4. Searching for information – Library
Search Click on ‘Sign-in’,
choose
‘Middlesex
University’ and
use your
university email
address.
Signing-in enables you to access
full text material, check your
library record, create lists, save
searches and create alerts and
export references to RefWorks.
5. When you need to find information….
….type your search terms
(keywords) into the
search box e.g. Project
Management and click on
the ‘search icon’.
Library Search will automatically search for resources that are
‘Available online’ unless you choose another option. If you want to
find all resources (print and electronic) then choose ‘All resources’.
8. Postal Loan Service/eBook Supply
More information:
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/distancelearners/postalloan
Distance Learning Support Team/Inter Library Loans:
tel +44 (0)20 8411 2178/2117 9am-5pm Mon-Fri (UK time)
To obtain an electronic copy of books held in the library
email: lrdlsu@mdx.ac.uk
9. Important - Register as a Distance Learner
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/distancelearners
10. Databases
myUniHub > My Study > My Library > Databases
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/BuiltEnvironment/JournalDatabases
• Web of Science
• Zetoc Alerts
• Barbour Index
• British Standards Online
• Cite Them Right Online
• LinkedIn Learning
11. Web of Science - Citation searching
• Which articles have cited an earlier article
• Find articles on similar/related subject
• How many times an article has been cited
• Best journals in your field
12. Web of Science
MyUniHub > MyStudy > MyLibrary > Databases > W > Web of Science
Check ‘Links’ to
see if full text
article is available
See how many times
article has been
cited.
Click on title
for more
information
Click number
of times cited
to see list of
citing articles
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/BuiltEnvironment/wos
16. MyUniHub > MyStudy > MyLibrary > Databases > B
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/BuiltEnvironment/Standards
If you require
access to a
Standard email
v.hill@mdx.ac.uk
21. Saving your references: RefWorks
MyStudy > MyLibrary > Databases > R > RefWorks (New)
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/plagiarismreferencing/NewRW
22. It’s not in the Library!
MyUniHub > MyStudy > MyLibrary > Inter Library Loans
https://unihub.mdx.ac.uk/study/library/study-and-research-resources/inter-library-loans
Distance Learning Support Team/Inter Library Loans:
tel +44 (0)20 8411 2178/2117 9am-5pm Mon-Fri (UK time)
23. Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.co.uk/
You may be able to
access the full-text here
e.g. this is available on
open access.
Refine your
search
results here.
Create an alert for your search,
so you can keep up-to-date
with new publications.
Link to MDX resources: > Settings > Library Links > Search for MDX and save.
24. Google Scholar: Useful features
Full text available
from Middlesex
Uni and/or other
sources.
Click on author’s name (if underlined)
to view profile and check for other
research by the author on the same
topic.
Click on ‘Cited by’
to see other articles
that have cited this
article.
‘All versions’: The same article
on other websites – sometimes
useful for getting full text if not
available from MDX.
Create a Harvard
reference or
export to
RefWorks.
25. More info and help
MyUniHub > MyStudy > MyLibrary > My Subject Library Guides> Computing, Maths and Engineering
https://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/BuiltEnvironment
Online help
guides
Support for
distance
learners
Reading lists
Academic
writing
support
Library
support
Resources
29. Need further help?
Your Librarian is:
Vanessa Hill v.hill@mdx.ac.uk
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/BuiltEnvironment/Help
Hinweis der Redaktion
Brief refresher on how to access the resources, services and support that you need.
In order to start searching for information that has been written on a topic you need to log in to myUniHub > MyStudy >MyLibrary
You can find links to library resources and other library services in MyLibrary.
I’ll be referring to some of these resources and services during the session which can all be accessed from MyLibrary.
Reading Lists: You usually access these from your Module area on MyLearning, but they can also be accessed from MyLibrary..
Library Search: This is the main way for you to search for information for your academic work. More about this later.
MySubject Library Guides: Gives you access to our library subject guides. There is a guide for each subject area taught at the Uni and they bring together the specialist resources for that area.
Databases: Gives you access to specialist collections of journals and other resources in a particular subject area. You can access most of these through Library Search, but searching a specialist resource might save you time. Many of these databases include other types of information such as books, book chapters, reports etc. A number of other useful resources can also be accessed from the database list, which I’ll mention later.
Inter Library Loans: Not a resource, but a way of getting hold of material that the library doesn’t hold or provide access to.
