Maths Postgraduates Effective Searching For Information: Library Information Course Michael Whitton October 2012 University Library

2 Today’s session will cover  Finding key research material  Identify relevant Electronic Resources  Search effectively and record the records  Keeping up to date  Track down the full text

3 (Other) Library Training On Gradbook  Bibliometrics  eTheses – Including copyright issues  Endnote / Reference Manager  Keeping up to date  Copyright

The Library Home Page (1)

Link to Opening Hours information A guide for new students Or direct URL:

Lists of useful e-journals, databases & websites, guidance on finding information for Maths Also contact details of your Librarian

7

1 st Break Look at the library website and answer the resources quiz on the handout

Resources (2)

10 Internet Searching  Google, etc. – Useful for finding free content – No quality controls, need to evaluate – Scientific versions (Google Scholar) more focused on research material – Search MathSciNet, etc, as well to avoid missing out on important articles

Gateways  Web Gateways – Specialist search engines – Real people choose websites and write summaries – E.g. Mathematics WWW Virtual Library – See subject pages (under Websites)

12 Databases & Indexes e.g. MathSciNet & Web of Science  Mostly articles from quality journals (some books, conferences) – Well indexed enabling you to search in detail – Abstracts (summary of the article) – References (Many try to link to the full text)  We won’t have every journal they index – Our Inter-Library-Loans service can probably get a copy

13 Other sources for journal articles  Publishers Collections (Sciencedirect, American Mathematical Society, etc.) – Same quality of material – Limited to 1 publisher – Search facilities can be limited  Eprints (eprints-soton, ArXiv, OAIster) – Articles, etc. made freely available – also to increase impact / visibility – Varying quality: ‘pre-prints’, departmental publications

14 Also remember other sources  Books – including research monographs – Search Webcat for our holdings – Also other catalogues e.g. COPAC  Theses – Search Webcat for our PhD theses – Index to Theses for UK/Ireland  Data (Statistical, Financial etc.)

Basic Demo

16 Mark, Export, Record  Many databases have a ‘marked record’ facility or similar  Useful articles get added to a marked/selected records area – Then you can print out or to yourself a list of these articles – Or you can export to Reference Managing software like Endnote

Finding the full text (3)

18 Routes to full text  Database full text links  Sometimes links to journals we don’t buy  TDNet links (from database or library web pages) – doesn’t have all print journals  If the above do not exist or don’t work always …

19 Routes to full text (cont.)  Search WebCat – Journal articles by the journal title (use full title not abbreviations) – Conference papers by the conference title – Reports: try author and title (may need to search by organisation name)  There may be an automatic link

TDNet link

Following full text link through TDNet

If there is no (online) full text follow the Catalog link if present (only appears for print titles on TDNet)

23 Exceptions  Items not on Webcat & TDNet – Organisations eprint servers  Items not in UoS Libraries – Inter Library Loan (ILL)

2 nd Break Start searching MathSciNet using the search planner. Use the example given or one of your own

25 Access to Resources (4)

26 Access - on campus  Generally no passwords are needed – A few need your Institutional ( ) username & password – A handful have special usernames/passwords  If you have problems – For journals check our access on TDNet – For other resources use links on the library website

27 Access – off campus  For many resources Institutional Login is an option  VPN will give you the same access as on campus  Some TDNet functions do not work off campus without VPN

Look for ‘Institutional Login’, ‘UK Federation’ or ‘Shibboleth’ links

You often need to select the UK (or UK Federation) Then find ‘University of Southampton’ (If you can’t find us look for Southampton University)

30 VPN  Virtual Private Network  Link to University network  When connected your computer appears to be ‘on campus’  Managed by iSolutions. Instructions on iSolutions web pages at:

31 Setup instructions

Search Strategy (5)

33 Searching – the basics  Start simple – with a few keywords – Look at the results – do you need: – More relevance (more specific search) – More results (broaden search)  More manageable numbers – restrict in some other way (e.g. by date) – Aim for about results

34 Boolean Logic  Finds articles with both terms anywhere in the title, abstract, etc.  E.g. Traffic And congestion  Often the default except MathSciNet a b a And b

35 Boolean Logic  Finds articles with either term anywhere.  Use to allow for alternatives  E.g. airplane Or aeroplane a b a Or b

36 Boolean Logic  Finds articles with the first term that do not contain the second term.  Use with caution to eliminate non-relevant material  E.g. radiation Not solar a b a Not b

37 Example searches – using and/or  gravitational waves caused by small black holes – 0 results  gravitational and wave and small and black hole – 72 results  gravitational and black hole and (wave or radiation) and (small or micro) – 110 results [done in MathSciNet ]

38 Truncation  Replaces any number of characters. – Sometimes works in the middle of a word. – Normally * symbol, $ in webcat  Aero* will find: – Aeroplane – Aeroplanes – Aerospace

39 Wildcards  Replace a single character. – Often can also represent zero characters. – Normally ? Symbol, $ in Web of Knowledge  Engine? will find both Engine and Engines but not engineering  Colo?r will find both Colour and Color

40 Example searches – Truncation/wildcards  gravitational and black hole and (wave or radiation) and (small or micro) – 110 results  gravitat* and black hole* and (wave* or radiat*) and (small or micro*) – 206 results [done in MathSciNet ]

Example searches – WebCat  ocean wave model – 38 results  ocean$ wave? model$ – 225 results  (Remember - truncation is $ not *)

42 Phrase Searching  If you need an exact phrase use quotation marks (“ ”) – e.g. “Solar Cells” – This makes the search more specific (finds less articles) – Truncation and stemming don’t always work in quotes  In WebCat – use single quotes ( ’ ‘ )  This is the default in MathSciNet

3 rd Break Try using Boolean and truncation in your search Try links to full text if haven’t done so already

44 Advanced features (6)

45 WOK: Citation search  Citation links are useful – to track further related research – also for articles found in MathSciNet etc.  Citation searching is also possible – Find out what an Author has written and who has cited each paper

46 Click here to see all citing articles Web of Science has a useful citation linking feature

47 These articles both cite the ‘parent’ article

48 MSC – Mathematics Subject Classification  Each article has one or more MSC classifications to indicate its subject  These are useful: – Making search results more relevant and specific – Suggest alternative terms to search – To see what major areas of research exist

49 Classification numbers are marked (83C57, etc.) By clicking on the terms you can see what they mean …

50 The Primary MSC is the main subject of the article Click on this icon to run a search on that term …

51 … Does a search on that code Often too broad to be helpful.

52 The MSC can also be accessed via ‘free tools’

53 Search for a key word or phrase …

54 Codes have changed over time – the code for black holes (82C57) was added in 1991 MathSciNet will show you relevant term(s) So if we use it we won’t find any pre 1991 articles about black holes

55 You can also use the code in your search 83C57 searches for black holes very well

56 We now have less results – but hopefully more relevant ones

57 Saved Searches (Web of Knowledge, etc.)  Search history  Saving searches  Alerts  NB You will need to register for these services

58 Search history, to save / set up alerts click

59 WOK and other databases allow you to set up a profile

60 You can save your history or set up an alert …

Help (7)

62 If you need help…….  Subject Enquiry Desk, Level 3 – Open Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm  Contact Me – –

Credits  (1) Britton, Ian (2004). Spiders Web.  (7) Leonard, Nick. (2006) Library.  (2) Sky, David (2006). Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.  (6) Britton, Ian (2004). Advanced Passenger Train.  (3) the Firebottle (2006). Journals.  (4) Gold key. images-pictures/gold-key.jpg.html  (5) Vincente, Danard (2007). Search-Engine-Marketing