When searching for information beyond the databases available via Locate, it is important to evaluate that information to ensure that it is appropriate for academic purposes. Searching on the internet can often produce an overwhelming amount of results and it can be difficult to decide what can be used in your assignments.
Rather than go into a lot of detail here, I have found a video from YouTube produced by a librarian that explains how to evaluate information using the CRAAP test. This acronym stands for, Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose and can be used as a guide to evaluation.
The video is available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAWhE0mj69I
There are plenty of other videos available on YouTube on this subject. Like the one above, many are produced by University libraries (often in the US), so you can ignore anything that is specific to their library.
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Using Google
There are times when it is necessary to search Google rather than one of the databases, but searching Google can often be frustrating; you get too many hits, many are not relevant, you are prompted for payment, there are issues of quality and bias etc.
There are techniques that you can use to minimise these problems.
Firstly if you are searching for journal articles and academic material, use Google Scholar. If you are searching on campus you will have the locateit link on the right hand side, which will enable you to check if we have access to the article. Some of the articles may be freely available, so look out for the pdf link. For others you can use the Document Delivery service which will cost £2 per article, so there is no need to purchase the article.
When working off-campus you can set Coventry University as your home university, so will get the Locateit link. To do this in Google Scholar, click on settings (top right hand corner), then 'Library Links'. You can then search for Coventry University and save it.
Searching can be improved by using the same techniques that you use when searching databases, such as "phrase searching". There is also an advanced search that you can access by clicking on the arrow at the end of the search box. The advanced search is still fairly basic, but it should make your search more focussed.
You can search for results from a specific site by putting site:[type of site or name of site], e.g. site:ac will return results from university websites. You can use this to search for results in specific websites too.
To eliminate irrelevant results use the minus sign (-) in front of the word you wish to exclude, e.g. Jaguar -car will find results for Jaguars, but not the car. When you use the minus sign there must be a space before it, but not after the word you wish to exclude.
The order of the words you put in the search box can also affect the results. If you are not getting what you are looking for, trying altering the order of the words.
Google soon remembers your searches and returns results it thinks you want to get, based on your past searches. This can sometimes be useful, e.g. for finding restaurants or shops selling specific products in your area, but could also be restrictive. If you want to eliminate this problem, if you are logged in to Google, go to settings to remove your browsing history. You might also want to try using DuckDuckgo.com instead of Google. This will give you different results that you may not find in Google.
When searching Goolgle, many people don't look beyond the first page. Try going a few pages in and you might find interesting results.
There are lots of other features that are worth exploring. Have a look at http://www.google.com/insidesearch/ for more information including the tips and tricks section.
There are techniques that you can use to minimise these problems.
Firstly if you are searching for journal articles and academic material, use Google Scholar. If you are searching on campus you will have the locateit link on the right hand side, which will enable you to check if we have access to the article. Some of the articles may be freely available, so look out for the pdf link. For others you can use the Document Delivery service which will cost £2 per article, so there is no need to purchase the article.
When working off-campus you can set Coventry University as your home university, so will get the Locateit link. To do this in Google Scholar, click on settings (top right hand corner), then 'Library Links'. You can then search for Coventry University and save it.
Searching can be improved by using the same techniques that you use when searching databases, such as "phrase searching". There is also an advanced search that you can access by clicking on the arrow at the end of the search box. The advanced search is still fairly basic, but it should make your search more focussed.
You can search for results from a specific site by putting site:[type of site or name of site], e.g. site:ac will return results from university websites. You can use this to search for results in specific websites too.
To eliminate irrelevant results use the minus sign (-) in front of the word you wish to exclude, e.g. Jaguar -car will find results for Jaguars, but not the car. When you use the minus sign there must be a space before it, but not after the word you wish to exclude.
The order of the words you put in the search box can also affect the results. If you are not getting what you are looking for, trying altering the order of the words.
Google soon remembers your searches and returns results it thinks you want to get, based on your past searches. This can sometimes be useful, e.g. for finding restaurants or shops selling specific products in your area, but could also be restrictive. If you want to eliminate this problem, if you are logged in to Google, go to settings to remove your browsing history. You might also want to try using DuckDuckgo.com instead of Google. This will give you different results that you may not find in Google.
