Research Basics: Using Library and the Internet to Gather Information

Objectives:

To learn how to use libraries and the Internet to locate information.

I. Reasons for Including References to Source Materials in your Research Essays:

• To give background information to help the readers understand your ideas
• To provide examples and other details to support a point you are making or to counter an
argument
• To enhance your credibility by providing evidence from experts in social science
• To indicate to your reader where to find further information about your subject

II. Types of Sources

• Print sources – books and periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers).
• Electronic sources – Internet and CD-ROMs
• Media sources – television, radio, film, sound recordings
• Graphic sources – drawings, photographs, cartoons, maps, tables, graphs, charts.
• Field sources – interviews, surveys, and field notes

Primary vs. Secondary Sources

Sources are either primary or secondary. Primary sources are first hand, or original materials;
secondary sources are the knowledge that has already been created and published by other
scholars in materials.

III. Locating Sources

Libraries and the Internet are two main places to locate primary and secondary sources.

A. Library Sources
The PolyU Pai-Yue Kong Library contains extensive collections of print, electronic, media, graphic,
and field sources in business, including books, articles in newspapers, magazines, academic journals,
government publications, electronic databases, videotapes, microforms, etc.

Learn how to search the library catalogue effectively

1. Subject Search
A more accurate approach to carry out a topic search in the library catalogue is by using
the SUBJECT search option. This approach searches an alphabetical index of the SUBJECT
HEADINGS that can be used for browsing, and gives access to the full catalogue entries
attached to the headings concerned.

a) MAIN SUBJECT HEADING

Try: Find out the main subject heading used for “Education and employment”.

b) RELATED SUBJECT
Try: Find out the related subject terms of “Business and Education”.

c) SUBDIVISION – ADDING PRECISION TO A SUBJECT HEADING

Main subject headings often cover broad concepts, additional words called
subdivisions are often added to focus on more specific aspect/s of the subject.
Subdivisions are separated from the main subject heading by a dash (--). There are
mainly 4 types of subdivisions:

Topical subdivisions
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  narrows the main subject to a particular aspect

E.g. Youth – Attitudes

Youth – Psychology

Geographical subdivisions
 Narrows the subject to a particular geographic areas, such as a country,
city or region.

E.g. Business and education -- China -- Hong Kong

Business and education – British Columbia

Form subdivisions
 Specify a particular type or form of publication. They tell you about an
item’s publication format rather than its subject.

E.g. Business and education – Cross-cultural studies

Other common forms: Periodicals, Abstracts, dictionaries, case studies,

congresses, statistics, maps, pictorial works, drama, fiction, bibliography, etc.

d) Subject headings and subdivisions are usually arranged in the following order:
Main subject heading  geographical subdivision  topical subdivision  form
subdivision

Try: Youth – Attitudes – Statistics – China Hong Kong

Youth – Attitudes – China Hong Kong – Statistics

Youth – China Hong Kong – Attitudes – Statistics 

e) Limit this search to add additional criteria (year of publication, material type,
language, etc.) to a search based on the current search result

Try: Subject search: social problems

Then
Limit this Search using Material Type: Local TV
Year of Publication: After 2002

is also available after performing a Title, Author, Call No. or

ISBN/ISSN search

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2. Keyword Search

a. The use of operators in keyword search

(i) AND: Try: youth and drug abuse
What it does: Retrieve records containing both terms in the same record

(ii) OR: Try: elderly or aged

What it does: Retrieve records containing either or both terms in the same record

(iii) AND NOT: Try: education and not primary

What it does: Retrieve records with the first term but not the second term in the
same record

(iv) Truncation: Try: psycho**

What it does: Retrieve records with words having the same root such as

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 Psychology, psychological, psychologist, psychopath, psychosis,
psychotherapy, psychotic, psychoanalysis, etc.

