http://library.midchesh.ac.uk

http://pcbooker.midchesh.ac.uk

http://librarycentralmcc.blogspot.co.uk/

Any queries please contact:

library@midchesh.ac.uk

01606 720646

winsfordlibrary@midchesh.ac.uk

01606 720652

Internet Research

MCC Library Central

Study Skills Series

Internet Research

Finding things on the internet is something we do all the time. If we want to

find a holiday or research a destination, find a way of getting there or look for

the best deal we do some basic research. The way we do this depends on

the amount of information which is available on that subject.

If you’re researching for your academic study, the same is true and there are

different ways of approaching your research and methods you can use.

The first thing to do is to understand your task. For any piece of academic

work you will be required to undertake research. At the very least this will

include:

Background reading to explore the subject

Identifying the leading figures for this topic

Some investigation into the variety of views held on the subject

Some specialist reading, i.e. recent journal articles or a set text on the

given topic.

Your first port of call would usually be the college library as they have many

text books based around your subject area. All you need to take a book out

of the library is your student ID card so make sure you have it with you at all

times. The college library has a range of services including:

Textbooks (you can take out 6 items overall)

Ebooks: Dawson Era, Ebrary, Bookboon, Project Gutenberg

Online Databases that we subscribe to: Anatomy and Physiology

Online, British Library Sound Archive, Hairdressing Training, Infotrac, JISC

Historic Books, JISC Journal Archives, JISC Media Hub and Marketline

Academic journals (hard copy and online)

Open Access resources (peer reviewed)

Photocopiers

Computers

DVDs and CDs

Specialist resources for students with disabilities

Staff to support you on how to use the library facilities

Library catalogue (available online from anywhere

http://library.midchesh.ac.uk)

If you’re going to search on the internet, you have access to a great deal of

information including:

http://library.midchesh.ac.uk

http://pcbooker.midchesh.ac.uk

http://librarycentralmcc.blogspot.co.uk/

Any queries please contact:

library@midchesh.ac.uk

01606 720646

winsfordlibrary@midchesh.ac.uk

01606 720652

Internet Research

MCC Library Central

Study Skills Series

Newspapers

Government papers and data

Company data

Magazines

Financial data

Library catalogues

This information is available in a variety of types including sound, film and

interactive pages.

You may need to be cautious with the results you find as anyone can put any

information on to the internet. Before quoting information you’ve found, it’s

important that you check who’s provided it and whether the source is

authoritative. This is called the “provenance” of the information. Also

information can become out of date very quickly, with books it’s easy to see

the date of publication and the condition of the book but with the internet,

it’s a bit more difficult to decipher when the information was put on there.

Equally, make sure that you’ve entered the correct search terms. You can

develop skills to help you find the right information. To save yourself time and

effort, choose your search string with care:

Select keywords that best describe what you’re looking for

Consider other words with the same meaning, synonyms i.e. ‘town’,

‘city’, ‘urban’, ‘metropolitan’.

Use a combination of keywords

To help you refine your search try using these three words, known as

‘Boolean Operators’:

o AND - eg ‘fish and chips’ - results will only have records with both

words in

o OR – eg ‘fish or chips’ - results will have either or both of these

words in

o NOT – eg ‘fish not chips’ - will have results for fish but not chips

You can vary your search by using wildcards (?) and truncations (*)

depending on how many results you get.

Use advanced searches i.e. in “google” you can search for more

options like books, scholar, pictures, maps etc. or you can put in a

search string with other parameters.

http://library.midchesh.ac.uk

http://pcbooker.midchesh.ac.uk

http://librarycentralmcc.blogspot.co.uk/

Any queries please contact:

library@midchesh.ac.uk

01606 720646

winsfordlibrary@midchesh.ac.uk

01606 720652

Internet Research

MCC Library Central

Study Skills Series

Tools

You can use Microsoft OneNote, which is a type of note-taking software.

Capture text, images, video and audio notes, and keep information

available in one spot. We have a OneNote Guide available to help you.

Popular search engines

Here are some of the most popular websites used for searching:

www.google.co.uk

www.yahoo.com

www.excite.co.uk

http://uk.altavista.com

Subject gateways

Here are some useful academic websites or gateways you can use, instead

of doing a random search.

www.bubl.ac.uk

www.ipl.org

http://scholar.google.co.uk/

URL

A ‘url’ is the address of the web page you are accessing. eg:

http:// - tells your browser how to deal with the website it is about to open

www.midchesh - name of the website or organisation

.ac - type of website or organisation

.uk - which country runs the website

Codes

What do the different endings of web addresses mean?

.gov - a government server or website

.ac, .edu - academic, educational, college or university website or server

.co, .com - commercial or company servers such as Tesco or the BBC

.org – non-government or non-profit organisations, such as charities

MMU Guide for External Students (for students studying at Mid Cheshire)

University of Chester - Link to Learning Resources

University of Chester - Library Search engine