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This morning is a morning of catching up on tutorials. Immediately after listening to a recoded tutorial about Hamlet, which had been delivered by Molly Zeigler. I went on to listen to a tutorial about finding literature sources through the library. I thought I did okay for the previous TMA, having found a couple of useful papers, but I thought it might be useful to attend, just in case I might be able to pick up some useful tips.

What follows are some notes that I have made from the session.

Stages in literature searching

Identifying the topic, developing a search strategy, identifying sources, searching and evaluating. Within all this, you might well be choosing (and moving on from) different literature databases. An important point: a beginning point is sources that have already been recommended (in the references section at the end of a chapter).

Useful tips: on the resources page on each module website, click on the library resources page, which can be found on the right hand side of the page (which can be overlooked if you’re not careful). Also, do have a look to see if there are any specific guidance in the assessment guide.

Visiting the library

On the right hand side of the library website , there’s a summary of types of resources. The Drama Online site was mentioned, which I’m a fan on. The subject specific collections were mentioned, which I’ve had a look at before; there is one for English Literature as well as one for other subject, such as computing. For example, the dictionary of literary biography might be useful.

We were shown how to find articles that were mentioned in a reading list, just by entering in the title of the article. In JSTOR (a journal database), there’s a ‘cited by’ feature, which can be useful to look at how articles have been used since something was published.

Searching search terms

When searching for topics, you can use the ‘*’ character to widen a search to find different word endings (or spellings) and use quotation to make sure that you find specific titles. You can also use Boolean operator, such as AND, OR or NOT, and can use brackets to specify search precedence. When you get a search result, you can then specify filters to show only articles, or results where we can access the full text.

Proquest One Literature is a catalogue that I’ve looked at before. A feature that was highlighted was the author pages, where we see primary texts, other works. Proquest can be used to find articles that relate to criticism. It’s also possible to carry out searches of specific fields. 

Looking at JSTOR, the advanced search screen can be helpful. 

Useful resources

Towards the end of the presentation, there was a recap of the PROMPT framework and the CiteThemRight guidance website.

Reflections

I didn’t spend too long on this session, using the fast forward button to skip through the activities, but it was helpful. After the session, I did a quick topic search for articles that relate to an idea I had following the earlier Hamlet tutorial. I didn’t find anything, so I went back to some earlier search terms that I had used. This links back to the point the presenter in the library session had made about iteration.

One tool that has been really useful, but wasn’t covered in this session was the Library Browser extension. This was mentioned by my tutor. It has changed my life (only in a very small way, but it has changed it for the better). Using it means that I don’t have to continually login to various journal databases to access articles I’m looking for. Do install the extension; it’ll save you time.