Research Methods for Property Students – Handout
By david.litting@uts.edu.au / 95143390
Library Website url: www.lib.uts.edu.au
Information Resources for you to consider:
The Catalogue: Is a searchable list of all the things that UTS library owns or
subscribes to. It’s useful for finding the location of books, dvd’s and for finding
specific journals titles.
To do a ‘keyword’ search in the library catalogue use the box labelled Search
catalogue on the library homepage. For other search options press ‘search’.
Databases: Databases are search engines that find journal articles. We need
databases because the catalogue cannot find journal articles if you type words
into the catalogue. There are lists of databases that are relevant to Built
Environment topics you can access by clicking on the ‘ find databases’ tab
above the search catalogue box (see previous graphic). There are also
specialised lists for Planning and Property Development found on this page.
You can also access more information resources for Built Environment topics
through the Study Guides. The navigation trail to the study guides for the Built
Environment is shown below: home – students – study guides etc..
Suggested Database: ScienceDirect
Science Direct is a great resource for journal articles. Despite its name it’s good
for business topics and planning. Its also a ‘full text’ database which means
everything you find you can read the article straight away.
Suggested Databases: Google Scholar
There are other databases that are pertinent to Built Environment students,
like Academic Search Premier and Wiley Interscience. However an alternative
to trying these sources is to combine several UTS databases and search them
via the Google Scholar interface. If you are off campus you’ll need to provide
this url first before being able to access this service (its also available as a link
from the find databases page – search for google scholar or look under the
interdisciplinary heading to launch the link):
http://ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/login?url=http://scholar.google.com.au/
Once Google Scholar is configured you should see ‘Full Text @ UTS’ icon next
to anything UTS subscribes to (see below):
Suggested Database: Informit Complete (Australian content)
Informit is an Australian database. It has many sub-databases. You can select
them individually from a list or select them all. Whilst not containing as much
information as ScienceDirect and Google Scholar, it is a useful resource to be
aware of.
 If you come across an article in a database that does not provide the full
text for you try the
icon to conduct a search for the full text
article elsewhere. If you cannot locate the full text, you can order the
article via the ‘interlending’ service. To locate this service type
‘interlending’ into the UTS site search:
Symbols for Database Searching:
An asterisk (*) – can be used to finish a word in a variety of ways.
Eg: cultur* = culture, cultures, cultural, etc. Does not work in Google Scholar
though.
Quotation Marks (“ ..”) – can be used to search for a phrase
Eg; “global warming” searches for these words next to eachother
Links to other services – such as the The Australian Bureau of Statistics (which
can also be found by typing ‘Ausstats’ in the catalogue), The Building Code of
Australia online, and more, can be found via the study guides for your subject
area on the library website. For directions see page 2 of this document.
Rp Data/Domain Property Data can also be accessed via the study guides and
also via their titles (above) in the library catalogue. Below is a brief description
of Domain. Be aware Domain covers only the city cbd and city east, whereas
RP Data covers all of Sydney
This is a database that features sales and rental information for properties in the inner city (the rest
of Sydney is not included in our package)
Logging into Domain Property Data requires your UTS username and password and also a specific
password you need to enter into the Domain Property Data website once you arrive there:
Username: user*@lib.uts.edu.au
Password: apm
Note: Replace the * in the username with a number 1 to 20. Starting from one to find a valid
access point.
Once there you can search for property histories by address or by recent sales.
There is a wealth of data here, including a market appraisal function that will
calculate a properties up to the minute value, within a certain range. There is
also demographic information tied to areas available.
Referencing guides to the Harvard UTS System can be found via the
referencing and writing guide on the left of the library homepage
(www.lib.uts.edu.au):
Within this guide is also instructions on how to access and use referencing
software. For more information about referencing software please contact
myself or use the ask-a-librarian function also seen in the screenshot below.