WISER Focus on

Resources for Geography and Environment

An introduction to the major electronic resources available

Sue Bird & Judith Pinfold Feb. 2009

WISER on Geography

• SOLO, OLIS & OXLIP+ • Reference works • Databases • Searching techniques

WISER on Geography • SOLO

: Search Oxford Libraries Online • Search and discovery tool for the Oxford Libraries' vast collections of resources. • Mainly OLIS (Oxford's union catalogue of printed and electronic books and journals) • Title link to the 800+ databases on OxLIP+

WISER on Geography

• Using SOLO or OLIS Catalogue – Subject searching • tw=community forestry • sw=community forestry

WISER on Geography • Use SOLO or OxLIP+ to access

• Reference tools • Electronic newspapers • Abstracting and Indexing services

Electronic resources

OxLIP+ :

Oxford Libraries Information Platform • Access to Electronic Resources available in Oxford (i.e. those the University has subscribed to, which isn’t everything) • • N.B. :Web version will only give approx 25% access outside of the Oxford Domain unless –

O

xford account

S

ingle

S

ign-on (i.e. Web-Mail)

Reference Sources



General reference tools.

• CREDO Reference (formerly Xreferplus)= Reference works incl. Dictionaries, encyclopedias etc • Encyclopaedia of Life Science; International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

• Dictionaries. OED; Oxford Reference On-line

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/guides//maps/

Newspapers

•

Electronic newspapers

– Some are freely available. Alphabetic list on OxLIP+ – Best source for the “Text Only” of huge range of newspapers and magazines is

Nexis UK

from

Lexis-Nexis

. Goes back approximately 10 yrs in most cases and is very current i.e. today’s daily news items

Newspapers Legal information, cases etc.

• Lexis Nexis Butterworths • WestLaw – both UK & US editions (if necessary ask the Law Library – specifically Angela Carritt – for help)

References / Bibliography

Organize your research and manage your database of references

• Include citations while you write your paper • Build a bibliography in a variety of formats • Import references from many different data sources • Create bibliographies in different document formats (Word, RTF, HTML, etc.)

References / Bibliography

EndNote

system: Web version available within the Oxford domain http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/eresources Also a software package that you purchase from O.U.C.S. but you then have it permanently • Courses laid on ( http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk

)

References / Bibliography

RefWorks

http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/eresources/refworks • Refworks is a free (whilst you are at Oxford) web-based bibliographic software package. You pay an annual fee after you leave.

• Being web-based means no software to download and update, and you can access your personal account from any computer connected to the web.

• various courses laid on by OUCS e.g. RefWorks level 2 ( http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk

)

WISER on Geography

•

Abstracting and Indexing Services

• Vast range.

• • • •

SCOPUS (includes GEOBASE) OVID SP Cambridge Scientific Abstracts Web of Knowledge

SCOPUS

Research Service from Elsevier +++ Includes GeoBase Searches abstracts Full text links to Oxford e-journals -- Initially limited to Elsevier & associated publishers but now much broader coverage

Databases vs. Search engines

• Contents are indexed by subject specialists • Subject headings • Limiting functions e.g. publication types, language Allow you to • View Search history • Combine searches • Mark and sort results • Print/save/email/export • Save searches • Set up alerts • Searches done by automated “web crawlers” • No thesaurus / subject headings – just free text searching • No limiting functions • Usually none of these!

Bibliographic Databases

Bibliographic Databases

•

OVIDSP

• Biosis Previews – biogeography • CAB Abstracts – biogeography • Forest Science (Ovid) - biogeography • GeoRef – physical geography & geology • EconLit – economic geography • Zoological Abstracts - biogeography

WISER on Geography

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts

– Various useful databases (not just science) – Full text journal link to SfX (but not all journals are available electronically) – Recommend you use Advanced searching – Similar search mechanisms to other databases using keywords etc.

– can print, emails results etc

WISER on Geography

EBSCO Host

• International Bibliography of the Social Sciences • Historical Abstracts • Full text journal link to SfX (but not all journals are available electronically)

WISER on Geography

•

Web of Science/Knowledge

– Includes Science, Social Science & Arts and Humanities Citation Indexes – Citation indexes can be used in the same way as any other abstracting and indexing service. Their extra facility is the option to search the bibliographies of any articles- a citation search. Academics use the citation index to find out who has cited their work.

Bibliographic Databases

Search :- Community Forest* & India 2000-2009 Results so far: SOLO: 220 books & journals inc e-access SOLO: 65 items as an ‘exact phrase’ OLIS : tw=60 books sw=100 books Scopus = 413 or 37 articles Ovid = 251 after de-duplication of 478 articles & book chapters C.S.A = 287 or 41 articles EbscoHost = 5 articles W.o.K. = 231 or 38 articles Google Scholar = 1,100 book reviews, articles, etc.

Bibliographic Databases

Search Tip : 1 – Important to remember that although each database covers thousands of journal titles no single database is ever comprehensive.

– If you are having difficulty finding material on a topic use the keywords you find in any relevant reference and search again.

WISER on Geography

Search Tip : 2

Take time to explore the various databases & platforms available.

Some will be more useful to you than others.

• Scopus • OvidSP • Cambridge Scientific Abstracts • Web of Knowledge but there are others – e.g. International Bibliography of the Social Sciences via EbscoHost http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/services/information_skills/wiser

Bibliographic Databases

Search Tip : 3 – Uses Boolean Logical Operators AND, OR, NOT and additional proximity operators Adj (literally adjacent); Near(same sentence); With(same field) – Field descriptors: AU(author); TI(title); AB (abstract); SO(source or reference); DE (general descriptor) etc – Combining searches: #1 and #2

WISER on Geography

• • • • •

Search Tip : 4

Consider subject synonyms & British and US spellings.

Apply truncation, usually * to find plurals/alternative word endings and ? to replace a single character.

Expand search by following hypertext links esp subject headings Use tagging facilities within database to mark articles for printing, emailing, downloading or exporting.

Authors names: Check the online help for formats. Use the database index to find different forms of author’s name, otherwise truncate first initial.

WISER on Geography • Three ways to keep up to date:

• Saving and rerunning searches – it again in the future.

you save a search and run • E-mail alert – you can specify a search to be repeated and the results emailed to you at chosen intervals or Zetoc will tell you when the next issue of a journal is available.

• Citation Alert – you will receive an email each time a particular article is cited in another WoK or Scopus or OvidSP indexed article.

WISER on Geography

• Apart from Bibliographic Electronic Resources there are some factual databases available via OxLIP+ e.g.: • World development indicators, • OECD Data • Eurostat Data • Demographic Yearbook etc.

Further assistance:

This presentation will be available on-line

http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/services/training/wiser/presentations

Please ask a Librarian if you get stuck trying to use any of the resources or would like advice on the most suitable databases for your enquiries

WISER on Geography

Today’s Subject Librarians are: • [email protected]

(Geography) • [email protected]

(Plant Sciences & Forestry)