Finding and evaluating information

It is essential to understand what you are being asked to do before you start searching for information.

• Skills@Library Interpreting the task page
  Detailed advice and activities to help you interpret assignment titles and understand what you are being asked to do.

Using appropriate and relevant information sources will help to strengthen the quality of your work.

• Understanding your reading list tutorial
  Your reading lists are a good starting point for finding good quality, relevant information.

You need to be able to search for information beyond your reading list. The following resources will help you to identify relevant sources of information for your subject, and to search for them efficiently.

• Subject resources
  Your subject page offers help with choosing the most relevant sources for your subject area and guidance on how to search for them effectively. Choose your subject from the list below and then select subject resources.
  
  
  Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies Architecture Art Aviation Biochemistry Biological Sciences Biology Biomedical Sciences Business Chemical Engineering Chemistry Civil Engineering Classics Colour Science Communications Studies Computing Dentistry Design Earth and Environment East Asian Studies Education Electronic and Electrical Engineering Energy Engineering English Environment Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies Fire and Explosion Engineering Food Science and Nutrition French Genetics Geography Geological Sciences German Healthcare History History and Philosophy of Science Human Geography Icelandic International health Italian Law Lifelong Learning Centre Linguistics and Phonetics Mathematics Mechanical Engineering Medicine Medieval studies Microbiology Modern Languages and Cultures Molecular Nanoscience Museum Studies Music NHS Neuroscience Performance and Cultural Industries Petroleum Engineering Pharmacology Philosophy Physical Geography Physics and Astronomy Politics and International Studies Psychology Russian and Slavonic Studies SPEME Social Work Sociology and Social Policy Spanish and Portuguese Sport and Exercise Sciences Textiles Theatre Theology and Religious Studies Translation Transport Studies World Cinemas Zoology
  
  
  
• Using the Library Catalogue (tutorial)
• Finding journal articles (tutorial)
• Web searching (tutorial)
• Finding information for your assignment: Search tips and techniques (tutorial)
  This short tutorial introduces you to basic searching techniques.
• Keyword search: improving your results (PDF)

It is essential to be able to think critically and judge what information is relevant and appropriate for your purpose.

• Evaluating information tutorial
• Evaluating information checklist (PDF)
• The Internet Detective
  An online tutorial to help students develop the critical thinking required for their internet research.
• Skills@Library critical thinking page
  Detailed information, advice and activities to develop your critical thinking skills.

Storing your references

• Skills@Library EndNote pages: guides, online tutorials, workshops
  EndNote not only helps you to store and manage your references, it also works with Microsoft Word to automatically insert citations and create your bibliography or reference list.
• Skills@Library referencing tools page
  Information about other reference management tools.

Social bookmarking

• What? Why? How? of social bookmarking
  A brief overview of using social bookmarking in your studies.
• Social bookmarking in plain English (video)
• An example of how an academic uses social bookmarking with his students (video)

Keeping up to date with new information in your research or study area can be time-consuming. Using alerting services and RSS can make this a more efficient process.

• Alerting services
• Saving your Catalogue searches (video)
  How to save your catalogue searches and have the Library automatically run your searches every week, emailing you any new results.