When searching Goolgle, many people don't look beyond the first page. Try going a few pages in and you might find interesting results.
There are lots of other features that are worth exploring. Have a look at http://www.google.com/insidesearch/ for more information including the tips and tricks section.
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Annual Reports
I am frequently asked where to find annual reports. There are a number of places to look depending on the type, size of company and number of years required.
For larger UK companies FAME will provide all the financial information contained on the annual report. For most companies this information is available for 10 years. On FAME you can configue this information into a report and take out the bits you don't need.
For many companies the annual report is available on the company's website. However, you may need to search for it because they are not very prominant. Look in the 'about us' or 'corporate' section and the annual reports can usually be found under 'investor relations'. Often you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the webpage. It can be useful to look on the company's website because you can usually find highlights of the annual report and the interim reports. Usually a company will only keep the latest year's report. If you are interested in the non-financial information given in an annual report, such as the director's statement, forward strategy, review of the year's activities etc looking at the pdf version on the website is a good option.
There are other websites where you can get annual reports, such as Northcote, http://www.northcote.co.uk/ These are mainly for UK companies. The annual reports available are variable because it depends on the company making their report available to Northcote. Often you will find a number of years available.
If you are looking for the annual report of a smaller company, which will not be available on FAME or on their website you can apply to Companies House http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ All companies are required to submit their audited accounts each year (although the amount of detail required varies according to the size of the company). You will also need to pay a small charge for the accounts.
For larger UK companies FAME will provide all the financial information contained on the annual report. For most companies this information is available for 10 years. On FAME you can configue this information into a report and take out the bits you don't need.
For many companies the annual report is available on the company's website. However, you may need to search for it because they are not very prominant. Look in the 'about us' or 'corporate' section and the annual reports can usually be found under 'investor relations'. Often you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the webpage. It can be useful to look on the company's website because you can usually find highlights of the annual report and the interim reports. Usually a company will only keep the latest year's report. If you are interested in the non-financial information given in an annual report, such as the director's statement, forward strategy, review of the year's activities etc looking at the pdf version on the website is a good option.
There are other websites where you can get annual reports, such as Northcote, http://www.northcote.co.uk/ These are mainly for UK companies. The annual reports available are variable because it depends on the company making their report available to Northcote. Often you will find a number of years available.
If you are looking for the annual report of a smaller company, which will not be available on FAME or on their website you can apply to Companies House http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ All companies are required to submit their audited accounts each year (although the amount of detail required varies according to the size of the company). You will also need to pay a small charge for the accounts.
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
BSC - Searching for company information
The Enhanced Business Searching Interface used to be really useful for searching for company and industry information, but changes have been made and now there seems to be no real benefit in using it. I have found that the best way to find information about a company is to go into BSC in the usual way and click on the 'Company Information' tab at the top. You can search by company name or keyword to find companies in a sector. The search will give you anything related to that company including reports, journal articles etc.
In addition if you click on the 'more' tab you can search for company profiles which will give you a datamonitor report on a company. These are the detailed reports about a company and also include a SWOT analysis. Under the 'more' tab you will also see a link to business videos which are very useful.
You can also limit your search in BSC either in document type to company report or industry overview or by publication type to industry profile. Country reports are also very useful to get economic,industrial, political information about a country.
In addition if you click on the 'more' tab you can search for company profiles which will give you a datamonitor report on a company. These are the detailed reports about a company and also include a SWOT analysis. Under the 'more' tab you will also see a link to business videos which are very useful.
You can also limit your search in BSC either in document type to company report or industry overview or by publication type to industry profile. Country reports are also very useful to get economic,industrial, political information about a country.
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
OpenDOAR
Open DOAR http://www.opendoar.org/ is the Directory of Open Access Repositories. As well as a list of open access respositories it provides access to the contents of these repositories. These consist of the research outputs of universities and other research institutes from all over the world, including theses (doctoral, postgraduate and undergraduate), journal articles, discussion papers and book chapters. It covers all academic areas including business and economics. So, if you are looking to see what research has been done in your area or you just want to see what a thesis looks like, this is a good site to search. It is free and the contents are available in full text.