Use * to truncate 1 – 5 characters, ** for open-ended

truncation

b) Field searching
Search keywords in specific fields:
(i) Author
(ii) Title
(iii) Table of contents
(iv) Subjects

Example 1: Find materials with the word “social sciences” in the Title Field AND the
word “hansen” in Author field

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 Example 2: Find materials with either (or both) the word/s “writing” or the word “style”
in title field AND “social sciences” in subject field.

c. Additional search limits

Perform keyword search with additional search limits such as: Collection Subset,
Language, Materials Types, Location, Publisher, Year etc.

Example: Find materials about “social problems related to Hong Kong students”,
limiting collection subset to Audio Visual Collection, material type to LOCAL TV with
publication year after 1999 and before 2003. (i.e. 2000 to 2002 inclusively)

d. Field search using field abbreviations

- Alternatively, you can use the following field abbreviations to perform keyword
search:

Field name Abbreviation Example

Author a a: hansen
Title t t: writing or t: academic essay
Subject s s: social sciences and (t: writing or t:
academic essay)
Table of Contents c c: exploring the literature

For example:

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 s: services and t: famil*

3. Some hints in displaying records

- Extended display shows location, call no., loan status, medium and year of publication
of each item in the result list

- Limit results to available items only retrieves items satisfying your search criteria with
an “available” status(i.e. items not currently on loan):

4. Exporting records
Try: Do a subject search: Education China Hong Kong

a. On Page 1 of the result list, click to save all records on this

page to saved list (to be exported)

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b. On page two of the result list, mark the first 2 records and click

to save these records to the Exported Saved List.

Then click to go to the saved list (by performing a and b,

there should be a total of 14 records saved for exporting or e-mailing the saved
records.

c. To export saved list:

From the “saved list screen display”, choose the format of list display (Full Display,
Brief Display, etc.) and the method of exporting the saved list (E-mail, Screen, Local
Disk).

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Review Exercise: How to use the library

To begin with, read over the notes and also visit the on-line virtual tour of the library at
http://www.lib.polyu.edu.hk/intro/eng/00-welcome.htm and complete the questions below:

1. Apart from subject search , what other kinds of searches you can perform on the library website?
2. What’s the call number of the book The Grammar Guide: Developing Language Skills for
Academic Success?
3. How many copies can you locate? Where can you locate the book/ books?
4. How can you place a book request?
5. How many HKALL libraries have a copy of The Grammar Guide: Developing Language Skills for
Academic Success?
6. When do we need to perform a keyword search?
7. What is a wildcard character?
8. What do you need to input between the related terms in the same box when performing a
keyword search?
9. What can you do if you want to view a video located in your search, say a TV programme? Can
you watch the programs at home?
10. How to locate electronic version of a journal?
11. How can you save a list of results for future use?

B. Internet Sources
The Internet offers a wide range of multi-media sources for research. The following list shows the main
ways you can find sources on the Internet:

 World Wide Web – a global network of online sites created by individuals, organizations, and
government agencies that provide information in textual, graphic, audio, and video form
 Email – an application that enables you to send requests for information to individuals and
organizations, conduct interviews, transmit and receive files, and subscribe to online newspaper
and magazines
 Listservs and newsgroup – electronic discussion on a broad spectrum of topics

Evaluating Sources
The library and the Internet offer a wide range of multi-media sources for research. Nevertheless, as
most of the information is not assessed for quality and organization, a lot of information can be
inaccurate, incomplete, and biased. You should always evaluate the usefulness and credibility of
sources and, in particular, Internet sources.

Practice:

You are very interested in investigating into the Elderly problem in Hong Kong. Can you name some
of the Elderly problems in Hong Kong? Narrow down your area of research and locate suitable
materials for your paper. Please use the on line search to locate
1) 3 relevant books
2) 3 relevant journal articles

for your research.

Area of research: ___________________________________

Books:
1)_________________________________________
2)_________________________________________
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3)_________________________________________

Journals:
1)__________________________________________
2)_________________________________________
3)___________________________________________

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