Transcript Evaluation

Introduction to Online
Resources
Aeronautics & Astronautics, Mechanical
Engineering and Ship Science
Michael Whitton
November 2011 & February 2012
University Library
Objectives
 Evaluation of web materials
 Web Subject Gateways
 E-books
 Finding Journal articles & Conference
Papers
The Web – Google etc.
 General search engines can be useful for
finding general info & company sites
– No quality controls
– Limited types of information
– Need to evaluate
Evaluation
 Authority
– Who is the author?
– What are their credentials?
– Who is the publisher?
 Objectivity & Purpose
– Why / for whom is the site written for?
– Links to other viewpoints?
– Trying to: persuade, sell you something, inform
or misinform?
– Country of origin - affects the slant of the
information?
Evaluation - continued
 Currency
– When was the site produced / last updated?
– How current are references / links?
 Accuracy
– Are there supporting links / references to
quality information?
 Relevance
– Content is appropriate for your purpose?
– Content is relevant to your topic?
Internet Gateways
 Gateway sites
– Intute (for UK Higher Education)
 Works like a small search engine
– Quality control
– Abstracts / Summaries
Your Subject Page
 Contain links to the best electronic
resources for your subject
 One for each school
 Also Collection Pages:
– Patents, Standards
– Newspapers, (Statistical) Data Resources
Or direct URL: www.soton.ac.uk/library
Useful resources for
Engineering, and how to
use them
E-books
Online books
You can limit
to e-books
We have many engineering e-books,
all on WebCat.
There is an e-books page giving
links to the main packages
Break
Evaluation exercise
Finding journals/conferences (from a
reference)
 Search by journal or conference title (NOT
article title)
 Webcat (journal title search for journals)
– More complete for conferences and print
journals
– More forgiving of small errors
 TDNet
– Clearer when online access has multiple links
– More password information
Links to TDnet
and Webcat here
In TDNet it’s often easier to
search if you know which journal
you want
Access information
(passwords etc.)
appear as an “i” icon
Access - on campus
 Generally no passwords are needed
– A few need your Institutional (email)
username & password
– A handful have special
usernames/passwords
 If you have problems
– For journals check our access on TDNet
– For other resources use links on the
library website
Access – off campus
 For many resources Institutional Login is
an option
 VPN will give you the same access as on
campus
 Some TDNet functions do not work off
campus without VPN
Look for ‘Institutional
Login’, ‘UK Federation’
or ‘Shibboleth’ links
You often need to
select the UK (or UK
Federation)
Then find
‘University of
Southampton’
(If you can’t find
us look for
Southampton
University)
VPN
 Virtual Private Network
 Link to University network
 When connected your computer appears
to be ‘on campus’
 Managed by iSolutions. Instructions on
iSolutions web pages at:
www.southampton.ac.uk/isolutions/computing/net/vpn/
Setup instructions
25
Finding Articles on a
topic
Journal Articles, Conference Papers, etc.
Quick subject search for journal
articles …
 Full Text sources (IEEEXplore, Sciencedirect)
– Limited range of journals (one publisher etc.)
– Generally get the full text
– Search facilities vary
 Scientific Search Engines (Google scholar,
Scirus)
– Search fairly widely
– You will find things we don’t have access to
– More need to evaluate results
Detailed search for journal articles
 Databases & Indexes (Compendex &
Geobase; Web of Science & Inspec)
– Well indexed, good search facilities
– References and abstracts (many try to
link to the full text)
– We won’t have every journal they index
– Our Inter-Library-Loans service can
probably get a copy
Also be aware of …
 TDNet
– Search many of our journals
– Generally get the full text
– Only search the last few years
Sample Search
Engineering Village (Compendex & Geobase)
Routes to full text
 Database full text links
 Sometimes links to journals we don’t buy
 TDNet links (from database or library
web pages)
– doesn’t have all print journals
 If the above do not exist or don’t work
always …
Routes to full text (cont.)
 Search WebCat
– Journal articles by the journal title (use
full title not abbreviations)
– Conference papers by the conference
title
– Reports: try author and title (may need to
search by organisation name)
 There may be an automatic link
Exceptions
 Items not on Webcat & TDNet
– Patents & standards
– Free online: NASA Technical Reports;
Organisations eprint servers
 Items not in UoS Libraries
– Inter Library Loan (ILL)
Search Tips
 Identify Keywords describing your topic
– Leave out very common terms
– You should end up with a few terms not
a sentence
 Use simple searches in WebCat & Intute
 Use more Complex Searches in journal
databases
 Think about alternative words for the
same thing
Want to know more?
 Library Website > Information Skills
– Generic guides on searching databases
– Database Tutorials
 Engineering Sciences Subject Page >
Infoskills
– Links to many of the above
– Handouts and powerpoints from library
sessions
If you need help…….
 Subject Enquiry Desk, Level 3
– Open Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm
– Evenings and Saturday (am) service (not
vacation)
 Contact Me
– [email protected]
– 023 8059 2709