MSc Social Work Library and Information Skills training (Royal Holloway, University of London)

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Library & Information Training for 1st Year MSc Social Workhttp://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/socialwork

Autumn 2017

Emma Burnett

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To begin …

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http://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/library

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My essay question / research topic:

What do I want to find out?

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Developing a search strategy

1. Identify keywords that define your research question

2. Select relevant information sources

3. Evaluate and modify your searches

4. Select and save results

5. Locate copies of promising texts

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Identifying key concepts & keywords

Alternative terms e.g. governance / policy / regulation

Alternative spellings e.g. colour or color; theatre or theater

Changing terminologye.g. global warming / climate change

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Analysing your query - an example

Finding information on: ‘What is the impact of early intervention on at risk children?’

Main aspects Alternative terms /

synonyms

1. Early intervention Timely support, prevention

2. Children Infants, babies

3. At risk Deprivation, abuse, neglect,

danger, welfare

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Now that I know what I want to find out:

What resources would I use?

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Selecting information sources

Library Subject Page for Social Work:

Online databases

LibrarySearch

Senate house library catalogue

Other internet resources

These can also be found on the main Library webpage

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Types of Resources

BooksJournals Statistics

Websites Databases Reports

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Now that I know what I want to find out & where to find the resources:

How do I search for information on my topic?

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Reviewing your results – hints & tips

Too many results?

Narrow your search using:

• AND

e.g. children AND risk

• “Phrase searching”

e.g. “early intervention” AND children AND risk

• NOT

e.g. “early intervention” NOT education

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Reviewing your results – hints & tips

Too few results?

Broaden your search using: OR

e.g.

children OR infants

(“early intervention” OR “timely support”) AND children

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Wildcard searching – hints & tips

Use wildcard characters ($ ? * -) to replace letters in

search terms

Examples

depriv* - finds deprivation, deprive, deprived etc.

wom?n - finds women, woman.

NB: Help pages in online databases will explain

which character is used as the wildcard

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Now that I have found information on my topic:

How do I know that it is what I want and good quality

material?

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Evaluating Information

Presentation on evaluating information

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Now that I have the information (books, chapters, journal articles, webpages

etc) that I need:

How do I manage & reference them?

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Selecting & saving results & full text

Most databases allow you to:

Select and save results to a ‘folder’

Save, download or email results to yourself

Save search ‘history’ & re run them

Always make a note of your search queries and which database you used.

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Citation and referencing

Acknowledge the author of the source

Enable the item to be traced

Evidence of scope and depth of your research

Reference style – the layout & format of your bibliography – see department referencing handbook

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RefWorks

• Bibliographic management software

• Capture, save and organise references

• Access it via the Online Resources A-Z lists

• Contains online self-help tutorials

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Using other libraries

Senate House Library https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/library/usingourlibraries/otherlibraries/senatehouselibrary.aspx

SCONUL Access Schemehttps://www.sconul.ac.uk/sconul-access

Libraries with Social Work collections http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/c.php?g=380501&p=2578029

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Access online resources off-campus

Royal Holloway ‘Campus Anywhere’ (VPN)

The only way to access all of our electronic resources off campus is to install the Virtual Private Network (VPN) service, known as 'CampusAnywhere'.

How to set up the VPN connection: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/it/faq/itfaqs/vpn/faqwebvpn.aspx

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Any questions?

For more help & guidance on any of the topics explored in this course, or for one to one training sessions, please contact the Library’s Information Consultant for Social Work:

Emma Burnett emma.burnett@royalholloway.ac.uk

and see the subject guide http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/SocialWork

Further information can also be found on the Library website www.royalholloway.ac.uk/library