Sub sections:
Choosing the right tools
When you are looking for information with which to answer an assignment question, you can choose from a number of tools:
- Library catalogues: these will allow you to find books and journals about your topic held by different libraries.
- Journal indexes: these help you find specific journal articles written about your topic.
- Web search engines: search engines and other Web discovery tools make it easy for you to find relevant materials on the World Wide Web.
- Teaching staff: your unit-coordinator or lecturer is often the best person to consult if you are looking for information. However, he or she will probably expect you to have a go first before asking for help.
- Other experts: these people include librarians and other information professionals who can help you find information quickly.
If you want to use books, journals or audio-visual materials, then a library catalogue is usually the best tool. Online catalogues can tell you which items are held by a particular library, both physically in the building and electronically. In addition, an online catalogue will indicate the location of such resources and whether or not they are available to be borrowed. Most library catalogues, including the UNE University Library catalogue, will also tell you if a particular journal is available in full-text electronically.
You can access the University Library catalogue over the Web. To check the holdings of other libraries in Australia, you can connect to the Australian Libraries Gateway.
Although journal articles are a useful source of current, authoritative information, they are not listed individually in library catalogues. An online catalogue will tell you if a particular journal is available at the library concerned, but it won't tell you the titles or authors of the individual articles in any particular volume. To find relevant articles, you need to make use of journal indexes in print or electronic form.
 | Using Ebook Library If you want to read books online, try Ebook Library. Check the e-books page for other electronic book packages also. Click on the Play button below for a quick demo on using Ebook Library. 3.37min, 3.14MB  |
Journal indexes
It is important to distinguish between citation-only indexes and those that include abstracts. Some indexes just provide references or citations (ie bibliographical information): they tell you who wrote an article, what the article is called and (most importantly) where the article is published. Others include both citations and abstracts (these are brief summaries of what’s contained in each journal article). Increasingly journal indexes are available in electronic form, and a number now provide a large proportion of full-text articles from the thousands of journals they index.
Electronic journal indexes allow you to search years or decades of research in a few minutes. The print versions also give citations, and sometimes abstracts, but you will need to check the entries for each year separately.
The University Library subscribes to a large number of electronic journal indexes. Many of these are available through CSA and Informit. You can investigate others from the Resources page, including indexes which include full-text, such as ProQuest and Expanded Academic.
Later on in eSKILLS UNE, we will explain how to use electronic journal indexes in more detail.
When using electronic databases you can often click on 
to see whether a particular article is available in the University Library or through an electronic subscription. Alternatively, you can check in the catalogue to see if the library holds the journal and volume you want.
UNE students need to register online for a UNE username and password before accessing the Electronic indexes and journals available through the University Library.
The World Wide Web is a gigantic library of documents stored electronically on computers located all over the world. The range of information available can vary from family snapshots to complete encyclopedias. There are two main types of tools you can use to find your way through the maze:
- Search engines: these provide an index to the contents of Web pages. Examples are Google and Yahoo.
- Meta-search engines: these give results from a number of search engines and subject directories at the same time. Metacrawler and Dogpile are some of the best known meta-search engines.
The University Library site contains a list of major search engines and there is a separate section on using the Web elsewhere in eSKILLS UNE.
If you are an external student, your unit notes will probably contain a list of suggested readings. In addition, teaching staff generally prepare lists of essential readings for their internal students. Many of these essential readings are available either electronically or for short term loans from the Reserve Collections in Dixson Library and the Law Library. You can check for Reserve Collection materials in the catalogue by using course codes or lecturers names.
If what you need is not in your unit notes or reading lists, then don't be afraid to approach your lecturer or unit-coordinator for advice.
Ask at the nearest library Information Desk. Library staff are expert at finding information and in assisting students with their enquiries. Telephone Dixson Library Information Desk on 02 6773 2458 during opening hours or use the Ask a Librarian service.
Law students can contact the Law Library on 02 6773 2322 or email lawlib@une.edu.au.
The Academic Skills Office also offers many services, including workshops and online resources.
Computing help is provided by the IT Service Desk. Telephone 02 6773 5000 or email servicedesk@pobox.une.edu.au.
Summary
There are a number of different ways to find information. You can consult:
- Library catalogues
- Printed journal indexes
- Electronic resources
- People (academic staff and librarians)
It's up to you which of these you choose to consult. Let's look at how to use these tools to retrieve information.
It is important to distinguish between citation-only indexes and those that include abstracts. Some indexesjust provide references or citations (ie bibliographical information): they tell you who wrote an article, what the article is called and (most importantly) where the article is published. Others include both citations and abstracts (these are brief summaries of what’s contained in each journal article). In addition, many resources which provide abstracts also provide subject descriptors.
 | Self-test Try these quick self-test questions to assess what you have learnt from this module. |
