Library sessions (webography and annotated Bibliography)
Preparation Instructions
Click here to download and view the information handed out in the library session.
The skill of searching internet search engines or the library catalogue for books or "peer reviewed" journal articles is an important skill to master at the university level as it will aid you in researching sources for the essay for this course, and others. This two hour library session will introduce students to the basic skills of structuring search criteria for tracking down relevant sources, using the advanced search functions to refine your searches, and when searching for relevant websites, skills in analyzing the veracity of website sources for use in your work. The sessions will be useful for students who are competant users of internet search engines, and will introduce students to the many journals that students have access to for their researching, will explain the difference between a journal and a "peer reviewed" journal, will show students how to search the library for relevant journals, and finally explain some useful tools that students can use for accessing library journal subscriptions from home, or elsewhere outside the university.
Optional Reading
Library Session Tasks
tutors helpful hints for researching
Researching at home? No problems! You can access all library journal subscriptions and perks by logging into Virtual with your ANU ID and password and then you can pretend you are still on campus! So long as the URL contains the "virtual" string you may as well be in the library doing your work.
Google Scholar - is a handy search engine for locating relevant journals without the hassell of searching through library databases for the elusive journal that contains an article relevant for your essay, paper, report etc. If you are on campus you can access the journals straight away, but even if you are at home, you can at least find the article, then enter the library site via virtual and track down the subscription to download your article.
Wikipedia - is a helpful source to get a broad idea of the issues or problems of your topic. It will help you out by listing sources used, however it is not something you should quote as an "authority" on a given subject. Use it to get an idea, inform your views on the subject, then find a quoted source, or use what you have found out to inform your search criteria to find journal articles, or other websites.
Reference "Snowballing" - rather than searching journal databases, or the internet, for heaps of sources which may or may not be relevant to your essay topic, once you have found at least one good source, use the reference lists and bibliography as a source of potentially relevant sources which you can also use. This is a great way to find plenty of sources without having to trawl the net or databases for potential articles or sites. |
