Transcript Slide 1 - Bodleian Libraries

Information Skills
for first year Geographers
Roger Mills & Sue Bird
OULS Bio- & Environmental Sciences
October 2008
Today’s session
Using tools:
SOLO / OLIS
Oxford e-journals
OxLIP+
Finding items on reading lists
Citation and plagiarism
Subject searching
WoK
SCOPUS
Reference books
First
Login computer if necessary:
Username: rslreadertraining
Password: rslreadertraining
Open web browser
Go to www.ouls.ox.ac.uk
SOLO
Searches the library catalogue OLIS and
some other catalogues
Use it as a starting point for all searches
Links from many web pages including
libraries home page www.ouls.ox.ac.uk
Or go direct to http://solo.ouls.ox.ac.uk
Search for a book
Carolyn Merchant (2004) Reinventing
Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western
Culture, Routledge
Search for a periodical
Amin A and N Thrift (2005) 'What's Left:
Just the Future', Antipode: a radical
journal of Geography, 37, 2, 220-238
Exercises
Try exercise 1
Citation and Plagiarism
 Note the statement on the OUCE web site:
http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/info/fhs/plagiarism.php
 Avoid trouble by getting into good habits now – always
record your source, and the date you found it
 Learn to cite references in a standard way – e.g. the
Harvard system
 Useful guide available in Blackwells £1
 Software is available to manage references – e.g.
EndNote, RefWorks
Subject Searching
To find information about a topic, rather than
a specific reference, use a database that
indexes articles – e.g.:
Web of Knowledge (WoK) / Web of Science (WoS)
SCOPUS
Online reference books and newspapers are
good for finding facts and biographies
Find some articles on biodiversity
politics. Which have been the most
influential?
Find a book review
For The slum and the ghetto by TL Philpott
Search for the book title in inverted
commas:
“The slum and the ghetto”
Restrict search by document type ‘Book
Review’
SCOPUS
Elsevier’s alternative to WoK
Includes data from GEOBASE - The
bibliographic database for the Earth,
Geographical and Ecological Sciences
tidal inlets AND Canada
“tidal inlets” AND Canada
“tidal inlet” AND Canada
(“tidal inlet” OR “tidal inlets”)
AND Canada
Book reviews
Export
Exercise 2
Now try these:
1. Find some articles on the drying up
or desertification of the Aral Sea
2. Find a reference to a book review of
David Harvey’s book “Spaces of Hope”
Reference works
If you wanted to find a general
introduction to the topic of Gaia, where
might you look?
Biographical Resources
You have been asked to give the vote of
thanks to Ron Johnston who is coming
to speak to the Herbertson Society.
Where might you start to look for
information about him? What hobby
does he have outside his geographical
interests?
www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/isbes/training
Up, up and away!
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/services/training/survey