Your dissertation and ILS
information learning services
Contents Your dissertation
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Finding the resources you need
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Digital Trainers
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Academic Liaison Librarians
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Help with search
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Help with referencing
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Your dissertation and ILS
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Your dissertation Your dissertation involves researching an area of interest in more depth than you will have done in any previous assignment. ILS will work with you to get the most out of this experience when it comes to the Library’s resources (including search techniques, where to look and evaluating what you find), making the most of ICT and academic technologies, Print Services and media for collecting and analysing data.
ILS will work with you to get the most out of your dissertation experience To remind yourself of the full range of what ILS offers (eg borrowing rights, study spaces, PC and Mac access, equipment available for loan, opening times) that were outlined at the beginning of your studies, check our Welcome to ILS guide: www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils/welcome The Service Desk is your first point of contact for any queries you may have.
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Your dissertation and ILS
Finding the resources you need When you are getting started with your dissertation, don’t forget to check for recommended reading from your tutors on the general concepts of carrying out research in your subject area. The reading lists will be in Moodle, or check the ILS reading lists: www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils/readinglists You will have used the library catalogue to find books, journal articles and other resources in previous work. ILS offers access to lots of other specialist search tools that will help you with the in-depth study you are now undertaking. The study skills you have already learned can be built upon in using these, to get the most appropriate information for your needs. Some resources are subject specific, eg PsycInfo (a comprehensive search tool for Psychology journal articles and books chapters), whilst others focus on a specific format, eg Box of Broadcasts (a media archive, a bit like BBC iPlayer, but with a much longer and wider back-catalogue of TV and radio programmes that have been aired across a number of channels). See our databases page for more: www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils/databases
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Work with ILS to make the most of the research experience
Digital Trainers Do you need help formatting a long document? Need to learn how to get that page numbering right? How about getting a table of contents sorted?
Based within ILS, Digital Training is dedicated to advising on all sorts of academic technologies. If you would like to find out more about using Word for a long piece of work, getting charts out of Excel, or using Mahara to collate a portfolio of evidence, Annette Webb and Ian Staite run bookable group workshops and 1-1 tutorials. For more information, training materials and their training blog, visit Digital Training online. www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils/digitaltraining E: digitaltraining@yorksj.ac.uk
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Your dissertation and ILS
Academic Liaison Librarians Doing your literature review? Would you like to work with someone who has expertise in searching for, evaluating and referencing information? The Academic Liaison Librarians are specialists in information finding, evaluation and use. Each programme has a dedicated librarian, so you will probably have met them over the course of your studies so far, and they may well contribute to your dissertation module. Each year they work with many dissertation researchers, bringing their experience of using journal search tools, various online searching techniques and the best places to obtain resources to the research project. See overleaf for some examples of the subjects covered in dissertation tutorials last year.
Over 200 final year students had bespoke tutorials with the Academic Liaison Librarians last year:
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Just writing to say thank you again for all your help during my dissertation, I got a mark of 76. My first first!” A big thank you for your assistance during our literature search - we all did really well and got good marks for the dissertation - and you helped us get the search right as the foundation for that” It will make my life so much easier…it has made finding a variety of resources quicker and easier.” This tutorial will make it easier to find relevant and up to date resources and how to reference them.” I will be able to find more links to theory which will help to support the points I make.” Now I will be more likely to use a wider range of materials from different sources as I know how to access them more easily.”
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Academic Liaison Librarians Subjects covered in dissertation tutorials include:
• using RefWorks to keep track of references and format them in the final dissertation • using Google Scholar to track how a key piece of research has been used elsewhere • using Box of Broadcasts to find news and sports broadcasts • planning a systematic search strategy for an extended literature review • hints and tips for using the best search words and tools in the Emerald business journal database
• finding newspaper articles from our 19th Century Newspapers database • obtaining books and journal articles from other UK libraries • finding reviews and critiques of particular films and books • how to document a search to show that the process was appropriate for the project
You can also contact the Academic Liaison Librarians via phone, e-mail, or in person.
