Transcript Mental Health and Youth Justice Lab: Library Session Yolanda Koscielski, Psychology & Criminology Librarian October 24, 2014

Mental Health and Youth Justice
Lab: Library Session
Yolanda Koscielski, Psychology & Criminology Librarian
October 24, 2014
Objectives
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Part I
1. Create a systematic search strategy using
subject headings and keywords
2. Use search operators
Part II
3. Make use of a range of SFU library resources
in your research
Research Process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Identify key concepts
Find related terms
Search each concept separately
Combine concepts
Modify
Example topic
Discuss the impact of the media on the body
image of young women.
•Identify key concepts
•Brainstorm synonyms and related words for
each concept
Example topic
Discuss the impact of the media on the
body image of young women.
•Identify key concepts
•Brainstorm synonyms and related words
for each concept
Topic Scope
• Do you have a subject area, topic, or thesis?
– Subject is very broad: freedom of information,
Charter of Rights and mental illness
– Topic adds a second concept, explores a relationship
or question between the two concepts:
testosterone levels in sex offenders, effect of art
therapy on recidivism
– Thesis: you are making an assertion and providing
supportive evidence: Art therapy decreases
recidivism in young offenders
Example topic - Scope
•Media:
•Body Image:
•Young Women:
Example topic
•Media: television, magazines, movies, films, celebrities, music, fashion,
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
•Body Image: self esteem, self concept, body conscious, identity
•Young Women: teenage, teenager, teen, youth, adolescent, adolescence,
women, woman, female
Tips:
- consider the terminology of the time period
- consider narrowing of your focus (ie. Media is a big topic,
magazines is a more manageable topic)
Subject headings
Subject headings: a systematic, hierarchical, and finite
language used for describing subjects/concepts.
Articles and books will usually have 3-8 subject
headings assigned to their citation or bibliographic
record. This is human indexing.
Keyword searching linked to computer indexing
Subject headings
• Subject headings/descriptors are a standard field in
most databases
• Subject Headings are unique to each database:
• MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) of PubMed
• PsycINFO subject headings for PsycINFO
• Can start with thesaurus directly or use a keyword
search
• Sometimes keywords = subject headings
• Examples – catalogue, Medline (anemia)
Why use Subject Headings
keyword
Type A
personality
PsycINFO
subject heading
Coronary
Prone
Behavior
Subject headings
Example: in thesaurus, media  social media
BT (Broader Terms)
NT (Narrower Terms)
RT (Related Terms)
EXPLODE
Field searching, limit to title
Search Strategies
Boolean Operators
• Connect concepts
(magazine AND body image)
• Search for related terms
(teen OR youth OR adolescent)
• Exclude irrelevant terms
(woman NOT man)
AND / OR
Magazines AND body image
Magazines
Body
image
Magazines OR body image
Search Strategies - Characters
•Searching for a phrase – use quotation marks
“body image”
•Alternative spellings & endings – use wildcards (asterisks)
after the root of the word
Teen* picks up teen, teens, teenage, teenager, teenagers
Putting it all together
(DE "Social Media") OR Facebook OR LinkedIN OR Twitter
AND
(DE "Body Image“) OR “body image” OR (DE "Body Image Disturbances")
AND
teen* OR adolescen*
Search Limits can be used as well (e.g., Age Groups)
Practice
- Complete worksheet Part I with your individual
topic
- Search your topic in PsycINFO thesaurus
- What are some relevant PsycINFO subject headings?
- Are there any Broader Terms, Narrower Terms, or
Related Terms you might consider
Practice Review
• Times Cited Feature
• Search sets – EBSCO interface
– Saving searches – keeping track of combinations
• De-duping in citation software
Tools
What are your favourite search tools?
• List your top three research resources
Fast Search
Library Search
SFU Library’s
matryoshka dolls
Catalogue
aussiegall. (2006). Russian dolls. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/288377539/
Catalogue
•Does NOT index journal articles individually
•When doing a keyword search, search terms are highlighted
in the library record
•Check out Subject Headings at the bottom of the record for
related material
SFU’s “Google” – Fast Search
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•Books
•eBooks
•Journal Articles
•Newspaper Articles
•Images
•Videos/DVDs
•Music
All catalogue
content, PLUS
journal articles +
newspaper articles
– *many*
•Maps
•SFU
theses/dissertations
•Government
documents
•Sound recordings (CBC
Ideas)
Fast Search
• Is really great, but…
– Subject terms not useful for literature review
– Missing journal content; coverage is maybe 95% of
SFU Library content
– Not mapped to a specific subject, with associated
search limiters and features (controlled
vocabularies, populations, etc.)
– Lots of citation “noise”
– Peer-review limit facet not completely accurate
(as with most databases)
Library Search
Library Search
Criminology 220
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All catalogue content,
PLUS Fast Search
Content, PLUS the
library’s website,
Summit, Best Bets,
external pages.
Subject Databases
• Mapped to a disciplinary perspective
• High-quality, detailed metadata allows for limits and
collocation related to your field
• Specialized material (e.g., PsycTESTS, Canadian policy
papers in the Canadian Public Policy Collection)
Some Google Strengths
1. Known-item searching
2. Long-tail searching (when search terms are
rare and low-occurring)
3. Times Cited tool (covers grey lit)
4. Books – out-of-copyright full-text access,
locating a quote
5. One search box
6. US case law, grey literature, academic
websites, Institutional Repositories
7. Extremely user-friendly
Some Google Weaknesses
1. Low level of subject + author collocation
2. Not mapped to a specific discipline
3. Less search sophistication & manipulation (e.g.
limits to “academic” lit, format type)
4. Missing deep data (e.g., statistics)
5. Not usually free
• Search via library
6. Mysterious algorithms (Coverage? Publishers?
Opposite of transparent sources like PsycINFO).
7. Dirty data (e.g., citations, data scraped)
Encyclopedias
• Overview of your topic / the “big picture”
• Particularly helpful if working outside your area
• Written with the academic in mind, often by specialists in
the field
• Use the bibliography to identify key articles, studies,
authors, etc.
• Gale Virtual Reference Library (multiple subject areas)
• Sage eReference Library ( about 15 Crim titles)
• Check Research Guides + Online Reference Sources web page
• Demo
PsycTESTS
• Indexes 18,000+ Psychology tests, measures,
assessments
• Mostly unpublished, non-commercial test
• Scoring key usually not included
• Descriptive test information + links to materials
describing test (in peer-reviewed literature,
technical reports, & dissertations).
• (Demo)
Oxford Bibliographies Online
-Subject modules for Criminology + Psychology
-Written and peer-reviewed by international
experts
•
•
“Crime Victims' Rights Movement”
“Routine Activity Theories”
Provides:
• Key Readings
• Ideas for additional keywords for searching
• Background info if you are new to an area
• Demo
Sage Research Methods Online
• Database of Sage books, journals, & reference
content on research methodologies:
– 600+ books
– Dictionaries, Encyclopedias and Handbooks
– Complete "Little Green Book" and "Little Blue Book"
series
– Two major works collating a selection of journal
articles
Digital Dissertations
• Masters Theses and PhD Dissertations
• Limit to SFU
– Dissertations & Theses @ Simon Fraser University
• Or search globally
– Digital Dissertations
Practice
• Part II of handout
– Finding known citations
– Exploring SFU resources
• Journal title search in catalogue
Need more help?
Yolanda Koscielski
[email protected]