Internet Research MCC Library Central
Study Skills Series
Internet Research Finding things on the internet is something we do all the time. If we want to find a holiday or research a destination, find a way of getting there or look for the best deal we do some basic research. The way we do this depends on the amount of information which is available on that subject. If you’re researching for your academic study, the same is true and there are different ways of approaching your research and methods you can use. The first thing to do is to understand your task. For any piece of academic work you will be required to undertake research. At the very least this will include: Background reading to explore the subject Identifying the leading figures for this topic Some investigation into the variety of views held on the subject Some specialist reading, i.e. recent journal articles or a set text on the given topic. Your first port of call would usually be the college library as they have many text books based around your subject area. All you need to take a book out of the library is your student ID card so make sure you have it with you at all times. The college library has a range of services including: Textbooks (you can take out 6 items overall) Ebooks: Dawson Era, Ebrary, Bookboon, Project Gutenberg Online Databases that we subscribe to: Anatomy and Physiology Online, British Library Sound Archive, Hairdressing Training, Infotrac, JISC Historic Books, JISC Journal Archives, JISC Media Hub and Marketline Academic journals (hard copy and online) Open Access resources (peer reviewed) Photocopiers Computers DVDs and CDs Specialist resources for students with disabilities Staff to support you on how to use the library facilities Library catalogue (available online from anywhere http://library.midchesh.ac.uk) If you’re going to search on the internet, you have access to a great deal of information including: http://library.midchesh.ac.uk http://pcbooker.midchesh.ac.uk http://librarycentralmcc.blogspot.co.uk/
Any queries please contact: library@midchesh.ac.uk 01606 720646 winsfordlibrary@midchesh.ac.uk 01606 720652
Internet Research MCC Library Central
Study Skills Series Newspapers Government papers and data Company data Magazines Financial data Library catalogues This information is available in a variety of types including sound, film and interactive pages. You may need to be cautious with the results you find as anyone can put any information on to the internet. Before quoting information you’ve found, it’s important that you check who’s provided it and whether the source is authoritative. This is called the “provenance” of the information. Also information can become out of date very quickly, with books it’s easy to see the date of publication and the condition of the book but with the internet, it’s a bit more difficult to decipher when the information was put on there. Equally, make sure that you’ve entered the correct search terms. You can develop skills to help you find the right information. To save yourself time and effort, choose your search string with care: Select keywords that best describe what you’re looking for Consider other words with the same meaning, synonyms i.e. ‘town’, ‘city’, ‘urban’, ‘metropolitan’. Use a combination of keywords To help you refine your search try using these three words, known as ‘Boolean Operators’: o AND - eg ‘fish and chips’ - results will only have records with both words in o OR – eg ‘fish or chips’ - results will have either or both of these words in o NOT – eg ‘fish not chips’ - will have results for fish but not chips You can vary your search by using wildcards (?) and truncations (*) depending on how many results you get. Use advanced searches i.e. in “google” you can search for more options like books, scholar, pictures, maps etc. or you can put in a search string with other parameters.
http://library.midchesh.ac.uk http://pcbooker.midchesh.ac.uk http://librarycentralmcc.blogspot.co.uk/
Any queries please contact: library@midchesh.ac.uk 01606 720646 winsfordlibrary@midchesh.ac.uk 01606 720652
Internet Research MCC Library Central
Study Skills Series Tools You can use Microsoft OneNote, which is a type of note-taking software. Capture text, images, video and audio notes, and keep information available in one spot. We have a OneNote Guide available to help you. Popular search engines Here are some of the most popular websites used for searching: www.google.co.uk www.yahoo.com www.excite.co.uk http://uk.altavista.com Subject gateways Here are some useful academic websites or gateways you can use, instead of doing a random search. www.bubl.ac.uk www.ipl.org http://scholar.google.co.uk/ URL A ‘url’ is the address of the web page you are accessing. eg: http:// - tells your browser how to deal with the website it is about to open www.midchesh - name of the website or organisation .ac - type of website or organisation .uk - which country runs the website Codes What do the different endings of web addresses mean? .gov - a government server or website .ac, .edu - academic, educational, college or university website or server .co, .com - commercial or company servers such as Tesco or the BBC .org – non-government or non-profit organisations, such as charities MMU Guide for External Students (for students studying at Mid Cheshire) University of Chester - Link to Learning Resources University of Chester - Library Search engine
http://library.midchesh.ac.uk http://pcbooker.midchesh.ac.uk http://librarycentralmcc.blogspot.co.uk/
Any queries please contact: library@midchesh.ac.uk 01606 720646 winsfordlibrary@midchesh.ac.uk 01606 720652