Dissertation queries e-mailed to the Academic Liaison Librarians averaged fifty per month at the beginning of 2016. To find out the Academic Liaison Librarian for your programme, or to book a tutorial, visit www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils/ALL or e-mail the team at AcademicLiaisonTeam@yorksj.ac.uk
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Your dissertation and ILS
Academic Liaison Librarians – contact details
www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils/all E: academicliaisonteam@yorksj.ac.uk Lottie Alexander E: l.alexander@yorksj.ac.uk T: 01904 876696 Humanities, Religion & Philosophy, Performance & Media Production Rachel Hogg E: r.hogg@yorksj.ac.uk T: 01904 876696 Humanities, Religion & Philosophy, Art, Design, Computer Science Clare McCluskey Dean E: c.mccluskey-dean@yorksj.ac.uk T: 01904 876342 Education, Psychological & Social Sciences, Languages & Linguistics Jane Munks E: j.munks@yorksj.ac.uk T: 01904 876105 Business School, Psychological & Social Sciences, Languages & Linguistics Ruth Patterson E: r.patterson@yorksj.ac.uk T: 01904 876424 Health Sciences, Sport
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Help with search Find the search tools that work best for you and your subject area Google Scholar is a useful general resource for finding research. Often though, for a dissertation, you need a resource of a specific type (eg a newspaper article or an online talk) that just isn’t available there. You may also need to use a specific search strategy in subject search tools, using technical language, for your literature review. There are lots of these search tools available to you via ILS at www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils/databases The key search tools (databases) for various programme subject areas are listed right – access them through the databases page at www.yorksj.ac.uk/ ils/databases
Arts 17th, 18th and 19th Century Newspaper Collections; ACM Digital Library; Arts & Humanities Full Text; Classical Scores Library; Dance in Video; Film & Literature Index; International Bibliography of Art; International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance; JSTOR. Education and Social Science British Education Index; Child Development and Adolescent Studies; ChildLink; ERIC; International Bibliography of the Social Sciences; ProQuest Sociology Full Text; PsycInfo; SocIndex. Humanities and Theology ATLAReligion; Arts & Humanities Full Text; Historical Abstracts; JSTOR; SocIndex. Business Business Source Premier; Emerald; FAME; FT.com; Marketline; Mintel. Health, Sport, Psychology and Counselling AMED; CINAHL; Medline; OTSeeker; PEDro; PsycInfo; Science Direct; SPORTDiscus. Languages and Linguistics MLA Bibliography; PsycInfo; SocIndex.
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Your dissertation and ILS
Help with referencing Need help with referencing or keeping track of the resources you have used? If you haven’t used the ILS referencing guides before, these are available to you via the SMILE study skills package at www.yorksj.ac.uk/smile, or in Moodle (which also contains introductions to finding and evaluating information and using it ethically), or via the ILS webpages. If specific resources are proving tricky to reference, your Academic Liaison Librarian will work with you on figuring them out – drop them an e-mail or ask at the Service Desk. You may also have already started using RefWorks to help with your referencing. This web-based tool is designed to help you gather, manage, store and share references, and to compile instant citations and bibliographies in a variety of styles. To find out more, contact your Academic Liaison Librarian, or check out our online guide 10 Days of Refworks, which provides an introduction to the tool in ten easy steps: blog.yorksj.ac.uk/10daysRefWorks
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Extra resources What if the Library doesn’t have the resources that you need? A library service isn’t just about the online subscriptions to journals we buy for you, or the books we hold on the shelves. It’s also about making sure we keep avenues open to other information providers, so that you can make use of as many collections as possible. If you are researching and hit online payment requests, please don’t pay! There is probably a free alternative route which we can help you access. Here are some services that have been proven to be especially useful to dissertation researchers in the past:
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Your dissertation and ILS
Inter-library loans The Library seeks to buy resources for the taught aspects of your courses, but your individual research is specific to your own interests. This means other libraries may hold more material on your particular topic than we do. We will order these in for you via our inter-library loans team. We will request books, which are then made available for you to borrow, or ask for a photocopy of a journal article that you can keep. This service has no charge to you and there is no restriction on the total number of requests you may submit. Full details are on the ILS website. British Library reading rooms The British Library houses a reading room at Boston Spa, near Leeds. You are entitled to visit and read/copy from the items held there. Ask at the Service Desk for details, or visit the British Library website: www.bl.uk
Use other university libraries, with eduroam and SCONUL Access The SCONUL Access scheme allows you to either visit other university libraries to use their collections, or borrow from them, depending upon the type of course you are on. This is particularly useful if you are on placement or live near another university. The Service Desk can give you more information, or visit the SCONUL Access website at www.sconul.ac.uk/sconul-access Whilst you are at the majority of the participating universities, you will also be able to use their WiFi, via the eduroam service. If you have used WiFi on the YSJ campus you will have connected to eduroam before and you should be able to connect easily. In fact, eduroam also allows you to connect to WiFi throughout the city centre in York.
