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Some Tips to Integrate Library Resources into Your Research & Learning Environment

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:38:00 +0000

Graduate Thesis Writing Workshop - June 29 & 30, 2010.

Most of our searching and research activities take place on the Web, whether searching Google Scholar or disciplinary indexing & abstracting databases. How to find and manage relevant sources for your research becomes a very important aspect of successfully guiding and managing your research. One important piece of puzzle in successfully managing your research processes is to integrate library resources into your research & learning environment.

Here are some tips for integrating library resources into your research activities:

1) Know your browsers. This may sound very basic, but knowing what features are there helps you organize your research activities and this is the first step towards establishing the research & learning environment that works for you. Here are a comparison chart for most common Internet browsers and the help page on bookmarks and other navigational features for IE 7, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera.

2) Take advantage of the University of Manitoba Libraries resources while surfing the web. Download LibX - the Libraries' toolbar (for IE & Firefox), a plug-in for your browser that enables you to check whether the item identified on amazon site is held in the Libraries collection, to integrate library resources automatically with your Google Scholar search results, and to quickly access the U of M Libraries catalogue or One Stop Search. If you don't need to have the extra toolbar open all the time, you can turn it on only when you need it. (For example, for FireFox, go to View pull-down menu on the browser, and select Toolbars, deselect LibX U of M.) For further information, please check the full description of LibX.

Another important plag-in for your browser is UML proxy bookmarklet (IE, Firefox, Safari, etc.). When the bookmarklet is installed on your browser, you can integrate library resources as you surf the web. With a click of the bookmarklet, it instantly places your browser behind the U of M Libraries proxyserver and you will have access to library resources.

3) Acquaint yourself with the citation/bibliographical management tool of your choice. There are many potential choices available, but RefWorks is available to all members of the University of Manitoba community. Three freely available tools to be noted are zotero, an open access tool for Firefox browser, and Mendeley, a bibliographical management tool, PDF reader/manager, and a social networking tool in one, designed specifically for researchers, and PubGet, a tool designed for researchers in life sciences to expediate PDF's retrieval. Zotero is gaining its popularity, and Mendeley is still in beta, but anticipated to keep improving its functionality. Mendeley Desktop is available in Windows, Mac, and Linux. Citation creation feature is yet to be functional for Mac users, but when you combine with RefWorks or other citation management tool, this tool streamlines managing PDF's cluttered on your computer. Mendeley supports RIS and BibTex formats. PubGet is not really a citation/bibliographical management tool, but it seems to work seemlessly with zotero, if you already have it on your browser, and also Mendeley for organizing the PDF files retrieved.

4) Acquaint yourself with personal account features of your pet databases/tools. Many indexing & abstracting databases and e-journals collection sites have the personal account features. Most features are common across different databases/tools, such as saving your search history, saving the items you selected, alert services (e-mail/rss), and exporting the records to your bibliographical management tool. Try out to see if any of the features add some value to you. [Please note, however, that usability of the personal account features vary across different databases/tools.]

5) Take advantage of [social] bookmarking tools that meet your needs. There are so many social bookmarking tools out there that you can pick any ones that suit your needs. In terms of your thesis work, the intention here is to use bookmarking tools primarily to organize and facilitate your research. Bookmarking tools are convenient in gathering sources when you encounter them. One way is to consolidate the sources for further organization in your citation/bibliographical management tool. For beginners, here are a few examples of bookmarking tools that you can try:

Diigo has highlighting and annotating features and slightly more suited for academic work than Del.icio.us. If you access many full-text articles in html format (web page), Diigo features are very useful. You can make "private" as default in your settings.
CiteULike is designed for researchers. You can supplement this tool with your bibliographical citation tool. When you turned on CiteULike option in LibX preferences (See Item #2), you will see CiteULike posting icon in url address bar and makes your selections easy. . CiteULike has the options to export the sources you selected in RIS, BibTeX, PDF, RTF, Delicious, Formatted Text. You can also create a bibliography by dragging and dropping the items into your word-processing document. You can link CiteULike with Mendeley.
Mendeley also has the bookmarking feature to capture bibliographical information and to important PDF. Functionality of retrieving PDF files from the site, however, depends on whether the site allows access by Mendeley.

The Libraries offer over 250 different databases in various types and from various vendors. Probably you have already found out that some are user friendly and intuitive while some are not. Please feel free to consult your Liaison Librarian to make the best of the library resources according to your needs. We will be able to suggest most appropriate databases based on your immediate research needs and circumstances, and suggest some time-saving tips to make your research slightly easier.

First and foremost, it is important to identify your research needs in terms of what stage of thesis writing you are at. Are you pre-proposal or post-proposal? Would it be most productive to start with a couple of key journals to identify relevant articles? Or is searching broadly in the indexing & abstracting database for your disciplinary area more helpful? Is your topic multi-disciplinary in nature? Do you want to identify key authors on your topic? Based on your immediate research needs, you can start integrating library resources into your research & learning environment in an incremental manner.

