Introduction to finding and evaluating resources for your

dissertationSamantha Halford

Librarian for Business & Management and Marketing & Enterprise http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/content.php?hs=a&pid=70479

s.halford@mdx.ac.uk

Definitions• Athens:

– the system used to give you access to high-quality online resources that we have bought for you to use.

– You can use Athens wherever you are – at home, at Uni, an internet café, etc.– Username and password is the same as for the computer network.

• Journals:

– Contain articles that discuss current research in very specific areas. Articles

have abstracts – descriptions to tell you what’s in them.– Short, academic ‘magazines’ that come out regularly.– Organised by date, volume and issue number, even when the journal is online.

• Databases:– Large collections of many journals containing many more articles. – Different databases cover different subjects. – They all work slightly differently, but all will have a search box.

Overview of LR Web PagesLibrary Menu and Subject Guides

Part One: Finding ResourcesBefore you start looking...

– Have a rough idea of what you’re interested in finding out.

– Write down as many keywords as you can to help you find it.

– Don’t forget to include words with similar meanings or different spellings of the same word (e.g. Is it organization or organisation?)

Example One – Finding journal articles

• Business Source Complete – this a huge database for finding journal articles and other resources.

• To use any of the resources, you’ll need to log in through Athens – ask at the Enquiry Desk if you don’t know how.

Business Source Complete

• Concentrate on the search box.

Enter your keywords (for instance, ‘viral marketing’), and click on ‘Search’.

Result page:

Look at the number of results (circled in red) to see if you need to narrow them down.

• Narrow your results: use the menus at the side to give you a more manageable number of results:

• Clicking the ‘Full Text’ button means you’ll only see articles you can read straight away.

When you’ve found an article you like, click on the title so see more information, or click on ‘PDF Full Text’ to read, save or print the whole article.

Abstracts vs Full Text

• An abstract is a short description of the article, plus the details you’ll need to find it somewhere else (a citation).

• Full Text is, literally, the whole text of the article, immediately accessible.

• On most databases, you can choose to search for ‘Full Text Only’ – see the database’s help page to find out how.

Example Two – Market Research Reports

• Key Note – industry sector reports focused on the UK. Each report has detailed references, a global view and company profiles.

• Write your searches down as you’re going along so you remember what you’ve done. You’ll start to see new connections and get new ideas.

• Don’t read the articles as you’re going along – skim the abstracts, save them and come back to them later so you don’t lose track.

• If you see something that you don’t recognise, don’t panic: read the screen carefully and have a go at finding the answer.

Expert Tips

Part Two: Evaluating Resources

• Evaluation is a critical thinking skill – you already know how to do it.

• The best way to get good at it is to practice – that’s what your dissertation will help you do!

There are books to help: try...

Judith Bell, Doing your research project 4th ed., Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2005.

Classmark: 370.78 BEL or read it online via the library catalogue (http://library.mdx.ac.uk/)

Exercise

• We’re going to be looking at some materials, and using the concepts on the next slide to evaluate how useful they are.

• There’s no set answers to the questions: these are tools to help you decide for yourself, just like in your dissertation.

Things to consider...

• Relevance – does it help you with your topic?

• Authority – who wrote it? How do they know?

• Bias – everyone has bias. How does the author’s bias affect their work? Who did they write it for?

• Currency – is it recent? Does that matter for you?

• Availability - can you get hold of it easily?

Discussion

Finding more resources and help:

• Use the Subject guide for Marketing – http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/content.php?hs=a&pid=70479 (or from the library homepage).

• The Enquiry Desk in the Sheppard Library is open between 9am and 7:45pm weekdays, and 11am – 5pm on Saturdays. Or use the Web Help Desk: http://webhelpdesk.mdx.ac.uk/