Researching your oral presentation topic
Dickson College Library
To do well in your oral presentation, it’s essential that you locate and draw on books
relevant to your topic. Books are important a) because they have received the
blessing of a publisher, suggesting they are of good quality, b) they involve a
prolonged, in-depth exploration of a subject. You need to demonstrate acquaintance
with scholarly books on your topic.
DC library is the natural starting point. Identify relevant books by opening the Oliver
icon on the student desktop and searching the library catalogue. There is also a
computer in the library where the catalogue is always open. You should also simply
browse the relevant shelves. Look at the table of contents and the index to ascertain
whether it’s worth looking at the book in more depth.
If you cannot find resources in the library, do not give up – ask our librarians, Lindy
and Gary. They are super helpful.
The ACT Library
The ACT library system will most likely have some titles which aren’t available at the
DC library. To search for books in the ACT library system, go to
http://www.library.act.gov.au/ > find > search > Search the Catalogue. The ACT
library system is great because any book in the system can be ordered to be
delivered to your local library. This obviously takes a few days so you need to get
organised and identify and order the books you need in plenty of time. You will have
to join up first, just by popping into your local library (there’s one at Dickson and in
Civic, opposite the Legislative Assembly).
The ACT Library may be just as valuable to you for its e-resources section
(http://www.library.act.gov.au/eresources). Search the History Reference Centre for
electronic journal articles.
National Library
The National Library is a great place to go as you will be able to access academic
books that you might not be able to find elsewhere. Obviously, the more you can
show you acquaintance with what recognised experts have written on your topic, the
better. The National Library is located just off King Edward Terrace, near the lake.
It’s open between 9am and 9pm Monday to Thursday, 9am to 5pm on Fridays and
Saturdays and 1.30pm to 5pm on Sundays. You can’t borrow from the National
Library, you have to photocopy or take notes from the books you look at.
The ANU and UC Libraries
Unless you’ve got connects you probably won’t be able to borrow from these
libraries. But nothing’s stopping you from browsing and note-taking.
http://cliojournal.wikispaces.com/AMM+2012
Look out for any relevant resources on our class page.
Google
Recent invention, very useful. I particularly encourage you to take advantage of
Google Books and Google Scholar.
Wikipedia
The bibliography, references and external links for relevant entries can be very
useful.
Thomas.greenwell@ed.act.edu.au
Email me if you need help finding resources. If you have the title and author of a
journal article but you don’t have permission to access it, let me know and I should
be able to help.
Family and friends
Make sure you tell all and sundry about what you’re researching – they may be able
to help.
Use the different research avenues in conjunction with each other
Each avenue suggested above – and each resource you find – can also provide
leads which will help you find other resources elsewhere. For example, one good
book in the DC library may contain references to other books that can be found
elsewhere. The name of a prominent author in your field, gleaned from Wikipedia,
may be a useful search inquiry in Google Scholar.
Research checklist – have you explored all the avenues available to you…
Tick each one off as you cover it.
Dickson College Library
The ACT Library
National Library
The ANU and UC Libraries
Class Web Page
Google
Wikipedia
Thomas.greenwell@ed.act.edu.au
Family and friends