Please feel free to consult your Liaison Librarian.

Graphic sources acknowledged: (1), (3), &(5)

Features Down with SCOPUS

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:35:00 +0000

Due to some changes made at SCOPUS site, many search features offered by SCOPUS is not currently available. If you get to SCOPUS from the Libraries page, you can search but you won't be able to save or e-mail the search results or export them to RefWorks. However, if you already established your personal account with SCOPUS in the past, there is a solution. Please directly go to http://www.scopus.com and login with your user id and password. (If your browser persistently accesses the Libraries proxy server url, please clear the cache in the browser.) Everything should work for you as usual.

If you are new to SCOPUS or has not yet set up your own account, the above option is not available. If you want to manage your SCOPUS search results better, please drop me a line.

This blogpost is relevant to the University of Manitoba community only.

Next Graduate Student Seminar

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:01:00 +0000

Next graduate student lecture is on Friday, January 29
from 12:30 - 1:30.

Richael Pettigrew of Family Social Sciences, Faculty of Human Ecology will present:

Paying to Save Time: a Review of Canadian Household Spending and Outsourcing.

Location: Iceland Board Room, 3rd Floor Elizabeth Dafoe Library

Google Scholar Setting

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:37:00 +0000

When you start your Google Scholar search from the Libraries homepage, your search results automatically synchronize with the library resources that are accessible to the University of Manitoba community. You can enjoy the same access to the library resources even when you initiate Google Scholar search outside of the Libraries homepage. Here is how:

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Asako's Reference Service

Scopus Training Clips #5 - How to Take Advantage of Personalized Features

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:09:00 +0000

Scopus Training #5
How to Set Up Alerts (Document Citation Alerts, Author Citation Alerts, and Search Alerts); and How to Use My List and My Profile to Manage Your Search Results.

See also: Scopus Training Clips #1 - Registering Your Own Account

Scopus Training Clips #4 - How to Understand Scopus Record

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:54:00 +0000

Scopus Training Clips #4 -
How to Understand Scopus Record and How to E-mail/Print/Transfer Selected Records.

Scopus Training Clips #3 - How to Review Search Results

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:18:00 +0000

Training Clips #3

How to Review Search Results

Scopus Training Clips #2 - Basic Search

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:40:00 +0000

How to Conduct Basic Search and Understand Screen Design.

Scopus Training Clips #1 - Registering Your Own Account

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:29:00 +0000

I will post a series of Scopus tutorial clips that will demonstrate the basic steps of searching the multidisciplinary, abstrating and indexing database that also offers citation search.

How to register your personal account and log in Scopus.

The training clips are placed behind the Libraries proxy server. Please login for remote access.

How to Cite Twitter & Blog page, etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:02:00 +0000

Information exchanged and published through Twitter and blog are also part of scholarly and professional communications. So how do we cite those twitter feeds or posts and blog posts? The recent issue of Info-Rx, a newsletter published by the colleagues at the Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library, povides a list of citation examples related to Twitter, Blog, & Facebook sources in APA format.

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:12:00 +0000

Elizabeth Dafoe Library Graduate Student Lectures 2009-2010

The Dafoe Library is pleased to present October 2009 Graduate Student Lecture by Sheila Simonson, Department of English, Film and Theatre.

Evenryone is welcome!

The Imaginary (of the) City: (re)Positioning
London's Urban Underclasses

Date: Friday, October 23, 2009

Time: 12:30 PM

Location: Iceland Board Room, 3rd Floor Elizabeth Dafoe Library

Video Clip to Show How to Install UML Proxyserver Bookmarklet

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:50:00 +0000

Here is the link to the video clip demonstrating how you can install the proxyserver bookmarklet on your browser toolbar.

CitationLinker & Proxyserver Bookmarklet Video Clips

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:06:00 +0000

Reference Services recently created two video clips to demostrate CitationLinker, and Proxyserver Bookmarklet installed on your browser tool bar.

CitationLinker:

Have you had instances where you want to quickly go to the full-text article based on a citation at hand?

The Libraries has a solution for you: CitationLinker.

Proxyserver Bookmarklet:

We all navigate the Internet using a wide range of freely available searching & browsing tools. The University of Manitoba Libraries offers many research journals across the disciplines and other periodicals through its E-Library resources to the University community. For many research areas, our E-journal resources support PhD programs. Proxyserver Bookmarklet quickly connects you to E-Library resources while searching & browsing the Internet.

Here is a demo.

This is an old blog post explaining how to install the bookmarklet on your browser tool bar.

