Information Skills
From Nulisbus
Contents |
What are Information Skills
People know Information Skills by a variety of names. Information Literacy, Study Skills, Employability Skills - even Library Skills are essentially the same thing. What they all boil down to is the same thing anyway - offering skills to do with planning, searching, gathering, organising, evaluating and exploiting the information around them.
IN:FORM
IN:FORM tells you more about the library and how it can help you. You may have a reading list - IN:FORM will tell you how to get the best out of it and, at the very least, shows you how to find everything on the reading list without much fuss. Even if you DON'T have a reading list, IN:FORM will show you how to find subject information quickly and easily. IN:FORM will show you how to use NUIN and NUINlink - the two catalogues in the library. You'll be shown how best to use internet resources too - like Google and Yahoo! search engines to track down what you need.
Once you've found the sorts of information you need, IN:FORM will show you how to evaluate everything - to cut out the unnecessary in order that what remains is the essential. Also, if you're new to the idea of referencing, you'll find IN:FORM's guide to it invaluable.
Finally, IN:FORM will talk you through the legal side of things - Plagiarism and Copyright - are essential issues to be aware of!
Access IN:FORM here
Starting Your Search
Define what you’re looking for
- Identify key concepts & terms, including broader, narrower and related terms (use a dictionary, thesaurus etc)
- SET LIMITS
- GEOGRAPHIC (UK, EU, US, Worldwide…)
- Are you looking at a company, for example, in a particular part of the world e.g. Coca Cola in the UK, or in China, or Europe etc etc
- DATE RANGE (before/after 200?)
- How far back do you want to find information from? Is the last 5 years enough? Do you need to go back further? if you do go back further, is that information still valid?
- SCOPE (overview, analysis, commentary)
- What type of information are you looking for? Perhaps a Case Study, or a simple company overview. Perhaps an analysis of a particular market or perhaps some management theory?
- GEOGRAPHIC (UK, EU, US, Worldwide…)
Evaluating Search results
Evaluating information resources
It is always important to evaluate the information resources you use, but it is especially important if you have found the information on the Internet. Anyone can mount information on the Web, there is very little quality control!
Evaluating Content
Apply RUDOLF against your search results:
- R - relevant to your needs?
- U - useful for the problem in hand?
- D - date of publication appropriate?
- O - obtainable?
- L - level of information correct? Too simple/advanced?
- F - fresh information? Do you know this already?
Referencing & Bibliographies
Keeping Records
If you need to retrace your search then remember to do the following
- note titles consulted
- note keywords used
- note full details of any useful references
- note locations of items found
Very, very useful should you need to find the full text of an article that you wish to cite or refer to in your dissertation. If you can't fully reference it, then you can't use it.
Bibliographies
A bibliography is a list of books, journal articles, reports, theses and any other material consulted during the preparation of a report (or essay, project, article or any other new document).
Purpose:
- To acknowledge the sources consulted
- To enable other readers to access the material themselves
- To provide an overview of the literature relating to the topic
Referencing
It is so very, very important to reference items correctly. There is no standard reference type used, however the Harvard Method does seem to be the most popular. Here are a couple of examples:
- Book
- Steiner, J. (2000) Textbook on EC law.7th ed. London: Blackstone Press
- Journal
- Ambler, T. (1997) Do brands benefit consumers? International Journal of Advertising 16 (3), pp.167-198
Click HERE for further information on the Harvard Method.
