LIB100
Introducing Library Resources &
Information Literacy Skills
Lingnan University Library
October 2013
Handout of this workshop can be downloaded at:
http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/il_handouts
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After this workshop, you will be able to:
Identify and evaluate various resources from the
Library and on the Internet
Identify the functions of the online Library Catalogue
and 1-Search, and learn the basic searching
strategies
Identify the self-help guides and popular online
databases that the Library provides
Have basic understanding on citation and avoiding
plagiarism
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Part A - Search for information in the
Library Website
 Have a quick tour of the Library Website
 Understand a reading list
 Perform Author Search in the Library Catalogue
 Perform Advanced Search in the Library Catalogue
 View Bibliographic Records
 Access My Library Account
 Understand the Library of Congress (LC)
Classification Scheme
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Quick tour of the Library Website
We shall begin with
http://www.library.ln.edu.hk/
Different user
groups
Search box
Quick links
E.g. My
Library
Account,
Databases,
Room
Booking
System, etc.
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Pull down menu of Library Website
A hub to find out most of the resources, services and
facilities available in the Library Website
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How to understand a reference in a
reading list
Example: Book
Author
Year of
publication
Title
Coupey, E. (2001). Marketing and the internet.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Publication place
Remarks: APA Style is used in this example
Publisher
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How to understand a reference in a Reading
List
Example: Journal Article
Author
Year of
publication
Title of the
journal article
Street, S. (2006). A Darwinian dilemma for
Title of the
realist theories of value. Philosophical
journal
Studies, 127(1), 109-166.
Volume number
(Issue number)
Remarks: APA Style is used in this example
Pages
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How to understand a reference in a Reading
List
Example: Book Chapter
Author
of the
chapter
Title of the
chapter
Year of
publication
Parton, N. (2012). Thinking and acting Editor of the book
constructively in child protection. In S. L. Witkin
(Ed.), Social construction and social work practice:
Interpretations and innovations (pp. 127-153). New
York: Columbia University Press.
Title of the book :
capital letter also
for subtitle
Remarks: APA Style is used in this example
Publisher
Pages of
chapter
Publication
place
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Scenario one: If I already know the
author’s name of a book…
Q: I want to read the book written by Suzanne
Collins in 2008. However I forget the title of the
book, what should I do?
A: Search the Library Catalogue by Author.
Be sure to search by placing the SURNAME in front
of the first name. In this example, you should
search “Collins, Suzanne”
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Scenario two: If I want to find books for
my research project but do not know the
name of the author / title of the item…
Q: My instructor asked us to watch some local TV
programmes about drug abuse cases in Hong Kong,
produced in 2013. How can I find it?
A:
1. Search the Library Catalogue by keywords
(“drug abuse”, “hong kong”) in the Advanced
Search page
2. Then, limit the Material Type as “Local TV
Programme”
3. Limit the Year as “After 2012”
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Viewing Bibliographical Records
After searching for books or other items in the
Library Catalogue, here below are important tips
for you to find out WHERE the book is:
 LOCATION of the item (where it is stored)
 CALL NUMBER of the item (the exact address)
 STATUS of the item (available now or not)
For more details of the definitions of “LOCATION”
and “STATUS” codes, please refer to:
http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/catalogue_codes
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View Bibliographic
Records in the Library Catalogue
Example 1: If the item is AVAILABLE, you can:
1. Click / view the “LOCATION” to see where the item is placed
2. Follow the “CALL NUMBER” to find the item from the bookshelf
1. Click the link to
view the location
map
2. Follow the
call number to
find the item
on the
bookshelf
It means the item
is available for
borrowing
View Bibliographic
Records in the Library Catalogue
Example 2: If an item is currently checked out (i.e. with a due date) or
on-hold, you can try alternatives:
1.Click the relevant subject to find related works
2.Request/Hold the item and get notified when it is returned to the Library (for books only)
3.Search for HKALL to see if other University Libraries have this item available (for books
only)
3. Search
HKALL
2. Request to wait for
the item
1. Click on any
subject and
you can see
related items in
the Library
It means the
item is
currently
checked out
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More Tips on Using the Library
Catalogue
 General Search Tips for the Library Catalogue:
http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/search_tips
 About Library Catalogue:
http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/opac
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My Library Account
Use Lingnan Email / password to login
 Check your borrowing records
 Make online renewal
 Check your reading history
 Register for SMS Alert Service to receive library
notices
 Modify your PIN for login to the Library Account
(but CANNOT modify your email password there)
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Brief Introduction to Library of
Congress Classification Scheme
http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/content.php?pid=3385
19&sid=2768286
 Classification of major subjects in Lingnan
 Call number locations in the Library
 Know about shelf order
Online game: to arrange the books in the Library of
Congress Classification order:
http://www.lcsc.edu/library/satchlcall/
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Part B – Identify various sources
 Primary VS Secondary Sources
 Scholarly Journals VS Popular Magazines
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Primary Sources
VS Secondary Sources
What is "Primary Sources"?
