Hello everyone~
Please share the "tips" you discovered for using databases and finding great articles/books by adding a comment to this post. This way, we can all look back here for quick reminders of what worked best!
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15 comments:
While using the library database was essential in locating articles for the Treasure Hunt, I love to browse.... I found by going to SAGE and browsing "Social Science" journals, I could find some really interesting journals and articles that I would have probably never have looked for. Although not everything I downloaded I found useful or even interesting, there are many titles in the reference section of the articles that are great. I've found that the education world is made up of an intertwined community of professionals, everyone seems to cite everyone and those people appear again and again. I am also a fan of browsing the stacks on the 6th floor. It's amazing what I will gravitate towards, it surprised me to find that I was very interested in school leadership and overall education reform... who knew?
I am amazed by the wonder that is Google Scholar! For most of the treasure hunt, this was the easiest way of tracking down a specific resource, including full text articles.
I agree with Loni, though, that browsing specific journals is the best way of finding exciting new resources. I found the Harvard Educational Review particularly rich, especially the special editions they occasionally publish, such as the recent volume on Adolescent Literacy.
Technology has made things much easier to find! Yes, I know, I'm aging myself ... but I am amazed how much is at my fingertips! I often do research on the internet, but Google Scholar was the easiest for tracking down a specific resource, such as a journal or paper.
In doing the library scavenger hunt Kyle and I found that Google Scholar was a huge help. It easily was able to locate the various resources we were looking for on numerous occasions. We did find it frustrating that there was not one searchable data base for all of the areas, SAGE, ERIC, etc.
After my partner and I found the third document on the list, my partner had an "Ah ha" moment and realized that there was a pattern to the bibliography. She noticed the difference between articles and books. This gave us an opportunity to know which data base to use for the remaining documents. Google Scholar was very useful. I was able to locate several documents on this site. It was a little frustrating when we could not find a text on ROGER, but then was redirected to the UCSD library through the other data bases.
After going to the UCSD library, I discovered a fabulous new resource called Google Scholar. In addition, I realized that when searching for an article it is best to go to the home page for the journal it was published in.
Chris Webber:
I initially found it very difficult to find the sources that were required during the treasure hunt. However, after I found the first article, and having got used to using the UCSD site, I found subsequent searches a bit easier. I was also very impressed with Google Scholar.
Ashley Walker:
The treasure hunt was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I found a lot of success with Google Scholar as well as typing exact Author names into databases. By using the author name, I was able to search for specific articles/book they had written/contributed to. This also helped me find other useful works I might be interested in. However, when in doubt, you Google Scholar. It works everytime...quickly!
I was frustrated at first when beginning the scavenger hunt. I tried to identify the type of article I was searching and then tried to match that with the right search engine. This became a bit overwhelming as most of the searches yielded many possibilities, none which were helpful for the hunt, until....my partner and I tried google scholar. This search engine is now what I turn to when I look for scholarly journals, articles and books.
I have to be honest with how I felt about this scavenger hunt. I had a difficult time searching for the articles, but I did finally try Google Scholar and I found that Google Scholar was much more user friendly, especially for a novice tech.
The process from looking up one article on the library homepage to physically locating it in the UCSD library was an hour long task for me. Using Google Scholar to locate articles and books has been less overwhelming. I like that it can connect me to a full text, the publisher, and/or the nearest library that has it.
When you sit down in front of a computer, to look up a resource at UCSD, I'm gonna warn you - it can be very overwhelming. There are several databases that specialize in different topics (education, sciences, architecture, etc.) and within the systems there are databases for types of resources (journals, articles, books, etc). I found that the GSE (Stacey's) handout on the systems/databases to be crucial. After awhile you begin to learn how to navigate through everything.
Also, dont be afraid to ask the people who work there for help. They are patient, and will sit with you and show you how to look up infomation step by step.
This isn't library related directly - but http://www.bibme.org/ is awesome and provides free APA citations - and allows you to store them or download as you see fit.
Happy citing!
Google scholar was my favorite way to find articles and studies because you can use it at home and it's super easy. If I was at the library however, I would use the database Education Full Text (Wilson). I found a lot of really great info there. I was a little overwhelmed with all of the different databases and ways to search so I stuck with these two and came out with many articles to choose from.
Wilson Full Text was a great resource to discover. I also realized once I got home that saving the articles themselves to my pin drive might not be enough, and you have to make sure all the annotational information (i.e the journal it came from and the volume) were included as well. Luckily it was pretty easy to do a google search for information I was missing. Google scholar is great too!
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