Open Access research Much of the research you access in journals or books is paid for by ILS subscriptions and that’s why you need to enter passwords for online access. However, there is a growing movement to ensure that as much research as possible is made available to the public, without payment or barriers. Because of this, a number of routes to find these works are being made available online. You’ll find some via established services such as Google Scholar and CORE, but plenty more are appearing. Contact your Academic Liaison Librarian if you want to discuss this further and see if it could be useful for your research.
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Research ethics and copyright You will be given lots of guidance about research ethics from your supervisor and in the taught aspect of your dissertation module.
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Your dissertation and ILS
If you feel you want to explore the issues surrounding copyright and intellectual property (e.g. if you want to use images or video from another source), ILS has specialists who can work with you. More information is available on the ILS web pages at www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils/copyright
Additional support ILS wants everyone to have access to the resources and expertise they need to carry out their research. We have a range of items available for loan from the Service Desk, such as large keyboards, roller ball mice and screen filters, as well as specialist software.
There is also provision for scanning or changes to loan periods for those with a disability or dyslexia, for example. This is outlined in more detail in our Additional Support booklet, or ask your Academic Liaison Librarian or the Service Desk.
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Print Services – printing your dissertation Print Services are available from the ILS Service Desk. They provide: • • • • • • •
printing photocopying stationery print Credits document and dissertation binding laminating scanning
Print Services also sell a number of products which may prove useful to you, from the stationery vending machines in Fountains and from the Service Desk. These include batteries, post-it notes, memory sticks, highlighters and notepads.
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Your dissertation and ILS
Document-binding can be done to your specifications. Options include comb binding (the most popular option), heat binding and stapling. E-mail a PDF of your dissertation to the team and they will do the rest for you. Alternatively, they can bind the printed pages if you prefer to print the document yourself first. Please allow plenty of time for binding your dissertation, we recommend a minimum of 48 hours. If you want more information on prices, options for printing, or any other advice please as at the Service Desk. www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils/printservices E: printservices@yorksj.ac.uk
Media Services – borrowing media equipment Do you need access to specialist media equipment?
When it comes to collecting data, such as recording interviews, some extra equipment may be useful. Media Services offer a range of cameras, audio/visual recorders and tablets for loan. Ask at the Service Desk for more information. www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils/mediaservices E:  mediaservices@yorksj.ac.uk
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Student Services It is not unusual to seek out extra support during the dissertation period, be it via ILS or by other services on campus. Student Services offer a range of learning support options, as well as health and wellbeing advice. www.yorksj.ac.uk/studentservices
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Your dissertation and ILS
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2nd edition, July 2016 © ILS at YSJ
Contact us Information Learning Services York St John University Lord Mayor’s Walk York YO31 7EX 01904 876696 | ils@yorksj.ac.uk | www.yorksj.ac.uk/ils
information learning services