“First-hand" information
Mostly gathered from the participants/witnesses of an
incident
Usually written/recorded in a very short time after the event
happened
Examples of "Primary Sources"
Newspaper articles (reporting an incident)
Statistical data
Records of organizations
Interview transcript
Importance of “Primary Sources”
It presents a strong proof for your comment or argument,
which makes your research paper more reliable
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Primary Sources
VS Secondary Sources
What is "Secondary Sources" ?
Information written based on the "Primary Sources"
It is produced after the "Primary Sources" have been analyzed,
commented, evaluated or filtered
Examples of "Secondary Sources"
Editorial in a newspaper
Research journal articles
Report findings of a survey
Importance of “Secondary Sources”
Inspire you to think more and give you more insight of the
research question
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Scholarly Journals VS Popular Magazines
You can search the journal titles in the Library
catalogue (http://www.library.ln.edu.hk/#tabs3) or from the 1-search
(http://www.library.ln.edu.hk/find/1-searchsearchbox).
For magazines and journals, they are located in
the "Serials Collections" or "Compact Shelves"
of 2/F South Wing of the Library; a few popular
magazines are available at 1/F Reading Room of
the Library.
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Scholarly Journals VS Popular Magazines
Journals, serials and periodicals are publications that published
continuously over a period of time
Scholarly Journals
Also known as peer reviewed journals or
referred journals.
Author's credentials are provided; usually a
scholar or specialist with subject expertise.
Articles are evaluated by peer-reviewers or
referees who are experts in the field; edited
for content, format, and style.
Nearly all the journals are specialized in
certain subject areas.
A plain format with less design in the
content.
Target audience is scholars, researchers and
students.
References are provided in the footnotes or
at the end of an article.
Popular Magazines
Published frequently.
Author is frequently a journalist paid
to write articles, may or may not have
subject expertise.
Articles are evaluated by editorial staff,
not experts in the field; edited for
format and style.
Deliver the information that is of
interest to general public.
Attractive covers and nice looking
design in the contents.
Target audience is the general public.
References and citations of the
sources may not be provided.
Examples: American Journal of Psychology,
Harvard Business Review.
Examples: Time, National Geographic.
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Importance of identifying various
sources
You should know what are you citing and
making reference to when you are doing your
research paper.
If your assignment contains primary and
secondary sources, it will certainly gain better
reliability and authority.
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Quiz (Part A):
Please click the following:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ejy9LUfNI9pFzqFu
PuYZpBJ4lQm7ASeaNTmg7yL179Y/viewform
This quiz is also available at:
http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/quiz
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Part C - Search Strategies
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Searching strategies (1)
Step 1 – Identify key concepts
You should be clear about the key concept(s) you are going to
search
Key concepts can be:
 author’s name of a literature work
 keywords of your research theme
 country/place of a phenomenon appeared/an incident
happened
 You could also decide what sorts of Library materials you will
use. For example, are you searching for :
 some journal articles about your research topic?
 a book for your self-interest?
 a local TV programme for presentation use?
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Searching strategies (2)
Step 2 – Selection of search words
 Use related words/synonyms to build up a
series of keywords for searching
 If you cannot think of the synonyms, you can
use the Thesaurus or dictionaries to help
 Always combine different keywords to have
more search results
Step 3 – Use of operators to control the search
 Boolean Operators
 Wildcard / Truncation
 Parentheses
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Step 3(1) - Boolean Operators
(AND, OR, NOT)
 AND: searches records that contain both search
terms, this narrows down the search result
 OR: finds records in which anyone of search
terms appears, this broadens the search result
 NOT: finds records in which a specific term is
excluded, this narrows down the search result
but with the risk of excluding useful records
Practice:
- Crime AND youth
- Crime OR youth
- Crime NOT youth
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Step 3(2) - Wildcards /
Truncation
 Wildcards / Truncation: retrieves all
variant endings of that keyword, this
broadens the search result.
 Most systems regard * as a truncation mark





OPAC: *
1-Search*
EBSCOhost: *
ProQuest: *
LexisNexis Academic: !
Practice:
Try to type politic* and
“hong kong”
to see the results.
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Step 3(3) – Parentheses
 Parentheses( ): group words together, and
gives priority and order in a search
statement, this broadens the search.
