How to search the Library’s
online resources
Sources of information
Books:
Good for clear overview
Not so good for up to date information
Journals:
Good for latest research, critically reviewed by experts
Not so good for a broad overview of a subject
Newspaper:
Good for daily information
Not so good for balanced well researched information
Website:
Good for very up to date information
Not so good for accurate and reliable information
Thinking about keywords
• What can you see in the picture?
• Note down 5 words that are more
specific?
• List 5 words that are related to
what you can see in the picture.
OER from Middlesex University
Constructing a search
• Analyse your topic – key concepts
• Identify alternative terms or related terms
• Broaden or narrow your search using AND/OR/NOT
eg university OR academic
• Phrase searching, eg “study skills”
• Truncation, eg educat* for education or educate
Library Search
•
Search by keywords, eg Information literacy
•
Refine results using left-hand menu, eg limit to certain
publication dates or particular journals
•
Click “View Online” to access the full text
•
To save your results, click the “Add to my favourites” star, then
select “My Favourites” (in top-right corner)
•
You can email the results to yourself or export them to
reference management tools (eg Endnote)
•
Alternatively, log in to save your results permanently within
Library Search
Google vs Library Search
Google
Library Search
• Easy to use
• Easy to use
• Finds too much information
• Finds lots of academic info
• Access to some books and
• Access to lots of books and
journals
journals
• Designed to sell you things
• Designed to find you info
• Search results sponsored
• Search results by relevance
• Searches info from any source
• Searches quality resources
• Pay for academic information
• Free access to full text
Based on an OER from Middlesex University
Key resources
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JSTOR
MLA
Nexis
Oxford Reference Online
Project Muse
PsycINFO
SCOPUS
Web of Knowledge
News archives
Use the Newspapers guide to access several
news archives:
• The Guardian and Observer 1821-2003
• The Times 1785-1985
• Daily Mirror Archive 1903 - present
• Daily Mail Historical Archive 1896-2004
Results
• Many databases retrieve results in date order - most recently
published at the top
• Change the sort order to view results in relevance order
• Narrow your results by specifying the publication date
• Use the Findit@US button to locate full-text articles
• Use the Save/Export options to save your results
If we haven’t got what you need…
Place a request:
• Journal articles emailed to you
• Ebooks supplied when available
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/info/ilr
Getting help
Instant message us
library@sussex.ac.uk
Bookable training sessions
Skills hub