Part II Acoustical Engineers Information Skills

1. Part II Acoustical Engineers Information Skills Isobel Stark ISVR Academic Liaison Librarian i.a.stark@soton.ac.uk

2. Objectives…... • This session will help you to: • Identify the most relevant resources for finding information • Create a search strategy • Track down the references • Reference consistently and correctly

3. Three important questions • What information do you need? • Where should you look for it? • How can you get hold of it?

4. What information…? • high quality • up to date • relevant

5. Evaluation criteria Authority Objectivity & purpose Currency Accuracy Relevance When created or updated Links Right subject and level Who is the author Target audience

6. Evaluation • Authority • Who is the author? • What are their credentials? • Who is the publisher? • Objectivity & Purpose • Why / for whom is the site written for? • Links to other viewpoints? • Trying to: persuade, sell you something, inform or misinform? • Country of origin - affects the slant of the information?

7. Evaluation continued • Currency • When was the site produced / last updated? • How current are references / links? • Accuracy • Are there supporting links / references to quality information? • Relevance • Content is appropriate for your purpose? • Content is relevant to your topic?

8. Types of Information • Primary Research • Secondary Research • Technical Data and Standards • Other ‘grey’ literature

9. 3 Tiers of information resource

10. Grey literature • Does not fall into the traditional ‘peer reviewed’ journal/conference model • quality of information can vary but can be very high • Traditionally published from a trusted source (e.g. governmental body reports, university group research papers) • Non-traditional publication such as wikis, blogs, discussion lists

11. Finding grey literature http://www.flickr.com/photos/danardvincente/2512148775/

12. Finding grey literature • Google etc • No quality control, so you must evaluate what you find • Google scholar • Limited to mainly e-publications • Specialist web gateways • Selected and annotated resources compiled by subject experts, e.g. Intute • Human processed so coverage smaller but better quality results • See Websites on the Library’s ISVR subject page

13. Standards • British Standards Online • Full text of most British Standards, including ISO and EN standards adopted into British Standards • Searching by keyword or standard number • IEEE Explore: • Other standards: • See the Library webpagehttp://www.soton.ac.uk/library/resources/collections/standards/

14. Patents • Information on how to access full text of British, European and US patents and more, see the Library webpage:http://www.soton.ac.uk/library/resources/collections/patents/

15. Secondary sources http://www.flickr.com/photos/98469445@N00/327471676/

16. Books • Tend to be secondary research • Overview of ‘state of the art’ • Can contain basic methods which are only alluded to in primary research.

17. WebCat BL Catalogue COPAC Other universities Finding books

18. Finding Books: WebCat • University of southampton Library’s cataloguehttp://www-lib.soton.ac.uk/ • Does contain books, conference proceedings, journal titles, UoS theses • Does not contain details of individual journal articles, conference papers etc.

19. Finding Books: BL Catalogue • http://catalogue.bl.uk/ • Every book published in the UK. • Linked to from the Other catalogues section in WebCat • Seen an interesting item? Checked for it on WebCat. Not there? Use Inter-Library Loan (you are allowed a max. of 2 ILLs per academic year, i.e. August-end July)http://www.soton.ac.uk/library/services/ill.html

20. Finding Books: COPAC • http://www.copac.ac.uk/ • Combines the online library catalogues of UK & Ireland’s largest research libraries. • Linked to from the Other catalogues section in WebCat as CURL OPAC • Includes WebCat records

21. Finding Books: Other Universities • Sconul Vacation Access Scheme • you have reference (but not borrowing) rights at most UK university libraries during their vacations. • See the SCONUL website for more information:http://www.sconul.ac.uk/using_other_libraries/vacation.html

22. Primary research http://www.flickr.com/photos/nics_events/2239162464/

23. Articles from peer-reviewed publications (so quality is assured) Key and up-to-date research, more specific than books But can also be secondary e.g. review articles, journalistic articles Journal & conference papers

24. Paper structure • Introduction/background • Methods • Results • Discussion • Conclusions/future research

25. Finding Journal & Conference papers • The University pays for a number of subscription-only databases which allow you to search for this material • The key ones relevant to ISVR are listed on the Library’s ISVR subject pages under Databases and Indexes:http://www.soton.ac.uk/library/subjects/isvr/databases.html • If off-campus use: • Institutional Log-in (only for some databases) • VPN (works for all databases)

26. Search Strategies http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasclaveirole/454394799/

27. Anatomy of a literature search

28. Search for articles on: • Noise control in aircraft interiors • Timespan: latest 10 years • Database: Web of Science

29. Results • Search statement:Noise control AND aircraft interiors • As of 1st Oct May 2012:30 articles found

30. Improving your search strategy • Identify the concepts of your query • List alternative phrases and keywords • Include both narrow and broad terms • Controlled vocabulary • Use truncation/wildcards • Use boolean operators • Identify any key periods of research • Identify any key authors in the field

31. Noise control inside an aircraft • Identify the concepts of your query: • Noise control • Inside • Aircraft • List alternative phrases and keywords: • Noise abatement, noise limitation, noise cancellation • Interior, internal, cabin • Aeroplane, plane

32. Terminology and spelling • British English vs. American English • Colour or color • Aeroplane or airplane • Hyphenation • X ray, x-ray, xray • Alternative vocabulary • Lorries, trucks, HGVs, heavy goods vehicle

33. Controlled Vocabulary • Used by Compendex, Inspec, Medline • Designated keywords added to describe subjects covered by an article • Also called descriptors, keywords, subject headings, thesaurus terms • Using these makes search results more relevant • Avoids terms mentioned in passing in the abstract • Finds material using alternative vocabulary • Should retrieve all records in a database on given topic

34. Truncation and wildcards • Use truncation to find words with a common stem or to find singular and plurals • Aero* will find aeroplane, aeroplanes, aerospace, aeronautical etc etc • Use wildcards to replace none, one or more letters in the middle of the word • Wom?n will find woman and women • Colo?r will find color and colour

35. Boolean Logic a AND b a OR b a NOT b a a a b b b Can be used to join different search terms

36. Example search statement • For ISI Web of Science (NoiseAND (control OR limitation OR abatement OR cancellation)) AND (aircraft OR aeroplane*) AND (interior* OR internal* OR cabin*)

37. Results • As of 1st Oct 2012:61 articles foundcompared to 30 articles when searching using Noise control AND aircraft interiors

38. Which database? http://www.flickr.com/photos/shindotv/3835365695/

39. Web of Science • General subject coverage • No subject headings – word search only • Citation links enable you to track further related research from an initial ‘key’ paper • On the Web of Knowledge platform

41. Inspec • Physics, electronics, good for acoustics • Subject index (controlled terms) • On the Web of Knowledge platform

42. Compendex • On the Engineering Village platform • General engineering • Coverage from 1969 onwards • Subject index and thesaurus

43. Compendex Click on the drop down boxes to access the many features available

44. … and more Compendex

45. Medline • Medical database – useful for human factors • Subject index and thesaurus • Available on various platforms, EBSCO is the most user-friendly

46. Other databases • Biosis • Biological, good for anatomy (human and animal) • PsycInfo • Psychology, good for awareness and perception studies • Transport • RILM Abstracts of Music • ESDU (Engineering Sciences Data Unit )

47. Finding the full text http://www.flickr.com/photos/blogwiese/3002486129/

48. Track down the references • From online databases • Direct links • TD-Net • WebCat/search catalogue link

49. TD Net links

50. Following full text link through TDNet