Practice:
(sales tax OR vat OR
value
added tax OR gst)
and hong kong
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Step 3(4) – Quotation Marks
 Quotation Marks “ ”: search the words
as an exact phrase, this narrows down
the search result.
Practice:
“social movement theory”
VS
social movement theory
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Scenario in constructing a search (1)
Q. I would like to do a research paper on the
impact on children’s behavior by domestic
violence. How can I construct a search for this
theme?
1. Identify keywords from the research theme:




domestic violence
child / children
behavior
impact
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Scenario in constructing a search (2)
2. To form related keywords. E.g.:
 domestic violence => family violence
 impact => effect
3. To combine keywords and use the Boolean
operators/wildcards/parentheses to form the search
 “(domestic OR family) violence” AND child* AND
impact
 “(domestic OR family) violence” AND child* AND
behavior
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Part D – Introduction to guides and
popular databases
 Survival Guide for New Students
 Guides @ LU
 Databases
 Off-campus Access to Databases
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Survival Guide for New Students
A good starting point for you to know the library
services and facilities
http://www.library.ln.edu.hk/services/information-services/survivalguide-new-students-getting-started
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Guides @ LU
 A portal to databases, subject guides and various user guides on
library services and facilities
 http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/
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Databases
Electronic databases provides information at
different levels. Depending on whether it is a full
text database or bibliographic index database, it
will provide the article level information, table of
contents and often the full-text.
 Access ALL library-subscribed databases in one
link: http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/databases
OR
 Click the “Databases” quick link on the righthand corner of Library Website
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1-Search
Allows searching across library catalogue records,
major subscribed full-text databases, research in
Digital Repository, etc., at the same time
NOT a substitute for any individual database
http://www.library.ln.edu.hk/find/1-searchsearchbox
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Off-campus Access to Databases
If you are accessing the databases off-campus
(e.g. at home), you will be asked to login-in
with your Lingnan email username and
password before going into the search pages of
databases.
Alternatively, you can install SSL VPN provided
by ITSC. Click here for more details:
http://www.ln.edu.hk/itsc/network/vpn
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Part E – Introduction to plagiarism
and citation
 Definition of plagiarism
 Importance of citation
 RefWorks
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What is Plagiarism?
 According to Oxford English Dictionary
(2012), plagiarism (學術剽竊) refers to:
 the action or practice of taking the work,
idea, etc. of someone else, and passing it
off as one's own; literary theft.
 a particular idea, piece of writing, design,
etc., which has been plagiarized; an act or
product of plagiary.
 To learn more about plagiarism :
http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/cite_resources
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Plagiarism & Citation
In order to avoid the trap of plagiarism, we need to
properly provide citations to ALL the resources (e.g.
books, journal articles, websites) that we have made
reference to in our research paper.
Citations are the key information of each piece of
resource. It often includes :
Book chapter title / Journal article title / Webpage title
Book title / Journal title
Authors (and editors)
Volume no. , issue no. & page no. of the journal article in the
journal
 Publisher and publication place of the book
 Address of the webpage (if the article is retrieved online
directly)




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Importance of Citation
It gives a kind of “credit” to the authors of
information that contribute to your research paper
It can add the creditability (reliability) of your
research paper
Readers of your research paper can refer to the
citation list and find out more sources related to your
topic
Learn more about citation and plagiarism:
http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/bibliography_plagiarism
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RefWorks
 Reworks is an online
citation management
tool, which is an easy
and convenient software
to build-up and manage
your citation. After
building-up your
citation, you can export
your citation list to a
Word file or email.
 Guide on RefWorks :
http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/
refworks
There will be training workshop on using RefWorks by the Library.
Please pay attention to our announcement.
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Information Technology Fluency (ITF) Test
 With effect from 2012-2013, all undergraduate students (both 3year and 4-year programmes) are required to pass the ITF Test
during their study at Lingnan
 More details: http://tlc.ln.edu.hk/itfp/
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Quiz (Part B):
Please click the following:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1gpnRFSBgNmEt6F9
ALIAdC0BruIA7-wsWAtKnYnKr_sg/viewform
This quiz is also available at:
http://libguides.ln.edu.hk/quiz
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Need Help?
 Phone: 2616 8571
 Email: refstaff@ln.edu.hk
 Chat with a Librarian at:
http://www.library.ln.edu.hk/research/ask-librarian
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We need your feedback to this
workshop ~
Click the following URL to access the online
evaluation form of this library workshop,
http://lingnan.asia.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_dfXUt8
sOqIiH2OV
~ Thank you~