Research: B2+. Anneli Williams

Give an account of the role of ribonucleic acid in protein synthesis.

      4 Trace the history of the comic book.

      

Exercise 4

      Type one of the key words or phrases you have underlined for each question into the key word search facility in your library catalogue and see what happens. Try a different key word or combination of words and compare your results.

       Tips

      If you do not get any hits, or too few hits using key words from your essay title:

      

try using synonyms (= words that have a very similar meaning) or related words. Instead of management, for example, type leadership.

      

or use a more general term. For example, for Give an account of the role of ribonucleic acid in protein synthesis, you could use cell biology as your key words.

      

Exercise 5

      Write synonyms for expressions 1–4.

      1 financial crisis

      2 social media

      3 young people

      4 comic book

      Try a key word search of your library catalogue using these synonyms and compare your results with your results from Exercise 4.

       Accessing e-books and e-journals

      To access an e-book or e-journal, you normally select the item, which then takes you to the provider’s website. Each provider has its own website so they all look and work differently. In many cases, because the library pays for access to electronic resources, you may be directed to a login box where you have to type in your student identification number and password. This might be referred to as ‘Shibboleth’, ‘Institutional login’ or a similar term.

       Glossary

      copyright If someone has copyright on a piece of writing or music, it is illegal to reproduce or perform it without their permission.

      Individual e-journal articles can be read online, downloaded onto a memory stick or printed. E-books are subject to copyright regulations, which means that you can only download or print one chapter or section, or five per cent of the total number of pages. If you are not sure how much of an item you can copy, check with your librarian or look for relevant notices – these are usually displayed near photocopiers. You can, however, read as much of the book online as you wish. Many e-books providers also allow you to make notes and highlight text, which you can save and view when you next access the book.

       Borrowing print books and journals

      Different libraries have different lending policies. Books can generally be borrowed for several weeks. In many cases you may be able to ‘renew’ an item, that is, borrow it for an extended period of time if no other user has requested it. It may also be possible to ‘reserve’ an item, in other words, to ask that an item be kept for you when it is returned by another user. Some libraries may contain a ‘short loan’ collection, that is, a selection of books that are in high-demand. These books may be available for borrowing for only a few days or hours at a time. Reference books, such as dictionaries, cannot normally be borrowed.

      If your library does not stock an item that you wish to borrow, you may be able to ask your library to borrow the item from another library. This is called an ‘inter-library loan’.

      The most recent issues of journals are not normally available for borrowing. You may read them in the library or photocopy one article within an issue. Note that there is usually a small charge for photocopies. Older issues of journals can normally be borrowed.

      When you borrow items from the library, you should make a note of the ‘return’ or ‘due’ date. If you do not return items in time, you will probably have to pay a fine. For short-loan items, fines can be charged by the hour.

      

Exercise 6

      Log on to your library website and look for answers to questions 1–5.

      1 How many items can you borrow at once?

      2 How long can you borrow items for?

      3 Can you reserve or renew items online?

      4 Are fines charged for overdue items? If so, what is the rate?

      5 How do you request an inter-library loan?

       Using a database

      A database is an electronic catalogue or list of published materials. Library catalogues are databases; however, library catalogues have two main limitations: they only list items available in the library and they do not normally list articles separately. If you only have the name of an article or you want to know what publications are available on a particular topic, you need to use another database. There are general databases, such as JSTOR or ArticleFirst, which list publications on a wide variety of subjects. There are also specialist databases which list items relating to specific subjects or academic disciplines.

       Glossary

      credible Credible means able to be trusted or believed.

      Academic databases are very useful for essays, because they only include items that are ‘peer reviewed’, that is, judged to be academically credible by other experts. Another advantage of databases is that they often provide not just the bibliographic information about the article (the title, author, year and so on) but also a short summary of the article contents. This is called an abstract.

       For more information on abstracts, see Chapter 4.

      You can use open access databases, that is, databases that are available to the general public through the internet, or subscribe to particular databases yourself. However, in most cases, it is easiest to access databases through your university library catalogue. Your library will probably subscribe to many different databases. You can search the databases to see what has been published on your topic, and then check your library catalogue to see if the items you want are available in your library. If your library does not stock an item, you may be able to obtain it through an inter-library loan.

      If you know which databases you want, search for them by title. Check your course reading list or ask a librarian for recommended databases for your subject. If you do not know which databases to use, search for them by subject. For example, if you are looking for information about how children learn to read, you could look for databases under education.

      When you have selected the database you want to use, you can search for items in the same way that you search your library catalogue: by title, author and key words. However, as with e-book and e-journal providers, each database has its own website so they all look and work slightly differently.

       Tips