WISER: History Finding journal articles Valerie Lawrence, History Faculty Library Kate Petherbridge, Upper Camera Jane Rawson, Vere Harmsworth Library

Aims Why not use OLIS? Sources of information What is a bibliographical database? Selecting the most relevant source Basic information searching skills Demonstrations Questions Hands-on Finding help

Why can’t I use OLIS to find journal articles? Librarians catalogue journal titles - but not individual journal articles.

Why not use OLIS??? Search in OLIS under journal title not article author/title.

Sources of information TDNet Bibliographical databases Bibliographical reference works

What is a bibliographical database? Database holding bibliographical data Index publications on a particular topic e.g. Historical Abstracts e.g. Philosopher’s Index e.g. British Humanities Index Often referred to as A & I databases (Abstracting & Indexing databases)

What is a bibliographical database? Tell you what was published, not what is in Oxford! 1. Use Tour button to locate full-text. 2. Search OLIS to locate printed Full-text.

Selecting the best resource  OxLIP Subject guide  History  Bibliographic databases  General  By topic  By area

Information searching skills A few principles The success of a search largely depends on the choice of the database. The larger the database, the greater the chances of getting irrelevant information. We want to find everything that is relevant. There is usually more than one way to get results, but some are better than others.

Information searching skills A few tools Boolean operators Indexes Limits Sorting

Boolean operators AND+ narrow search e.g. apple and crumble apple + crumble

Boolean operators OR broaden search e.g. apple or crumble

Boolean operators NOT refine search e.g. apple not pie

Information searching skills A few tools Limits Date Language etc. Sorting Title Author Date etc.

Demonstrations Historical Abstracts / America: History & Life Royal Historical Society Bibliography International Medieval Bibliography

Historical Abstracts Global coverage, excl. US & Canada present Journal articles, books, dissertations, essay collections, some book reviews Publications from Update monthly Limit by historical period Foreign language titles are translated into English and are searchable CLIO Alerts Off-campus: Athens & VPN

America: History & Life US & Canada Prehistory- present Journal articles, books, dissertations, essay collections, some book reviews Publications from Updated monthly Limit by historical period Foreign language titles are translated into English and are searchable CLIO Alerts Off-campus: Athens & VPN

Royal Historical Society Bibliography British Isles, British Empire & Commonwealth, special focus also on London and Ireland 55BC – present Journal articles, books, book articles, some collections of essays, some book reviews, dissertations only for London history, excl. more primary sources Publications from Updated 3 times a year Limit by historical period & place Off-campus: free on web

International Medieval Bibliography Euro-focus, but also covers Africa, Middle East etc. 1 st cent. – early modern period Journals articles, articles from conference proceedings, Festschriften, exhibition catalogues, etc. Publications from Updated quarterly Limit by historical period & place Off-campus: VPN

Stay up-to-date electronically Set up alerts Historical Abstracts, ZETOC Alert, Oxford Journals Online, etc. Re-run saved searches Arts & Humanities Citation Index, etc.

Questions & hands-on

Finding help Library staff in HFL, Upper Camera, Upper Reading Room and VHL HFL, Ask a Librarian History Librarian,

Useful web addresses OULS E-resources OULS Information Skills courses OULS Libraries’ directory HFL webpage