St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Information Research Skills Getting better results for research projects St Maurice’s School Library Resource Centre

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it." Samuel Johnson (Boswell's Life of Johnson)

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Research: Where do I start? It is rare to start a school research project on a subject you know nothing about. Always think about your existing knowledge. Brainstorm an idea

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 K-W-L Chart A K-W-L Chart is a good way to help organise your knowledge of a subject. What I KNOW What I WANT to know What I’ve LEARNED What I KNOWWhat I WANT to know What I’ve LEARNED

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Focus on the RELEVANT information. Some topics can have vast amounts of information, others very little. Think carefully about what you Need to know and what you Want to know. Always ask is this information relevant to my topic/subject ? Information can be related but not relevant to your particular search.

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Before you begin – Remember… Always take notes– any information you think you might need to use should be noted. Quotations should be “identified” Paraphrasing – using your own wording Summarising – condensing several sentences of information into one. You MUST have a bibliography so take a note of the sources you use as you go along! Organise your notes and information in a way you can understand and makes sense when you have to write up your essay. Post it notes, mind maps, diagrams etc Make sure you UNDERSTAND what you are reading or using!

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Useful General Search tips Keywords Specific search terms will help focus your research. They are the most important and relevant words related to your search question. Often generated by the questions you want to answer on your topic. Think of synonyms! Look at the Contents / Index / Glossary of a book or resource when you start. The Index of a book is perfect place to scan for keywords.

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Skimming and Scanning Useful to help locate relevant information in a resource. Skimming – Used to find out if any information on your topic appears in the resources you are using. Also useful to get the general idea of a resource or piece of information. Read the title, introduction, first paragraph, start of paragraphs, pictures, headings etc. Do any of your keywords appear there? Scanning – Used when you what to find specific information you know is in your resource ie when looking for a specific name, date or place. Locate page from index. Use the keywords, think of how the information may be phrased. Skip sections of text which aren’t relevant.

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 NEVER use just ONE Source Always try and use a variety of resources Always try and ensure you’ve used at least 3 or more sources when possible

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Think C-A-R C – Completeness – does the information relate to your search? A – Accuracy – is the information reliable/correct? R – Relevance – it may be interesting but is it relevant to your search?

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Bias This can be difficult to avoid in some topics Ask yourself – is the page sponsored? Is it one sided? What is it NOT telling you? Consider your own bias – are you presenting a balanced view.

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Who – who wrote it? What – what is it actually referring to? Where – Where did you find the information what is its intended audience? Why – why has it been written? When – When was it written/created – is it up to date enough for you search? Remember the 5 W’s can be useful to help you evaluate a source

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 The Internet: How deep do you search?

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 All Hail ? GOOGLE isn’t the only search engine available. Other search engines may give slightly different results. Why not try a few?

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Internet Search Techniques Use Multiple Keywords if possible Using quotations marks for phrases you want to search will help focus your results. ie “Wall Street Crash” “Second World War” Search using your keywords rather than typing in sentences. Don’t worry about including words such as “the”, “a” etc

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Read the brief description of the website, Does it appear relevant and useful? Is it a sponsored page More than 10 returns – try using the other returns – not just the first 10! Web addresses can tell you a lot before you even click on the link. Generally British based websites will end in ‘uk’.gov – government website eg or.co.uk - commercial sites eg /.edu /.sch.uk – academic websites such as schools or universities.

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Advanced Searching Think about what search terms will help focus your search Using Multiple Keywords where possible Use Boolean Operators to help narrow your search. Try using the advanced search features on websites

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Boolean Searching AND NOT OR

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Boolean Searching? AND or ‘+’ Narrows search to return pages with only the two or more keywords you used. OR before words should ensure pages returned will include any of the search term NOT ‘-‘ before words should return pages with the keywords you want but not the keywords you want to exclude.

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Did you know most Search Engines have an Advanced search page? Helps narrow your search even further

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Bibliographies An essential part of any research project. They let people know where you found your information. There are a variety of ways you can reference the sources you used to create a bibliography. If you are not sure, the library catalogue can show you how.

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Creating a bibliography (Harvard Style) Books – Author, date, title, publisher Magazines / Newspapers – Author, date, ‘title of article’, title of magazine or paper, page number Encyclopedia – Article author (if given) date ‘title of article’, title of encyclopedia, volume no., publisher, Website – Author, ‘title of article’ (if relevant) title of webpage, copyright or update date, publisher of webpage (if given), date of the last time you looked at it, url.

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Examples Firth, Lisa. 2009, The animal rights debate, Independence. CILIP (21 June 2007) Ethical Principals for Library and Information Professionals London: Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Retrieved 19th November 2007 from Joint, N (2007) Newly qualified librarians and their professional associations Library Review, Vol 56, No9, Brown, R.B & McCartney S (2000) Professionalism definitions in ‘managing’ health services in N Marlin (ed) Professionalism, Boundaries and the workplace (pp178 – 194) London: Routledge

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Organising your bibliographic resources Pulver, Beth A. 2009, Understanding the Importance of Information, Information Literacy Skills, HEINEMAN. (p35) This book is currently available in the LRC should you want to find out more.

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 REMEMBER AVOID PLAGARISM Always acknowledge other peoples’ work Make reference to your sources Create a bibliography!

St Maurice's LRC 2011/12 Good Luck!! Remember if you are stuck, ask the Librarian.