volume A volume is a collection of several issues of a journal, for example all the issues for one year.
access If you access something, you succeed in finding it or obtaining it.
An article in a journal will normally be listed under the name of the author of the article and will usually include the title of the article, the name of the journal, the volume number, the issue number, and the page numbers of the article.
An online article will also normally be listed under the author’s name and will include the URL of the item as well as a date for when it was accessed.
Imagine you have items 1–4 on your reading list. Match each item with the type of text a–d.
| 1 Bialystok, E. (2009). Bilingualism: The good, the bad, and the indifferent. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12(1), 3–11. | a a book |
| 2 Grosjean, F. (1982). Life with two languages. An introduction to bilingualism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. | b a chapter within a book |
| 3 Simonton, D. K. (2008). Bilingualism and creativity. In J. Altarriba & R. R. Heredia (eds.), An introduction to bilingualism: Principles and processes (pp. 147–166). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. | c a journal article |
| 4 Tucker, G. R. (1999). A Global Perspective on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Center for Applied Linguistics. Retrieved August 10, 2012 from http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/digestglobal.html. | d an article from the internet |
Searching for books by title and author
You can normally search the library catalogue for books by title, author or key words. If you know the item that you are looking for, it is easiest to use the author, or even better, the title. If you are looking for a chapter within a book, make sure that you type in the title of the book, not the title of the chapter. For example, for item 3 in Exercise 1, type An introduction to bilingualism: Principles and processes into the search box.
Glossary
recall If a library recalls a book, it asks the person who has borrowed it to return it.
The catalogue will show you whether the book is available and where you can find it. Sometimes several books with the same title will be listed. This may be because several editions of the book are available or because the library holds both a print and electronic version of the book. For print books, select the book you want and make a note of the location and any identification code given to the book by the library. This might be referred to as a ‘call number’, ‘shelf-mark’ or similar term. This code will give you information about the section of the library where the book is located.
If the catalogue indicates that the book is ‘on loan’ you may be able to recall it, either electronically or by requesting this service at your library help desk.
Searching for journals by title
If you are looking for a journal article and you know the name of the journal, you need to search using the title of the journal, not the title of the article. For example, for item 1 in Exercise 1, you should type Bilingualism: Language and Cognition into the search box. Journals are listed in the catalogue chronologically (with the most recent appearing at the top of the list), so it is important to know when the issue that you are looking for was published. Like books, journals may also be available in both print and electronic forms. To find the print version of a journal, note the location information. The most recent issues of print journals are normally shelved separately from older issues. Older issues of a journal are often collected together in ‘volumes’. Like books, these are labelled with a call number or shelf-mark so that you can retrieve them easily.
Imagine you wanted to search your university library catalogue for the items below. For each item, indicate the type of publication and the words you would use to search.
1 Small, G., & Vorgan, G. (2008). iBrain: surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind. New York: Collins Living.
2 Semanza, J. C. (2003). The Intersection of Urban Planning, Art, and Public Health: The Sunnyside Piazza. American Journal of Public Health, 93(9), 1439–1441.
3 Inceoglu, I., Segers, J., & Bartram, D. (2012). Age-related differences in work motivation. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 85(2), 300–329.
4 Chan, K. W., Kwong, C. K., & Dillon, T. S. (2012). Computational intelligence techniques for new product design. New York: Springer.
| Type of publication | Search terms | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | ||
| 4 |
Searching the library catalogue by key words
If you do not know the exact title of a book or journal, or if you want to find out what books and journals are available on your research topic, you can try a key word search. Start by highlighting the most important words or phrases in your essay question. Do not include instruction words or small words such as ‘the’, ‘and’, and ‘in’. For example, if you have been given the question below, you could type in the word management.
Examine the impact of management style on teamwork in organizations.
The catalogue will show all the items that contain management in the title. If you get too many hits, narrow down your search by adding another key word, teamwork or organizations for example.
Underline the key words and phrases in the essay questions below.
1 Assess the European Central Bank’s response to the Eurozone financial crisis.
2 Compare and contrast social media use among young people in the United States and in China.