WISER Social Sciences: Finding books and journals Judy Reading

Aims of workshop: afterwards you should know Which Oxford libraries are likely to hold materials on your subject How to use the Library catalogue to search for specific books and also to see what there is on a subject How to locate journal articles in print and online How to search for journal articles by subject What other catalogues and finding aids might be useful

Library collections Go to and look under Libraries and also under Collectionshttp://

Library catalogue OLIS (Oxford Libraries Information System) provides an index to Oxford University Library collections. Not all College libraries use OLIS. College collections are not open to all University members – ask for reference access if they have the only copy. Nuffield College has Social Science collection which is open to other graduates. There are some collections which are not included in OLIS eg Chinese language materials, manuscripts and older material not yet catalogued.

OLIS There are two versions of the Library catalogue – a web and a telnet version. Web version does not work for placing stack requests for “unlisted parts” of print journals.

Browse and Keyword searching A browse search will display an alphabetical list of the headings in the selected index (title, author, subject etc.) that are closest to the word(s)/characters you enter. The closest match will appear emboldened. Use the keywords search to search for items that contain the word(s) you enter wherever they appear in the selected field (title, subject, author, etc.).

Searching for a specific book Usually the title search is the simplest option (NB do not include definite or indefinite articles) eg if looking for: Smith, Martin, The core executive in Britain, 1999 Type “core executive in Britain” in box next to “browse for” and make sure the drop-down box is set to “title” You can also browse search on author (need to put surname, first name) Or combine author and title in a keyword search Choose Keyword search then fill in the relevant boxes using the drop-down selection options to choose what you want to search on.

Searching for a book by subject Oxford Libraries use the Library of Congress Subject Headings to provide a subject index on the catalogue eg Browse for “Education and state – Great Britain” in LC Subjects You may find it helpful to look at a book you know to be relevant and see what else is indexed by the subject terms used in the catalogue eg click on hyperlinked subject entries for “The core executive in Britain”

Tips Make sure if you are searching for a chapter in a book you use the book title to search If you are looking for a journal article you need to use the journal title not the article title

Other catalogue features Limit by date or material type Truncation * at beginning or end of word eg xenophob* Boolean operators and, or and not Mark records to save or them

Personal services Reservations – choose Hold title if copies are on loan to someone else Stack requests – choose Request from stacks Patron functions – check your details, renew your books, see if reservation is in

Placing a stack request On the web catalogue choose Request from stacks from the full catalogue record and follow the instructions. You will need your University card number and your password You will need to decide where you want the stack material fetched to. Your choice may be limited depending on the material.

Looking for a specific journal article on OLIS On OLIS choose “Browse for” “journal title”. If that doesn’t work double-check by looking in “all titles” eg British Journal of Educational Studies OLIS will give you locations for print holdings and often also hyperlinks for online versions where we hold them. Don’t search for article title as OLIS does not index them

Placing a stack request for a journal with an “unlisted part” Need to use the telnet version Find the full record of the journal title you need (j=title eg economist) Choose Stack request and then select the line number of the relevant holdings Choose “Unlisted part” and you will see a proforma which allows you to specify the issue you need.

Using the Oxford University e- Journals service

How to use Oxford University e- Journals Oxford University e-Journals uses the SFX system provided by Ex Libris The SFX technology is used to provide a link to full texts from databases and other sources where you see this The system also provides an A-Z listing of e-Journals which is very easy to use.

A-Z listing Choice of succinct “Table” and a “Detail View” When you click on the title a menu will open to allow you to specify which issue you require or you can just click on Go to go through to the journal homepage You may be offered a choice of suppliers in which case check the dates offered before making your selection You also have the option of checking print holdings

Other catalogues See Look under Worldwide Library catalogues COPAC British Library Catalogue WorldCat You can visit other libraries with relevant collections or ask for an inter-library loan

Further help Ask in the Library and we will be pleased to help Online help and guides are available Why not sign up for more WISER sessions? See Please respond to the request for feedback which will be ed to you – we do value your input