The searching is done using Google custom search and is a bit limited. Unless your search is very specific you do get a large number of hits, which can be a bit tricky to narrow down. There are no abstracts and the results are shown in relevance, rather than date order. You can't change them to date order either.
However, it is worth a look because of the academic content, it's global coverage and being freely available. It will also continue to grow and hopefully the search functions will be improved.
The searching is done using Google custom search and is a bit limited. Unless your search is very specific you do get a large number of hits, which can be a bit tricky to narrow down. There are no abstracts and the results are shown in relevance, rather than date order. You can't change them to date order either.
However, it is worth a look because of the academic content, it's global coverage and being freely available. It will also continue to grow and hopefully the search functions will be improved.
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
E-books databases
As well as searching for electronic books on Locate (library catalogue) there are also databases you can use. Ebrary and Myilibrary are the main ones, but you could also try the E-book collection from EBSCO. These can be found on the Subject Databases link on Locate.
The main advantage of searching these databases is that it enables you to search within the book and find chapters or part of chapters in the book. You will not be able to do this on Locate. This is particularly useful if you are looking for a book on a narrow topic and there is unlikely to be a whole book written about it.
When you have run your search the most relevant books will be at the top of the list, where the whole (or majority) of the book is about the searched topic. Further down, there will be chapters, followed by parts or mentions of your topic.
The main advantage of searching these databases is that it enables you to search within the book and find chapters or part of chapters in the book. You will not be able to do this on Locate. This is particularly useful if you are looking for a book on a narrow topic and there is unlikely to be a whole book written about it.
When you have run your search the most relevant books will be at the top of the list, where the whole (or majority) of the book is about the searched topic. Further down, there will be chapters, followed by parts or mentions of your topic.
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Refworks
Recently there seems to be increased interest in Refworks.
Refworks is a really useful tool to help you to store, manage and correctly insert references into your work. It is quite easy to use and there is a workbook that you can download to guide you through its features. This is available on the Referencing and Copyright section of the library webpage.
There are a number of different ways to use Refworks. You can use all of it or just part of it. You can simply use it as a place to store useful references that you have found and organise them into folders that relate to your assignments or projects. You can also use it to create a list of references that you can add to the end of your work. This is very easy to do. However, if you use it fully with the Write 'n Cite plug-in you can use it to insert references into your work and it will create the reference list at the end of your work. This will be in the correct CU Harvard style.
If you are an undergraduate student or don't have too many references in your work, you might choose to just create the list of references and not use the Write 'n Cite option. Using Write 'n Cite is probably most beneficial for post-graduates, researchers and anyone who has to manage a large number of references.
It is also possible to create accounts for collaborative projects, so if a number of people are searching for literature they can all add to it.
I have used it myself and found it to be a really useful tool that could potentially save a lot of time and effort and you know the references are going to be in the correct format.
A word of warning; you will need to use it when you first start searching for literature and begin your project. It will not save you much time if you try to add everything in afterwards; you would be just as quick doing it manually.
Refworks is a really useful tool to help you to store, manage and correctly insert references into your work. It is quite easy to use and there is a workbook that you can download to guide you through its features. This is available on the Referencing and Copyright section of the library webpage.
There are a number of different ways to use Refworks. You can use all of it or just part of it. You can simply use it as a place to store useful references that you have found and organise them into folders that relate to your assignments or projects. You can also use it to create a list of references that you can add to the end of your work. This is very easy to do. However, if you use it fully with the Write 'n Cite plug-in you can use it to insert references into your work and it will create the reference list at the end of your work. This will be in the correct CU Harvard style.
If you are an undergraduate student or don't have too many references in your work, you might choose to just create the list of references and not use the Write 'n Cite option. Using Write 'n Cite is probably most beneficial for post-graduates, researchers and anyone who has to manage a large number of references.
It is also possible to create accounts for collaborative projects, so if a number of people are searching for literature they can all add to it.
I have used it myself and found it to be a really useful tool that could potentially save a lot of time and effort and you know the references are going to be in the correct format.
A word of warning; you will need to use it when you first start searching for literature and begin your project. It will not save you much time if you try to add everything in afterwards; you would be just as quick doing it manually.
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