Searching Online Databases and eJournals
College libraries run courses in accessing online databases and eJournals. They are normally accessed through the library portal on the colleges own website. It should be easy to find, if you are in doubt just go to the library section and use the search function.
The most important thing is to know what you are looking for! That sounds a bit silly, but when you go beyond looking for specific authors you will need to get the hang of using key-words to search for books and articles of interest.
For example, if you want to find articles on Child Development, you may look for Piaget or Vygotski, but perhaps the focus is on the development of attachment in adopted children. In this case putting 'Piaget' or 'Vygotsyi' may or may not be of use. Using the advanced search feature that is available you can request a selection of options. So you can search 'attachment', and find thousands of results, when you add 'adoption' you will get a smaller number of articles, making your job of finding ones relevant to you a little easier. To continue reducing the thousands of articles to a more practical size, you may decide only to look at articles from the past five years, now you have less again, and if you then specify for example the country of adoption you will reduce it even less.
I hope this gives you some idea as to how online searching can be productive and can reduce the time you may spend reading articles that are not relevant to your needs.
So, now you have a more manageable list! What next?
Next you take the time to look at each article and read the abstract. The abstract is a brief (100 - 200 word) synopses of the contents of the article. This may help you to cut the list even smaller. When you have decided which articles are most relevant to you, you need to do two things.
I usually link the PDF file to the Endnote entry, it makes it much easier to locate the file again later. I also link any notes I make about the article to the Endnote entry for the same reason. For more on how Endnote works and how to use it follow the Endnote link below.
The most important thing is to know what you are looking for! That sounds a bit silly, but when you go beyond looking for specific authors you will need to get the hang of using key-words to search for books and articles of interest.
For example, if you want to find articles on Child Development, you may look for Piaget or Vygotski, but perhaps the focus is on the development of attachment in adopted children. In this case putting 'Piaget' or 'Vygotsyi' may or may not be of use. Using the advanced search feature that is available you can request a selection of options. So you can search 'attachment', and find thousands of results, when you add 'adoption' you will get a smaller number of articles, making your job of finding ones relevant to you a little easier. To continue reducing the thousands of articles to a more practical size, you may decide only to look at articles from the past five years, now you have less again, and if you then specify for example the country of adoption you will reduce it even less.
I hope this gives you some idea as to how online searching can be productive and can reduce the time you may spend reading articles that are not relevant to your needs.
So, now you have a more manageable list! What next?
Next you take the time to look at each article and read the abstract. The abstract is a brief (100 - 200 word) synopses of the contents of the article. This may help you to cut the list even smaller. When you have decided which articles are most relevant to you, you need to do two things.
- Save the details to Endnote or another bibliography manager.
- Download and save the PDF of the article so you can read it, or print it if that suits you.
I usually link the PDF file to the Endnote entry, it makes it much easier to locate the file again later. I also link any notes I make about the article to the Endnote entry for the same reason. For more on how Endnote works and how to use it follow the Endnote link below.