Information Skills for Computer Scientists Richard Pears June 2008

Approaching your project Scope Construct a strategy Locate and access information Compare and evaluate Organise

Search strategy comput*program? AND OR processor Java Oak AND software OR bytecode NOT “native machine code” system WITHIN 3 operati*

Types of resources

Resources Books/ e-books Journals/ e- journals E-prints Statistics/data tables Theses Blogs & wikis Newspapers Internet pages Conference proceedings Patents Academics & librarians

Library web pages Catalogue – keyword search Don’t forget reserves and recalls apply over the vacation Online information resources Subject information pages –Key resources

Journals Bordewich, M., Freedman, M., Lovász, L. & Welsh, D. (2005) ‘Approximate counting and quantum computation’, Combinatorics, probability and computing 14(5-6), pp

Databases Access from Subject Information Pages Search multiple journals at one time Find related records/ citation search Specific scope: Computer AbstractsComputer Abstracts Broad scope: Web of KnowledgeWeb of Knowledge

Websites Who is the author? Is the material biased? Who is hosting this web page? When was it posted or last updated? Is there a bibliography or further references? Always use Gateways firstGateways Online tutorials available

Other resources E-prints – arXivarXiv Conference papers – ISI ProceedingsISI Proceedings Standards and Patents News – Infotrac Keeping up to date – ZETOC

Access beyond Durham Visiting other libraries and archives –check before you go –ID SCONUL Access Document Delivery Service

References and bibliographies ALWAYS keep a full and accurate record of your information sources Use the Library Catalogue to references for saving references Avoid plagiarism

Where to go for help Academic Support Team: Richard Pears Enquiries Desk on Level 2, Main Library Enquiry service:

Hands on Search grid Links on library web pages Online tutorials: catalogue, Computer Abstracts, Web of Knowledge, arXiv Bibliography

Suggested topics Human Animation Motion Retrieval Feed Scraper Algorithms for graph colouring Speech Synthesis for Poetry Reading SAT Solving Intelligent Internet Agents Compiler Optimization Web Service for Component-Based Software Engineering Tools to Support Education

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