1. Research Skills for First Year Students
Academy Library
Beyond your Textbook:
Research Skills for First Year Students
Semester 1 – answers provided to you in textbooks, readings, lectures
Semester 2 – you’ll be required to go beyond what is given to you to find more info

2. Academy Library – What do you know?
Last time you were here, we covered some stuff.
What do you remember?
What was important to you?
Did you use any of it?

3. Books
Last time you were here: we GAVE you something to look for (card with call #).
This time, you need to find something to look for.
Volunteer : Search catalogue to identify call number of books on algebra.
New volunteer: Identify call number for book on topic of Div’s choice (keep it clean)
Where else do you go to find information? For mathematics, for example – YouTube, Khan Academy.
Hint: DON’T search for THIS book (it’s an eBook, but has a pretty cover)

4. What did you have trouble with in Semester 1?
Academic Writing Style (citing, referencing, etc.)
Critical evaluation of information resources (evaluate)
Use of authoritative sources beyond your textbook (find)
What DID you have trouble with?
These are the most frequent issues that we see in the library:
Academic writing
Critical evaluation of sources
Use of resources beyond your textbook
These are all things your lecturers will expect to see reflected in your work.
We’ll talk about last two things later; right now we’ll talk about academic writing style.
Information for – Undergraduates  Use the Information you Find:
ALL Unit – writing and presenting skills  using sources  referencing/plagiarism (plagiarism and academic integrity are part of your student code and taken very seriously)
ALL Unit – individual consultations if you need help
Library also has information on how to appropriately cite sources: Information for – Undergraduates  Find & Cite
Citing Sources
Bibliographic software is available

5. Writing: Engineering and Science
Google UNSW writing engineering
Offers these specialised resources

6. When we do online research, how can we be sure that we are accessing trustworthy information? We do that using………

7. How to tell if information smells fishy
CAARP
How to tell if information smells fishy
………….CAARP! Don’t use crap, use CAARP
Image source: 15/1/2014

8. Currency Authority Accuracy Relevance Purpose
(Anna replicates video on peer review.)
Authoritative, peer reviewed, scholarly articles.
Does it need to be peer reviewed to be good?
When do you not need to use peer-reviewed content?
Hand out rubric – Do globalwarming.org website assessment activity.
Purpose
Image source: 15/1/2014

9. You’ve been given this by your lecturer and you need to find more sources. How do you do it?
Journal
Authors
Keywords provided
Keywords (within abstract)
Alternative terms (within abstract):
Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP)  acronym
Acoustic emission (AE)  acronym
Debonding or concrete shear  types of failure

10. As you are reading the article text, note any alternative terms that are used:
Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP)  broader type of reinforced polymer (not specifically concrete), also acronym
Nondestructive testing technique (NDT)  broader type of technique (encompasses more than just acoustic emissions)
FRP strengthened  alternative terms

11. Also look at the references list/bibliography
Also look at the references list/bibliography. Where did the author(s) of this article find information?

12. Citation chaining
Finding articles that have been cited in the bibliography of your article
Identifying resources that have cited your starting resource
Citation chaining = another tool for finding related information. Variety of places to explore, and each will have different results:
SearchGateway: “acoustic emission monitoring of CFRP”  Citing this 10/Cited in this 5
Google Scholar: “acoustic emission monitoring of CFRP”  Cited by 77
Scopus: “acoustic emission monitoring of CFRP”  References 41/Cited by 62
Web of Science: “acoustic emission monitoring of CFRP”  40 cited references/47 times cited
Source:

13. What is a Search Strategy
Identify the key concepts in your topic
Find alternate terms
Combine your terms using Boolean logic
The Strategy of Chess by Ken Teegardin licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

14. Research topic
Pull out key terms – THEN focus only on PDM/PWM and find alternative terms
Use Google to look for alternative terms
In this laboratory assignment you will simulate a Pulse Duration Modulation circuit in Altium and investigate the effect of sampling speed on the quality of the decoded signal

15. Welcome to the World of Boolean Operators
AND OR
NOT
Show the video
Run Boolean Game: Brown hair AND Blue eyes; Blue eyes OR eyes that are brown; Blue eyes OR eyes that are brown NOT Army
Now let’s go back to our PDM example and build some searches.
Then we’ll use Access Engineering to demonstrate Boolean
pulse duration modulation
"pulse duration modulation"
"pulse duration modulation" OR "pulse width modulation
Show available filters
"pulse duration modulation" OR "pulse width modulation" AND decod* (because we’re looking at source decoding)
While still in Access Engineering – let’s look at other cool stuff in here

16. What else does the library have that you wouldn’t think it does?
So much stuff!
Library  Find & Cite:
How do I find… (databases, eBooks, standards, etc etc)
Show Me How Videos (Boolean, citation chaining, what do I put in this search box? etc)
Subject guides e.g. Mathematics & Statistics

17. Thank you For further assistance: Contact us via
Visit us at the library service desk
Phone