Distance Learning Library Support: Information about library support for distance learners.
Lets start with Library Search.
Library Search is our resource discovery tool which allows you to search all of the resources physically in the library, but also all of our electronic books and the electronic journals that we subscribe to.
Its very easy to use, but remember to sign in first as this allows you to do lots of things including accessing the full text of our eresources.
When you need to find information type your search terms (keywords) into the search box e.g. Project Management and click on the ‘search icon’.
Library Search will automatically search for resources that are ‘Available online’ unless you choose another option. If you want to find all resources (print and electronic) then choose ‘All resources’.
Simply enter your keywords (search terms) into the search box and click on the search icon.
It is possible to refine your search by using some of the options on the left hand side of the screen. For example you can refine your search by type of resource, so if you just want journal articles, select ‘articles’ under ‘resource type’. You can also limit by publication date which is useful if you want up-to-date information, and by ‘Full text only’. This is useful at the moment as it is not possible for us to access the library to retrieve print books for postal delivery to you. However it is possible for us to obtain electronic copies of journal articles from the British Library, so finding references to print journals is not necessarily a waste of time.
As you search, you can also save items to your ‘Favourites folder’ which is located at the top right of the screen. You can only do this if you have signed in.
The other really useful feature is the ability to create a reference using a variety of referencing styles.
You can access guides to using Library search’ at the link on the screen. These guides can talk you through the process of using library search to find information for your assignments, as well as searching specifically for books and journal articles, and creating references.
There are a couple of really using things that you can use to further refine your search when using library resources such as Library Search and the Internet.
Broaden your search using an asterisk* e.g. given will find build, builders, buildings etc
You can also make your search more specific by using “quotation marks”.
You can find loads more ‘search tips’ at the link on the screen.
The postal loan service is normally used by registered distance learners to request books currently held in Middlesex University's Library stock i.e. print books.
Where possible, we will provide you with access to an e copy of your requested title and if one is not available we will usually post out a print copy.
Due to the COVID-19 situation however, the Library is closed, we are working from home and are therefore unable to supply physical items from our stock until further notice.
As requests have been suspended on the system, if there is an item in our stock you wish to see, please contact us directly via our email address (lrdlsu@mdx.ac.uk) and if an e copy is available we will try to arrange access for you.
For advice on sourcing alternative materials, please contact your Liaison Librarian http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/liaisonlibrarians
Please note that you must register with us as a distance learner and receive an email confirmation of your registration, before we can supply you with a link to an e book. See next slide for information how to do this.
Please note that you must register with us as a distance learner and receive an email confirmation of your registration, before we can supply you with a link to an e book.
The library provides access to a huge range of databases which are mostly subject specific collections of online academic journals that you can search for information.
Unlike most subject areas, there is no one specialist journal database that covers your subject area as it transcends many different subject areas. This is why Library Search is your main tool for finding information as it searches across all of these resources.
However there are a number of other resources located with our databases which would be useful to you. I’ll go through them briefly one at a time.
Web of Science is what we call a citation database as not only can you use it to find relevant literature, you can also ascertain how influential that information has been:
Which articles have cited an earlier article i.e. Way of looking forward in the literature-if have found excellent article, can use a citation index to see which articles have subsequently cited it
Find articles on similar/related subjects: Citation implies subject relationship, so can find papers on a similar topic without using any keywords or subject terms
Find out how many times a paper has been cited i.e. gauge the usefulness/quality/influence of a paper
Determine which are the best journals in your field: citation data is used to rank journals within particular subject areas…..useful way of seeing how journals perform in relation to others in the same subject area.
Web of Science is not a full text database, so in order to see if we have access to an article from another resource that we subscribe to, click on ‘Links’ as indicated on the screen.
Another feature of Web of Science is that it enables you can create Journal Citation reports which essentially allow you to discover which are the most influential journals in a particular field i.e. the journals that contain the articles that get cited most by subsequent journal articles. Looking to the future, this is useful to discover which are the most influential journals to publish in.
You can find detailed guides showing you how to use all aspects of Web of Science at the link on the screen.
Increasingly ‘cited by’ information is also available on other resources.
Google Scholar has a ‘Cited by’ feature. I’ll say more about Google Scholar later.
Also in Library Search – the ‘pointing up’ arrows allow you to ‘Find sources citing this’. The ‘Pointing down’ arrows also allow you to ‘Find sources cited in this’.