Citation Tool is Everywhere - WorldCat

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:01:00 +0000

WorldCat is the mother of all academic/research library catalogues. Bison, the University of Manitoba Libraries' catalogue is also networked to WorldCat. WorldCat has added its citation tool and shows you how it works on YouTube:

EbscoHost Searching Interface Changed

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:47:00 +0000

This week, the Libraries changed EbscoHost searching interface to Basic option with one simple box to type in your searching string/strategy.

The intent is to emulate the Google-like searching experience for many students and the default results list is now ordered by relevancy. (Previously, the results were listed by date). If you already learned how to manage your search by combining various keywords using "And" or "Or" operators, the Advanced Search option is a click away as indicated in the red arrow.

If you wish to change how you list your search results, just pull down the menu and select the option that would fit your browsing activities.

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) Trial

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:49:00 +0000

If you are interested in broader and international coverage of your topic, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) is a great source for you. This indexing and abstracting database is produced by the Library at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences and has long been recognized for its international and interdisciplinary coverage in social science resources. The database covers four main focus areas of Anthropology, Economics, Politics, and Sociology, and indexes 520, 670, 730, 875 current and 570, 300, 260, 285 no longer published journals for respective area. The database also indexes books and chapters in a book. In August 2008, for example, the databases covered 406,000 book and 60,000 book chapter records, and add about 7,000 new book records every year.

Here is the link to the Trail list for your access. Trial will run until December 10, 2008.

If you are interested in adding this database to the E-Library resources of the Libraries, please fill out the Feedback Form which is also available from the Trial page.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Hello to Economics and Goodby to Social Work..

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:55:00 +0000

As of mid-July, there are some changes to my collection management and liaison responsibilities. I took over the responsibilities for Economics and said "goodby" to Social Work. I will continue serving all three departments in the Faculty Human Ecology (Family Social Sciences/Human Nutritional Sciences/Textile Sciences), Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Disability Studies, as well as China and Japan Studies offered at Asian Studies Centre.

Over the years, I worked with many students and faculty members in Social Work and grew quite comfortable in our relationships. It's sad to leave the connections behind, but I look forward to learning a new community of economists and their students in the coming months.

Social Bookmarking Tool : del.icio.us

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:46:00 +0000

Here is a plain English version explaining the advantages of using social bookmarking tools like del.icio.us:

What is this acronym, "RSS"?

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:40:00 +0000

If you have missed the significance of this 3 letters acronym, here is a plain English version explaining:

Social Media in Plain English

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:29:00 +0000

This video piece explains social media in a nutshell:

This has many implications in how we learn things, how we proceed with institutional administration, and the role of teachers. More importantly for librarians like us, the information is no longer kept in a nice database package to search efficiently.

A.nnotate

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:14:00 +0000

Faculty and students, I found a useful web-based annotating tool that you might enjoy as well. My colleague who is on Facebook referred this to me indirectly. It is basically a subscription based web site, but anyone can register to enjoy the first 30 pages of pdf, word documents or powerpoint prsentations. You can also create snap shots of web pages, then annotate. This looks like a wonderful tool to help you and your colleagues or friends collaborate.

Check it out!

What is RSS?!

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Mon, 19 May 2008 00:02:00 +0000

If you have been hearing "RSS," but you are not quite sure what it is, you should check out this site. It gives a video to watch, shows how to identify RSS links and some examples of RSS readers. The site links to Wikipedia at the end to get more details about RSS.

Easy Way to Access Scholarly Sources

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:41:00 +0000

Have you inconvenienced with the experience of going through so many steps before you have access to the article you want? For example, when you find something interesting while browsing the Web, then it seems too much hassle to start from E-Library link on the UM Libraries homepage or Bison search, and eventually to the article? If this is the situation you often encounter, there is a quicker way to get to the article.

Simply drug the link UM Libraries Proxy Bookmarklet over to the Toolbar of your browser. Every time you have a publisher's site with the article you are interested, just click the bookmarklet on the Toolbar. It will automatically place your page behind the UM Librariex proxy server to allow your access. This only works, however, when you are looking at the article that is covered under the UM Libraries electronic resources collection.

Summer Hours Begin May 5th at Elizabeth Dafoe Library

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:37:00 +0000

We are closed May 3 - 4 (Saturday/Sunday). From May 5th, we will begin Summer Hours:

Monday to Thursday: 8:15 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Friday: 8:15 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Sunday: Closed.

Please note that during weekdays, Circulation Service is available from 8:30 a.m.

More from the browser extension mentioned in the last post

noreply@blogger.com (Asako Yoshida) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:35:00 +0000

The browser extension I referred to in my last post also offers quick way to search Google Scholar. When you installed the extension, you will gain a search box in the middle of your new toolbar. One of the ways to search Google Scholar is to select Google Scholar from the pull-down menu available immediate right-hand side of the box.