TallCat, electronic resources & the WWW

1. TallCat, electronic resources & the WWW November 2005

2. Agenda • TallCat • PIN • My account • Searching the catalogue • Electronic resources homepage • Science Direct • Infotrac • Other useful resources • Information retrieval & the WWW • Search engines & subject directories • Search tips and evaluation • Citing styles and referencing

3. Library home page This page is your link to library services on the web http://library.it-tallaght.ie

4. My TallCat Single log on for: • Renewing books • Accessing electronic resources • Online book requests/holds • Accessing online exam papers • Reading history • Booking a study room

12. Usename: tallibrary Password: library

14. Print journals - computing

16. Library electronic resources Lists the selection of online databases available in the library http://library.it-tallaght.ie/screens/er.html

17. How to access electronic resources To log on to any subscription database enter your name, student or staff number and then your PIN number

18. Guides to electronic resources Individual guides to each online database

19. Introducing Science Direct

20. Introducing Science Direct • Full text resource providing access to over 1800 internationally renowned science, technical and medical peer-reviewed journals • Over 3 million articles from 23 subject fields, full text coverage from 1997 • Journals include: - Biometric technology today - Computers & security - Pattern recognition - Computers in industry • Search articles by title, author & keyword.

24. How can Science Direct help you? • Instant access to the very latest publications in the area of science, medicine and technology. • Users can register online to create a personal account - to set up a favourite journal list or email alerts for new search results, issues or citations. • Access to peer reviewed material with contributions from renowned international editors and authors.

25. Introducing Infotrac

26. Introducing Infotrac • Online multidisciplinary full-text database of over 5000 full-text titles (more than 9,200 in all) • Backfile coverage from 1980 • Key journals include • Computer gaming world • Computer graphics world • Java developer’s journal • Personal computer world

30. How can InfoTrac help you? • Worldwide periodical coverage – with refereed academic journals in the computing arena • Full-text articles may be printed, saved or e-mailed. • Cross referencing provides links to other relevant material

31. Other databases of use • Web of Science - this database indexes 8,500 of the most prestigious research journals in the world and will direct you to full text articles if available • IEEE Communications Society Digital Library –Computing and engineering resource providing a comprehensive collection of more than 28,000 peer-reviewed technical research/industry papers. • Scirus.com - search engine focusing on scientific content. It highlights peer-reviewed articles & covers over 100 million science-related pages.

32. Subject services

33. Subject internet gateways

34. Computing websites

36. The World Wide Web

37. The World Wide Web • Launched in 1991 • Growing at an approximate rate of 5 million web pages per day. • Accessing information on the Web is easy; finding the correct information is more difficult. • Information available on the Web is both free and fee based (pay per view). • Availability of so many web sites poses challenges to students (information overload).

38. The World Wide Web • High quality information v dubious information • How do you navigate through the masses of information and access the information you require? • To navigate successfully – • You need to be aware of the different search tools available. • "The first task when looking for high-quality information is to attempt to locate a service which provides access to quality material within that subject area that you are interested in."(Cooke 55)

39. Information Search Tools

40. Search tools • Search Engines & Subject directories • There is no one best search engine, or subject directory • ” If you want to do a thorough search, you should become familiar with a few of the different search engines…it is important to understand the major search features” ” (Ackermann and Hartman 169).

41. Search engines • Searchable database of websites • Best means of searching for information on the Web • May be browsed or searched by formulating a search query. • Only search a portion of the Web

42. www.google.com www.teoma.com www.altavista.com

43. www.wisenut.com http://search.yahoo.com http://alltheweb.com

44. Look out for the special features • Google – currently the number one search engine • Features include images, web translation service, newsgroups, directory • Advanced Search – exact phrase, date, domain

45. Look out for the special features

46. Subject directories • Web organised by topic into categories • General subject directories / subject specific • Human element – quality control • Smaller than search engines but results more relevant

50. http://dmoz.org http://www.lii.org