Intro to Library Research
EDUB 7570 - Contemporary Perspectives in Music Education

Kyle Feenstra
Education & Psychology Librarian
Elizabeth Dafoe Library

What we will talk about today...

• Resources available at the Libraries
• Using taxonomies in your research
• APA guides online
• Citation management options

What are scholarly journals?

1. The journal publishes current research in a particular academic field.
2. Articles are written for an academic audience in a scholarly community.

Identifying scholarly articles

1. The article presents original research or analysis that is new to the field.
2. Resources used to write the article are adequately cited with a bibliography and/or footnotes. 
3. The author has academic credentials.

What do we mean by "peer review"?

1. Articles submitted to the journal are reviewed by independent scholars prior publication to ensure they meet the standards for research in that field. 

Identifying Peer Reviewed Journals

1. The catalogue or database where it is found identifies the journal as a peer reviewed source. (Example)
2. The journal editors identify the publication as
   peer reviewed. 
3. Peer review claims are confirmed by Ulrich's Web. 

The Information Landscape

Academic
Articles

Scholarly
Journals

Academic Databases

Library
Catalogue

Google
Scholar

Academic
Articles

Pay Wall

Searching
the Library 

vs.

Searching
the Internet

Google

Websites & non-academic articles

Where to Find Resources

Policy Documents
Govt Publications
Statistics & Data

Check multiple sources

Where to start:

• Subject Guides for Education and Music will help you identify the resources relevant to your research.
   
• The advanced search of the library catalogue can be used to search for books and articles but it performs better as a search engine for books.
   
• The journal databases identified by the Subject Guides and Database A-Z are great places to start your search for articles.
   
• Google Scholar is a great resource as well but does not provide access to materials paid for through the library. 

Basic Search Techniques

• The Advanced Search is pretty basic. 
• Here are some tips to get better search results in the catalogue and databases.

Advanced Searching

Information is mediated through language. 

Keywords
(Natural Language)

Subject Headings
(Taxonomy)

Language in the literature representing a domain of knowledge or field of study

Language used to organize a field of study for the purpose of retrieval

Subject Headings 

results are based on a match with the subject heading field in the library or database record.

Subject headings are useful for identifying related materials. 

Keywords

results are based on frequency of word use in the library or database record and in some cases the document text. 

A combination of subject headings and keywords often produce most precise search results.

When you search with...

Monograph Subject Headings

The Library of Congress assigns subject headings for all monograph publications

Article Subject Headings

Databases organize subject headings in a thesaurus.
ERIC offers a comprehensive thesaurus for education.
See other Education Thesauri.

Searching with Subject Headings

A few approaches:

• Search with keywords to find relevant books or articles. Use their subject headings to find similar materials.

• Find the preferred subject headings first and search by subject rather than keyword. 

• Refine a subject heading search by adding keywords.

Searching for Subject Headings

Subject Headings Search 

• ERIC Thesaurus
• EBSCO Subject Terms
• PsycInfo Thesaurus

• Eurydice TESE (EU)
• UNESCO - IBE (UN)

Books

Articles

• Choose a keyword or phrase that represent an important idea in your area of research.
   
• Find the appropriate subject heading assigned by
  1. Library of Congress  (Books)
  2. ERIC (Articles)

Try these search strategies:

1. Compare results when searching using just a keyword and searching just using a subject heading.
2. Refine your search by adding more specific keywords to your subject heading. (See example on next slide)

Activity:

• Find the preferred thesaurus subject heading
• In ERIC (Proquest) refine your search by adding keywords: 

APA Style Guides

UM Library copies of recommended APA Guides

Citation Management

There are many citation management apps available and
workshops* to help you learn how to use them.

* Grad Steps: Oct. 2 and 3

Questions?

Kyle Feenstra
Education & Psychology Librarian
Elizabeth Dafoe Library
kyle.feenstra@umanitoba.ca