Information retrieval
Introduction
With respect to the second generic quality, lifelong learning, there is a shift to the area of personal learning. For the postgraduate higher degree by research student, the context is the 'pursuit of personal development and excellence in research within and beyond the discipline or professional practice'.
Information retrieval (IR) has changed considerably with the expansion of the world wide web and the advent of modern and inexpensive graphical user interfaces and mass storage devices. The web is becoming a universal repository of human knowledge and culture which allows unprecedented sharing of ideas and information on a scale never seen before (Modern information retrieval, ch 1).
Implementing Research
Degree Graduate Qualities at UniSA (RTF file) acknowledges
that 'prior to or during the course of research degree education,
the research
student would have achieved advanced skills in information
retrieval and data processing' in
relation to the second Graduate Quality.
UniSA resources
On campus workshops
Research Education Support Activities (RESA) offers on campus workshops relevant to:
- Strategies for searching databases
- Keeping up to date
- Using software to manage references and research integrity
- Finding theses and dissertations
- Where do I publish?
as part of the core series (all disciplines). Check the calendar for details of when these workshops are offered.
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Online workshops, courses and resources
Computer and information retrieval skills index (RESA) provides links to online workshops, courses and resources.
Finding theses and dissertations tells you how to search the catalogue for theses, databases for finding theses and training
Other
The Library offers the following general resources:
- Search engines page provides a comprehensive list to allow you to efficiently search and retrieve files from the internet by entering your own keywords
- Virtual libraries provide a gateway to resources and services in specific subject areas. Each virtual library supports the teaching, learning and research activities of a particular school, division or research centre, with special emphasis on online resources
- Catalogue of the University of South Australia Library
-
Databases provide access to journal literature either by providing the
full text of articles or to article citations and abstracts, including the
following
- Theses Canada portal database allows you to search the online catalogue for all the Canadian theses and dissertations in their collection and provides free access to full-text electronic theses covering the period from 1998 to 2002
- THESES NUS-Theses collection is a bibliographic database that indexes theses and academic exercises submitted to the National University of Singapore and its predecessor institutions, namely Raffles College, University of Malaya, University of Malaya (Singapore division), the Nanyang University and the University of Singapore
-
Subject resources provides guides to internet resources to link you to
useful collections of websites in specific subject areas. This page also has
links to
- online reference resources such as dictionaries and thesauri, directories, government information, newspapers, publishers and booksellers, standards, statistics and more
- UniLibraries SA: subject guides of the libraries of University of South Australia, University of Adelaide and Flinders University
- Services includes interlibrary loans (useful for getting items or photocopies from national and international locations) and the Flexible Delivery Service (useful if you are studying externally)
-
Bibliographic management software has information on EndNote and RefWorks, both available to students for downloading bibliographic
citations and styles
Other resources
Australian Libraries Gateway (National Library of Australia) is a free web-based directory service of current information about every library in Australia - a 'one-stop-shop' for information about Australian libraries. The Australian Libraries Gateway (ALG) has an ALG for researchers page with suggestions of ways researchers might use the Gateway.
Referencing
Endnote tutorial (University of Newcastle Library) has the sections:
Getting started; Transferring from databases; Endnote and Word; Managing
your library; FAQs, tips and help.
Process of information retrieval
Finding
information (The
PostGrad Toolbox, USQ Library) looks at sources of information: print
resources, catalogues, databases, the internet, dissertations and
citation indexes.
How literature is structured (Cornell University Library) looks at the developmental stages of literature in a discipline - primary, secondary and tertiary level, and how this determines the search strategy of the researcher.
Evaluating information
Information retrieval is not just about finding but also evaluating information sources
to determine whether they are reliable and worthy of use. There are many
resources to help with the evaluation process; a
Google search will find more:
- Evaluating World Wide Web information: not all sources on the world wide web are equally valuable or reliable. This resource poses questions to help you evaluate the worth of a site
- Evaluation of information sources contains links to criteria for evaluating information resources, particularly those on the Internet
Search engine features:
- Search Engine Showdown tracks the changes in search engines and provides the latest news and statistics. It reviews the major search engines and offers 'showdown' comparisons in areas such as data up-to-dateness and dead links. If you rely on web searching, this site is a worth a visit.
- Google Alert is a free Google feature. Register and enter up to five queries and you'll get regular updated emails. Your requests can use the same advanced features available in a regular Google search, and after the initial set of results the service only sends updates
- Scirus is a search engine designed to find scientific information only, providing high quality sources that are ranked accurately. Once a searcher gets results, Scirus suggests a list of focus options to further refine the search.