Introduction to Online Resources Aeronautics & Astronautics, Mechanical Engineering and Ship Science

1. Introduction to Online ResourcesAeronautics & Astronautics, Mechanical Engineering and Ship Science Michael Whitton November 2011 & February 2012 University Library

2. Objectives • Evaluation of web materials • Web Subject Gateways • E-books • Finding Journal articles & Conference Papers

3. The Web – Google etc. • General search engines can be useful for finding general info & company sites • No quality controls • Limited types of information • Need to evaluate

4. Evaluation • Authority • Who is the author? • What are their credentials? • Who is the publisher? • Objectivity & Purpose • Why / for whom is the site written for? • Links to other viewpoints? • Trying to: persuade, sell you something, inform or misinform? • Country of origin - affects the slant of the information?

5. Evaluation - continued • Currency • When was the site produced / last updated? • How current are references / links? • Accuracy • Are there supporting links / references to quality information? • Relevance • Content is appropriate for your purpose? • Content is relevant to your topic?

6. Internet Gateways • Gateway sites • Intute (for UK Higher Education) • Works like a small search engine • Quality control • Abstracts / Summaries

7. Your Subject Page • Contain links to the best electronic resources for your subject • One for each school • Also Collection Pages: • Patents, Standards • Newspapers, (Statistical) Data Resources

8. Or direct URL: www.soton.ac.uk/library

9. Useful resources for Engineering, and how to use them

10. E-books Online books

11. You can limit to e-books

12. We have many engineering e-books, all on WebCat.

13. There is an e-books page giving links to the main packages

14. Break Evaluation exercise

15. Finding journals/conferences (from a reference) • Search by journal or conference title (NOT article title) • Webcat (journal title search for journals) • More complete for conferences and print journals • More forgiving of small errors • TDNet • Clearer when online access has multiple links • More password information

16. Links to TDnet and Webcat here

18. In TDNet it’s often easier to search if you know which journal you want

19. Access information (passwords etc.) appear as an “i” icon

20. Access - on campus • Generally no passwords are needed • A few need your Institutional (email) username & password • A handful have special usernames/passwords • If you have problems • For journals check our access on TDNet • For other resources use links on the library website

21. Access – off campus • For many resources Institutional Login is an option • VPN will give you the same access as on campus • Some TDNet functions do not work off campus without VPN

22. Look for ‘Institutional Login’, ‘UK Federation’ or ‘Shibboleth’ links

23. You often need to select the UK (or UK Federation) Then find ‘University of Southampton’ (If you can’t find us look for Southampton University)

24. VPN • Virtual Private Network • Link to University network • When connected your computer appears to be ‘on campus’ • Managed by iSolutions. Instructions on iSolutions web pages at: www.southampton.ac.uk/isolutions/computing/net/vpn/

25. Setup instructions

26. Finding Articles on a topic Journal Articles, Conference Papers, etc.

27. Quick subject search for journal articles … • Full Text sources (IEEEXplore, Sciencedirect) • Limited range of journals (one publisher etc.) • Generally get the full text • Search facilities vary • Scientific Search Engines (Google scholar, Scirus) • Search fairly widely • You will find things we don’t have access to • More need to evaluate results

28. Detailed search for journal articles • Databases & Indexes (Compendex & Geobase; Web of Science & Inspec) • Well indexed, good search facilities • References and abstracts (many try to link to the full text) • We won’t have every journal they index • Our Inter-Library-Loans service can probably get a copy

29. Also be aware of … • TDNet • Search many of our journals • Generally get the full text • Only search the last few years

30. Sample Search Engineering Village (Compendex & Geobase)

31. Routes to full text • Database full text links • Sometimes links to journals we don’t buy • TDNet links (from database or library web pages) • doesn’t have all print journals • If the above do not exist or don’t work always …

32. Routes to full text (cont.) • Search WebCat • Journal articles by the journal title (use full title not abbreviations) • Conference papers by the conference title • Reports: try author and title (may need to search by organisation name) • There may be an automatic link

33. Exceptions • Items not on Webcat & TDNet • Patents & standards • Free online: NASA Technical Reports; Organisations eprint servers • Items not in UoS Libraries • Inter Library Loan (ILL)

34. Search Tips • Identify Keywords describing your topic • Leave out very common terms • You should end up with a few terms not a sentence • Use simple searches in WebCat & Intute • Use more Complex Searches in journal databases • Think about alternative words for the same thing

35. Want to know more? • Library Website > Information Skills • Generic guides on searching databases • Database Tutorials • Engineering Sciences Subject Page > Infoskills • Links to many of the above • Handouts and powerpoints from library sessions

36. If you need help……. • Subject Enquiry Desk, Level 3 • Open Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm • Evenings and Saturday (am) service (not vacation) • Contact Me • M.Whitton@soton.ac.uk • 023 8059 2709