Zeetoc is one of the world’s most comprehensive research databases, giving access to over 30,000 journals and more than 52 million article citations and conference papers through the British Library’s electronic table of contents.
It enables you to keep pace with your peers, stay up to date with new research, and expand your field of knowledge. You can set-up personalised email Zetoc Alerts or RSS feeds to track the latest articles or journal titles related to your interests. In most cases, you can access abstracts or the full text of articles which you can then request by Inter Library Loan.
Full text documentation on legislation, regulations and standards for environment and health & safety professionals.
Another useful resource is British Standards online.
Access as shown on slide.
Can search all of the British and adopted European and International standards. Only a small number are available in full text, but we can add required standards if required up to our quota of 150.
Email me if you require access to a Standard that is not in our collection and I can add it to our subscription. Email address on the screen.
The Middlesex University Research Repository is an online "open access" archive of published research and other scholarly content produced by Middlesex University staff a
and researchers. Material includes:
journal articles
conference papers
art works and exhibitions
books and book chapters
doctoral theses
During the COVID-19 outbreak many publishers are providing free access to their resources as a sign of good will. You can access these eTextbooks and eResources from the Library Guide home page – link on the screen.
Even though Library search, many of the journal databases and things like Google Scholar have the functionality to create a reference that you can use in your academic work, they still need to be checked for their accuracy using Cite Them right Online.
Cite Them Right does not create the references for you, but shows you how to create a reference for pretty much any type of information that you might use from a book or academic journal article through to a company report or British Standard.
There is a lot of useful information on Cite Them Right to help you avoid plagiarism, but also there is a referencing and plagiarism library guide – link on the screen.
Another option to get your references perfect is to use RefWorks which is Bibliographic Management software which allows you to collect, manage and organise your references as well as store and annotate PDFs and share with others.
You can also add citations to your work such as your dissertation as you write it and then generate a perfectly formatted reference list from the citations you have used.
Access RefWorks from our Databases list in the same way as you access our journal databases.
You will need to set up an account the first time, so use your Middlesex email address.
A detailed guide ‘RefWorks for researchers’ is available from the link on the screen.
There is also quite a lot of information about using RefWorks on the plagiarism and referencing lib guide – link on the screen.
Its possible to export references from Library Search into RefWorks. Just click on the ‘RW’ symbol and you will then be asked if you want to export into the ‘newest version of RefWorks’. You will be asked this every time unless you tick the box at the bottom of the screen.
If the material you require for your studies or research is not held by the University's campus libraries or electronic resources, the Inter-library loans service is here to help you.
We liaise with the British Library to obtain electronic copies of the articles you require.
There is usually a charge of £3 per request for this service, but it is free for the duration of the library closure.
Google scholar is another resource that you can use to find information. Its open access, so available to everyone, not just Middlesex students. It enables you to find journal articles, theses, books, and more, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites across all disciplines.
Not everything on Google Scholar is full text, but you can link it to our library resources by changing the settings as shown on the screen. You only need to do this once on your own laptop/device, but you need to be logged on to MyUniHub.
More useful is finding material which is not accessible through Middlesex University Library i.e. articles, books and papers etc which are on open-access on the Internet.
Like Library Search and the journal databases, you can refine your search, plus set up alerts using a Google account to keep up with recent developments in any area of research and save material found to a personal library.
Google Scholar is good, but there is limited ability to combine different keywords or to refine your search as you can with Library search and our journal databases.
Also older articles can appear first in results, so use the date limits on the left hand side of the screen.
Lots of useful online guides eg.
How to find books
How to find information for your project
Accessing journal databases
etc
As a student at Middlesex University you have unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning, an on-demand library of high-quality instructional videos covering a vast range of software, business and creative skills. With more than 5,000 courses taught by industry experts—and more added every week—LinkedIn Learning is designed for all levels of learners, and it’s available whenever you’re ready to learn. The LinkedIn Learning app, means that you can also view courses from your mobile device.
You Can also link it to your LinkedIn account and highlight any LinkedIn Learning courses that you have created on your profile.
UniHelp is your first point of call for general student enquiries and provides information, help and support for all aspects of student life including.
You can contact UniHelp using ‘Chat’ or by submitting a query online. You can do this by going to the link on the screen or look out for the green ‘Chat with us’ pop-up tab when you go into UniHub. Chat is currently available online Mon-Fri 9am-5pm.
