, drought Concept 3: Australia, Australasia

6. Step 2: Building a search strategy General search operators narrow or broaden your search (called Boolean Operators)and, or,not Climatic change and water and Australia Climate change or global warming (Waterordroughtorrainfall)andAustralia

7. AND - narrows your search Climatic change Australia

8. Australia AND - narrows your search Climatic change AND

9. OR - broadens your search Global warming Climatic change

10. OR - broadens your search Global warming Climatic change OR

11. NOT - eliminates a word from your search El niño Drought

12. NOT - eliminates a word from your search El niño NOT Drought

13. Wildcards/Truncation Wildcard symbols depend on the index, database or search engine. • asterisk * • question mark ? • exclamation mark ! Check help function of databases to find symbols used USE FOR: • plurals e.g.: construct* finds construct, constructs, constructed,construction,constructions etc. • variant endings e.g.: theor* finds theories, theory, theorists. • alternative spellings e.g.: organi*tion* finds organization and organisation organizations and organisations organizational and organisational e.g.: Austral* finds Australians, Australia

14. Where to start finding keywords? • Books - library catalogues - bibliographies • Journal articles - indexes - bibliographies • Theses - theses indexes - library catalogues • Eprints/working papers– search engines/repositories

15. A Few Tips • Scan the bibliographies of books & journal articles you are using for further references • Melbourne University catalogue can accesses other libraries – click on Search other libraries for Monash, Libraries Australia etc. • Look at hyperlinked subject descriptions that appear at bottom of catalogue record – click on them and will see connected records

16. What is SuperSearch? Features: • Live, searching across several databases including the library catalogue returns results in a single format – Multi Database Search • Find electronic journal titles - Find e-journal • Find individual databases – Find Database • Personalise features such as save searches, results, alerts – My Stuff • Pre-selected groups of databases – Resource Sets

17. How to get into SuperSearch Access SuperSearch at http://search.lib.unimelb.edu.au OR from: • Library homepage • Student Portal Login using UniMelb/Student login and password • Activate your UniMelb account at: http://accounts.unimelb.edu.au/ Note: Guest login is also available, however searching and full text retrieval is limited

18. Find an article • Go to tab • Go to sub-tab • Enter details of the article that you wish to find e.g. from a reading list • Complete as many fields as possible • Select to locate holdings • Select to link to the resource

19. Find an article Fill as much details as you can

20. Find an article You may get a number of options to retrieve the article. Click on the button to get the article.

21. Find an article SuperSearch may give you some alternatives to select the journal.

22. Find an electronic journal • Go to tab By Title: Type title of Journal

23. Find an electronic journal By Subject: Choose subject area. A list of journals classified by sub- categories will appear.

24. Find an electronic journal By Locate: Similar to ‘by title’ but can be narrowed down by subject area.

25. Find an electronic journal Click on icon. SuperSearch will give you a number of options to reach the article.

26. Databases “A structured collection of information in computerized format, searchable by various types of queries” Databases are containers of journal articles, conference proceedings etc.

27. Find a database By Title: type database title

28. Find a database By Locate: Can search by selecting subject area and type of data

29. Find a database By Subject: Search by subject and sub-category

30. Search on a topic • Go to tab • Select search option from dropdown menu • Subject: ‘Science’ then Sub category: ‘Earth Sciences’ • Choose databases (i.e. ‘GeoRef’, ‘Web of Science’ and ‘Google Scholar’) • Click on to locate holdings. • Click on to retrieve full text article.

31. SuperSearch symbol guide

32. Citation styles • The style used by the School of Earth Sciences is that endorsed by the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. • Book example: Plimer I.R. 2001. A Short History of Planet Earth. ABC Books, Sydney. 250p. • Journal example: Hofmann A. W. 1997. Mantle geochemistry: the message from oceanic volcanism. Nature385, 219-229. • Details available at: http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/cite/es/index.html (URL on your handout).

33. More information? ‘Staying Current’ class to be held 11th February 10am to 12 noon. We will cover: • How to use ‘My Stuff’ in Supersearch. • How to save your searches • How to set up email alerts

34. More information? • Research help webpage http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/sg/tools.html • Earth Sciences Library Honours webpage http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/earth/eshonoursinfo.html This presentation will be available on this site.

35. More information? • Guido Tresoldi • Email: guido@unimelb.edu.au • Phone: 8344 6528 • Lesley Truffle • Email: truffle@unimelb.edu.au • Phone: 8344 6528 • Or come and see us at the Library!