Finding that Google isn't meeting your research needs?
...well I'm not surprised to be honest! Google is good for many things, we all know that (well, give or take a few things we might not like...) but when it comes to finding academic research you still can't beat a good 'old fashioned' University Library.
And when that good 'old fashioned' University Library provides its users with easy access to most of its collection online, so much the better :-)
So don't miss out - go to the University portal for online students and staff and login with your MWS username and password and access the Online Library from here.
For further tips on getting the most from the Online Library and finding and managing information for your research, take a look at the Information Literacy Resource. This is a self study resource available on Embanet (MBA Area - MBA Information Literacy Resource, MSC Area - MSc Information Literacy Resource and MPH Area - MPH Information Literacy Resource).
Take a look and if there's something you're not sure about or you just want a chat about using the Library for your research, please contact me, Stephanie Allen at Online_Librarian@embanet.com
Labels: e-resources, google, Information Literacy Resource, University portal
posted by Stephanie Allen, Online Librarian @ 3:33 PM
4 Comments:
Why is it that I am able to find articles with Google that I cannot find through MetaLib? I always use Google first and when I find an article I can use but don't have access to, I try to find it in MetaLib and most of the time I don't.
Thanks for your comment. If you can’t find a specific journal article using MetaLib it could be that (1) The Library doesn’t have a subscription to the journal it is in (we have access to thousands of journals, but not everything ever published), or (2) It may be the way you are searching for it.
You might find it helpful to look at these search tips(http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/ohecampus/searchtips.htm#MetaLibsearch) and also to try the advanced search options on MetaLib.
If there is a specific journal you want to access it’s always worth searching for the journal title using the A-Z list of e-journals (http://sfx7.exlibrisgroup.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/lpu/azlist/default)or the e-journal Library catalogue search (http://library.liv.ac.uk/search~b00001a00001/)- this will tell you whether the Library has access to the volume and year you require and from here you should be able to access it.
Of course if you find good quality articles or information on Google this is obviously a good thing. However, I would always encourage you to also use the Online Library because many quality journals and other resources (such as market research reports, company reports, statistics, news sources etc.) are locked behind subscription barriers so they aren't available in Google, but may be available in the Library if we subscribe to the resource.
You haven’t left your name in this posting, but if you read this, please don’t hesitate to email me if you want to chat about this further (Online_Librarian@embanet.com)
Thanks, Stephanie
I cannot help myself, but for my purposes I've found Google superior to the MetaLib in terms of both relevance and - especially - quick responses.
Of course, when I say Google I don't mean the web search engine, but the Google Scholar: it indexes both freely available resources as well as subscription protected digital libraries such as ACM, IEEE and many others.
Actually, the Google Scholar may be accessed through EZProxy, so if it returns some protected resources, the links point to their "EZproxied" versions.
The URL is:
http://scholar.google.co.uk.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/
Of course, this is only my experience and I believe that other students may find MetaLib more useful.
That’s a very good point Pavel. The purpose of my original posting was to encourage those with an over reliance on Google to try out the Online Library resources, but I am glad that this has generated debate and appreciate you taking the time to comment.
When you use Google Scholar through EZproxy you can access many of the journals that the Library subscribes to because you are authenticating yourself as a University of Liverpool user and are therefore allowed access. You will also find other information freely available if the publisher/provider has allowed it to be made freely available.
I do agree with you that Google Scholar through EZproxy is a very useful tool to use in addition to the Online Library. A few words of caution though: (1) Remember that not everything is indexed on Google Scholar and sometimes you won’t get access even if the Library do subscribe. (2) You can access many journal articles this way, but you may not be able to access other important information, such as market reports, standards, company information, statistics. (3) As with every resource (including those in the Library) you need to make sure you evaluate the results you find to ensure they are suitable for academic research.
Of course, no search tool is perfect and personally I mainly tend to use a combination of the Online Library resources (using the Library catalogue to search for specific e-journals or e-books; using the cross-search tool MetaLib to search for information on a subject; and using the native interface of Library databases to do more advanced searching) and also Google Scholar. [You can actually access Google Scholar through MetaLib if you choose to]. There are other resources you can also use to find information, but what you use does depend on the subject area you are searching for (for anyone interested, there is more about this in the Information Literacy Resource on Embanet).
For me, the most important thing is to ensure that students are not missing out on resources that are valuable for their research. Thanks again for your comment – it was very helpful.
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