Library training for SMLC Research Postgraduates

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Library training for SMLC Research Postgraduates

• Ann Farr and Maureen Pinder,
• Arts Faculties Team
• October 2005

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What you need to know

• How to find books on your subject
• at Leeds
• in other libraries
• How to find journal articles on your subject
• in paper format
• electronic
• Other types of materials you might need
• microfilms, theses, manuscripts, newspapers

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Finding books (1)

• Finding out what books there are
• To find books on your subject at Leeds do a
  keyword search in our Library Catalogue
• To find out what other books exist on your
  subject, search COPAC, a union catalogue of some
  of the major UK libraries, at www.copac.ac.uk
• Use the bibliography in one book or article to
  lead you to other items on the subject

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Finding books (2)

• Getting hold of the books
• Use our Document Supply service (2 per request)
• Go to the British Library at Boston Spa
• Use the SCONUL Research Extra scheme to visit
  other university libraries and borrow from them

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Journal articles

• Books alone are not enough
• Not all research results in a book or even a book
  chapter you are more likely to find journal
  articles on your subject
• Journal articles are more up-to-date than books
• Available in paper, and sometimes online

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How to find journal articles

• You cant find them in library catalogues
• Sometimes there are cumulative indexes to paper
  volumes
• You can look for electronic journals in your
  subject via our webpage, and then browse down the
  table of contents of each issue
• The most useful tools are bibliographic
  databases, which you can search by keyword for
  items on a particular topic

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Bibliographic databases

• Database searching allows you to find journal
  articles on your topic, and sometimes also book
  chapters, reviews, illustrations, editorials etc.
• From the Library homepage Select a database by
  subject and choose the area you are interested
  in, e.g. French studies
• You are not limited to the databases listed under
  language subjects you might find some of the
  databases listed under politics or history or
  theology equally useful

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Other material you might need

• Books and journal articles are not the whole
  story
• Depending on your topic, you might need
• resources on microfilm or microfiche
• archives, manuscripts, letters or rare books held
  in Special Collections
• theses from Leeds or from other universities
• newspapers, both British and foreign, in paper or
  electronic format

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Finding this sort of material

• Search our Library Catalogue for microforms,
  search our Catalogue or browse the Special
  Collections webpages for manuscripts etc.
• Do a theses search in our Catalogue to find Leeds
  theses
• Search the databases Index to Theses or
  Dissertations and Theses for theses elsewhere
• Search Lexis-Nexis Executive for the full text of
  newspapers

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Summary of main points

• We hope weve covered most of the material
  youll need books, journal articles and other
  sources of information
• Follow up by coming on one of our Information
  Literacy Programme sessions, all listed at
  http//www.leeds.ac.uk/library/training/courses.ht
  mlist
• Work through some of the workbooks or online
  tutorials linked from our webpages
• Come to see us in the Arts Team Office for
  further help