Library Resources for Higher Education Administration

at the University of Arkansas Libraries

Elizabeth McKee (479) 575-5313librarian/professoreducation reference and collection management librarian emckee@uark.edu

Reference Desk (479) 575-6645 Toll free reference (866) 818-8115

The World’s Information Made Manageable

books monographs videorecordings documents reports CDs records audiotapes DVDs

magazines periodicals newspapers journals newsletters

conferences music scores images databases slides manuscripts photographs maps

microfilm microfiche microprint PDF’s

Internet sites: some are free, others are by subscription

LIBRARIES ORGANIZE INFORMATIONFOR YOU

An information road map…

Select a topic broaden or narrow the focus as needed

Acquire an overview many choices online and in print

dictionaries encyclopedias other reference books, textbooks, compendiums…

Pursue two important research routes books the Libraries’ catalog; then WorldCat, and other databases that cover books

periodical articles from databases or bibliographies of other articles or books

Expand your information sources Internet—reliable websites, open access archives, video, news, free

content, and shared knowledge but evaluate! Reliable and verifiable, or opinions, advertisements, insubstantial or questionable content, maybe fees, too?

associations their websites, publications, conferences

experts knowledgeable individuals, faculty, researchers

To connect to the UA Libraries use the link under Academics or go to http://libinfo.uark.edu

The homepage opens with a central search box for periodical articles. Help with library research is available many ways.

Ask a Librarian directs you to 24/7 chat (through QuestionPoint, a national library chat service), or to local e-

mail reference, texting, and phone numbers

Research Help has short library video tutorials, subject specific help, citation assistance, and more. Link to LibGuides through the sunburst. http://uark.libguides.com/

The UA Quality Writing Center provides help and links to some excellent resources for APA citation style.http://qwc.uark.edu/resources/

On the homepage you can start by searching for articles in one of the popular packages or you can select the tab for books, for databases, music, journals we subscribe to, Interlibrary Loan, and more…

To find a book in the UA Libraries you’ll need to be able to read Library of Congress call numbers. Correct order below? YES

GV R RC RC RC RC 201 3 1200 1200 1200 1200

.J6 .A5 .M2 M354 M44 .M8

W35 B6

Read line by line.Third and fourth lines are ALWAYS

decimals.

We have electronic reference books, as well as journals. Some are in databases such as Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Credo is a new collection of electronic reference books we just added.

The number of electronic books is growing rapidly. Retrieve that format by adding “electronic text” to any keyword search.

Open the bibliographic record to find the link to the book.

When you are connecting from off-campus you will be asked for your UA username and password (same as e-mail).

If you want to find a periodical, click the Journals tab, then type enough of the journal name to be unique. Our exact holdings will be on the full bibliographic record, and the call number for print issues or the link for online holdings.

Be sure to register for Interlibrary Loan, which will give you an ILLiad account, and you may request materials we do not own. RazorRush. You can now also request scans of journal articles held in print in the main library and you can request books be retrieved from our shelves and held at Circulation for you to pick up.

Check the lower right of the Libraries’ homepage for information on the citation managers and open classes.

Database search techniques:

There are some basic tools for online searching in the library catalog and in databases1. Boolean logic2. Truncation3. Nesting4. Descriptors or subject headings5. Adjacency

1. Boolean Logic

Can be defined as the system of symbolic logic used to express relationships between individual concepts. It was developed by the English mathematician George Boole (1815-1864).

It is one of the most valuable tools of online searchingANDOR

NOT (sometimes AND NOT)

Sometimes called “Boolean connectors” this is how they operate

AND – narrows a search

OR – expands a search

NOT – narrows a search by elimination (in some databases it

must be expressed as “and not”)Venn diagram

2. TruncationAdding a character to a word root to retrieve variations of the word,

e.g., exercis* retrieves exercise, exercising, exercises

rehab* retrieves rehabilitate, rehabilitation, rehabilitatingwom?n “ women, woman, women’s

Truncation characters vary in different databases, e.g., ProQuest ? single letter or * for any # LexisNexis Academic * single letter or ! for any # different! EBSCO databases * WorldCat + simple plurals or * for any # Library catalog * for any #

You can find the specific truncation requirements in the search tips for each database located under the to the right of the database name on the A-Z list. * The asterisk is the most common.

3. Nestingis the use of parentheses to group concepts

so that the computer performs the correct matches.

add a 3rd concept for a more specific search (a or b) and (c or d or e) and (f or g)

(counsel* or thera*) and (ADHD or attention deficit or ADD) and (child* or student*)

Tip: Usually 3 concepts overlapped is the ideal, but occasionally another line with a 4th concept can be added. Don’t keep piling on words like you do in Google where the space is read as “and”.

4. Descriptors or subject headings

are assigned to a citation from a prescribed list and indicate what topics the publication is about. This “controlled terminology,” which varies with different databases, is the key to finding the most relevant citations in a database.

for example: Library of Congress subject headings PsycInfo descriptors Medical subject headings ERIC descriptors

5) For adjacency

Enclose the phrase in quotes, e.g.

