EDUC 290A: Policy, Organization, Measurement, and Evaluation

Power Searching

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:46:41 -0700

Power search features for most article databases:

Use synonyms -- there are many ways to express a concept (teenager or teenagers or adolescent)
Use truncation to get different forms of the word, for example teenage* will retrieve teenagers, teenager, teenaged, etc.
Use quotation marks when you want an "exact phrase"

A bit more complex -- but really powerful:

Use "controlled vocabulary" (also called descriptors or subject headings) if the database has them. The ERIC Thesaurus is a very powerful tool. You can browse the Thesaurus by category to get an overview of how the research is organized in a topic area, and to learn the terminology that the editors apply to describe what an article is "about".
Use the special "limits" or "fields" that the database offers. Many let you limit by language, ERIC also lets you limit by:
- Educational Level -- are you interested in secondary? elementary? higher education?
- Audience -- do you want articles oriented towards practitioners or researchers?
- Publication Type -- do you want dissertations? books? journals? classroom guides

Find articles

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 09:14:33 -0700

JSTOR: Education and Project MUSE: Education Particularly helpful when you want to search every word of the article, not just an abstract. Core journals in the discipline, and JSTOR goes back to the very first volumes -- but it doesn't include the past three to five years.

UC eLinks and Citation Linker

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:15:49 -0700

Sometimes the database you search doesn't link to the fulltext -- it only gives the citation. Click the button to see if Berkeley has it online, and if not, it will check for a print version. And if we don't have it at all, it lets you request it through Interlibrary Loan.

What if there isn't a button??? Sometimes you find an article in a bibliography, a book or a footnote -- and you want to see if we have it. The Citation Linker searches through our online databases to see if it's available fulltext. If not, it sets up a search for the paper journal in Melvyl. And if we don't have it at Berkeley, it lets you request it through Interlibrary Loan.

Find Books

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 12:27:19 -0700

UCB: Use OskiCat to find books related to your topic at UC Berkeley. Oskicat will show you where it's located, and will also show you the Library of Congress Subject Heading -- which can help you find material other relevant books.

UC: Not enough books at Berkeley? Use Melvyl to find more books at other campuses in the UC system. Clickon the REQUEST button (in the detailed view of a catalog record) to request the item through Interlibrary Loan.

World: Still want more? You can search thousands of libraries through WorldCat on FirstSearch and then request the material through UC e-links or directly via Interlibrary Loan.

Google Books: Library catalogs don't search inside of books. Google Books can help you identify the book you need, then click on "Find in a Library" to see if we have it.

This guide has been archived

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:18:44 -0800

Please note: this course guide was created during a previous semester, and is no longer being actively maintained. For a list of current course guides, please see http://lib.berkeley.edu/alacarte/course-guides.

Ask a Librarian 24/7 Chat

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:03:26 -0700

Connecting from Off Campus?

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:06:16 -0700

You can access UCB Library resources from off campus or via your laptop or other mobile device using one of two simple methods. (NOTE: Using EndNote? Use VPN, not the Proxy Server)

Proxy Server
After you make a one-time change in your web browser settings, the proxy server will ask you to log in with a CalNet ID or Library PIN when you click on the link to a licensed resource. See the setup instructions, FAQ, and Troubleshooting pages to configure your browser.

VPN (Virtual Private Network)
After you install and run the VPN "client" software on your computer, you can log in with a CalNet ID to establish a secure connection with the campus network.

Google Scholar and UC e-links

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:00:07 -0700

Set up your proxy server access by following the directions at http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu/. When you get to a point where you are accessing resources that the Library pays for, you will be prompted for your CalNet ID and password.
Change your “Scholar Preferences.” Access these by clicking on the link next to the search box.
In search box next to "Library Links," type in University of California Berkeley and click on “Find Library”
Check box next to "University of California Berkeley - UC-eLinks
Click on "Save Preferences" at bottom of page

Lexis Nexis Tips

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 08:52:29 -0700

Use truncation (wildcard) to search different forms of the word (child* retrieves child, child's, children)
Use 'proximity connectors' -- w/[number], for example (youth or adolescent or teen*) w/25 homeless*. (You can also use w/s for within sentence, or w/p for within paragraph but you can't also combine these with number of words.
Change the display to Expanded List -- shows you your search terms, plus a few words on either side.
Change display to Relevance if it is on Chronological (if date is really important to you, restrict to the date range you want in the search box).

Federal Policy

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:32:39 -0700

LexisNexis Congressional contains congressional documents (hearings, committee prints, documents, and legislative histories) which are searchable through this fulltext database.

Polisphere a very helpful custom search engine -- lets you search the web for policy related issues, and you can refine your search by limiting it to policy organizations, or federal, state, or local government.

MetaLib and USA.gov are two ways to search a variety of US Government sources at one time.

LexisNexis Government Periodicals Index Indexes over 170 periodicals published by agencies of the US Government.

News Sources

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:33:50 -0700

News sources can be a great way to find information about federal and state social and educational policies. There are numerous sources of fulltext news, some available freely on the web. The ones below are all databases that we pay for, they each have specialized features.

Find Dissertations

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:53:42 -0700

Full-text Access: Some fulltext UC dissertations (after 1996) can be found online by searching Dissertations & Theses @ University of California which also finds citations and abstracts for some UC dissertations prior to 1996. Berkeley dissertations prior to 1996 (in print) may be found by searching the Library catalogs. Dissertations done at other UC campuses prior to 1996 or ouside the UC system must be obtained through Interlibrary Loan or using the "Request" option in Melvyl. (NOTE: most dissertations can't be borrowed. If there is one you must have, contact your librarian about whether it's possible to buy a copy for our library.)

Forward Citation

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:25:39 -0700

If an article is a few years old, but relevant to your topic, it can be very helpful to see who has cited it. This might be to see if the original research has been expanded upon or updated, or how it has been received. There are several different ways to do this, and the results will overlap -- no single method is comprehensive.

ISI Web of Science contains the Social Science Citation Index which allows you to do a "Cited Reference" search. This shows other articles (from a prestigious list of peer reviewed journals) which have cited the target article, and it also shows the references for the the original article... both forward and backward citation.

Google Scholar also provides forward citations for some articles. It has a broader range of documents included (not just peer reviewed journals, but reports, pre-prints, etc.) and doesn't eliminate self citation or de-duplicate the results.

CSA Illumina Databases sometimes provides Cited References for articles indexed in the CSA databases such as Social Services Abstracts, ERIC, EconLit, PsycInfo, etc.

For this class, we are going to use the following citation as an example:

Stone, S. (2007). Child maltreatment, out-of-home placement and academic vulnerability: A fifteen-year review of evidence and future directions. Children and Youth Services Review, 29(2), 139-161.

Citation Management Tools

sedwards@library.berkeley.edu (Susan Edwards) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:42:42 -0700

Citation management tools help you manage your research, collect and cite sources, and create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, but any are easier than doing it by hand! The Library offers workshops on Endnote, Zotero, and Refworks! Or contact your librarian for individual help.

Zotero: A free plug-in that works exclusively with the Firefox browser: keeps copies of what you find on the web, permits tagging, notation, full text searching of your library of resources, works with Word, and has a free web backup service.
RefWorks - free for UC Berkeley users. It allows you to create your own database by importing references and using them for footnotes and bibliographies. Use the RefWorks New User Form to sign up.
EndNote: may be purchased from UC Berkeley's Software Central for about $80.

It's always good to double check the formatting -- sometimes the software doesn't get it quite right.