“Association for Counselor Education and Supervision”

(works in many databases, as well as Google)

The UA Libraries purchase many good databases:

ERIC -- the U.S. government’s education database is one of the best. We have it from several different sources, but the content is the same. You need use only one. The Ebsco interface may already be familiar. The USDE is open access for all.

Ebsco Academic Search Complete—many journals, many subject areas covered

ProQuest Research Library—many journals, many subject areas, some journals differ from those in the Ebsco databases, good coverage of education journals

PsycInfo PsycARTICLES

There are many more, consider databases in content areas

The Ebsco packages have a number of special features worth learning about.

Using the thesaurus will help you select the best terminology for that database.

Improve your search strategy by selecting descriptors from relevant citations you find initially or by using the thesaurus to build groups of reasonable combinations.

You can also use the dropdown menu for field labels. This allows you to focus the retrieval more accurately.

The dropdown allows you to search within a specific field such as descriptors, journal title, article title, or author.

Using the Find It button

If a link for the full text of an article does not appear in the citation use Find It! to see whether the UA Libraries have a subscription, and if not, to connect to Interlibrary Loan.

Find It! and Interlibrary Loan

Register for ILLiad, Interlibrary service. When you request the article through Find It!, the required info (author, article title, journal name, vol & issue number) is usually transported for you, but proofread the request screen. It usually takes only about 2 days to receive the article electronically.

Save search strategies, as well as citations, in Ebsco or ProQuest databases. You may want to use citation software such as RefWorks or Zotero, which accept citations from almost any database and will interact with MS Word to make a citation in a your own paper and create a bibliography.

You can set up an EBSCOhost account or you can use a temporary folder while you are working.

Just click the folder to save citations in your Ebsco account and use the Alert/Save/Share to save or to e-mail the search

strategy.

Add the citations you’re interested in to a folder.

Your strategies are saved as “persistent links” and your citations reside in folders you set up. You can move them to RefWorks.

You can create multiple folders to organize different research projects.

Using Google for some work may be acceptable, especially Google Scholar, if you evaluate your retrieval. The advanced features help focus a search and the citations may help you develop a better strategy back in the subscription databases purchased by the UA Libraries.

Establishing some parameters can give better retrieval.

Scholar now…

The “cited by” feature retrieves other articles that comment on, or refer to, that article—an approach to research developed by ISI’s Web of Science. See the Libraries’ list of databases to use it. Taking a few citations back into the Libraries’ databases can help you determine the best descriptors or subject headings to develop a good search strategy and retrieve more articles.

More resources… online researching, a few sites to try, but don’t neglect the scholarly publications and the databases we’ve been explaining:

http://www.npr.org/ http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Citize

ndium http://www.scholarpedia.org/ http://knol.google.com/k died May 2012…

http://www.factcheck.org/ http://www.edutopia.org/

Instabili

ty?

Scholarly journals in your field…

See Cabell’s Education Directories, available on the databases by title list, or search a topic in the databases to see which journals have published articles on that topic

Ulrichsweb, global serials directory, describes journals, very large database, but not the detail of Cabell’s

Some suggested databases: ERIC documents online AND articles

ArticleFirst many journals, fast

ABI Inform business

CINAHL nursing, kinesiology, health

Compendex engineering, technology, computers

Health Source Ebsco Academic Search

Complete, Business Source, Communication & Mass Media,

& other Ebsco packages PsycInfo psychology, learning,

PsycArticles

Credo Reference Gale Virtual Reference Library Google Scholar peer reviewed journals, “cited by”

Lexis Nexis Academic newspapers, mags

Ingenta many journals, fast indexing

Medline medical research, rehab, psychological

Newspaper Source Physical Education Index Web of Science ProQuest Research Library ProQuest Dissertations full text of many

WorldCat largest bibliographic database for books in libraries all over the world, also Internet sites, audiovisual material, journals, but NOT journal articles

There are many more!

Warning!

You will be likely to hit a “pay wall” if you don’t use the UA Libraries’ catalog to find journals

Go through the library catalog to retrieve the bibliographic records and open each record in full to see the UA online holdings or the print holdings for that journal. There are often multiple records with different years of the journal.

LibGuides are prepared by librarians for many subject areas. Click the sunburst icon for the prepared by library faculty at the UA.There is one for higher education, and others for related areas.

Numerous issues are facing higher education. Consider associations which direct their attention to this...

Other higher education associations, for example,

ACE American Council on Education AASCU American Assn. of State Colleges and Universities AACC American Assn. of Community Colleges ASHE Association for the Study of Higher Education IHEP Institute for Higher Education Policy

etc.

one list is available at:http://www.ihep.org/Resources/organizations.cfm

News, for example… University World News http://www.universityworldnews.com/ register for e-mail

Education Week http://library.uark.edu/record=b1004516~S1

Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/

University of Arkansas Newswire:

Higher education has a responsibility to prepare students for decision making through the wise use of information. What are the challenges to information literacy?

Easy availability of online content, but evaluate

Reliability of sources Understanding of the publication cycle Ability to evaluate Recognition of opinions/agendas versus facts Struggle between open access and fee-based Human inclination to value info they agree with

To learn more about information literacy, one reliable resource is:http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency

Contact any librarian for additional help.There are other subject specialists, such as

Thank you for your attention