Enhance Your Research Skills

@
Gad & Birgit Rausing Library 

Waris Ali Arslan

Deputy Manager
Gad & Birgit Rausing Library
Lahore University of Management Sciences
 Gad & Birgit Rausing Library

ensures that all graduates of the university

are familiar with the information resources
and tools in their respective fields of study,
trained in their effective use, and prepared
to conduct a search for information
resources in any field of inquiry.
 Information Literacy
A mean to “empower people in all walks of
life to seek, evaluate, use and create
information effectively to achieve their
personal, social, occupational and
educational goals” (UNESCO)

 A set of abilities requiring individuals to

“recognize when information is needed and
have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use
effectively the needed information” (ACRL)
 Information Literacy involves

 Recognizing the need for information.

 Understanding the sources of information.
 Locating information.
 Evaluating information.
 Using information ethically.
 Using information effectively.
 Five steps for good research
 Step 1: Understand the Assignment
 Step 2: Choose a Topic
 Interest & Focus
 Step 3: Prepare to Research
 What do I already know about my subject?
 What specific question(s) do I want my research to answer?
 What are the parameters of my research? Does my instructor want me
to use a certain type or number of sources? 
 Step 4: Understand the Variety of Information Sources
 Books (Print, digital)
 Subject-specific encyclopedias
 Magazines (Print, Digital)
 Research Journals (Print, Digital)
 Videos & DVDs
Step 5: Decide Which Information to Use

 Skim and Sort

 Read
 Process
 Outline
 Choose your evidence
 Take Notes
 Organize
 Take Inventory
 Search Strategies
 Use synonyms to broaden your search

 Use root or stem searching 

 Use quotes to keep phrases together

 Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)  

 Make use of the variety of fields that make up the records

 Boolean Operators
Boolean operators allow us to join terms together, widen a search or exclude
terms from your search results. This means you can be more precise in
locating your information.
 Searching for Books
 Title search    
 Author search     
 Subject search   
 Search Everything  
 Series Title
 Volume search

Searching for articles

 We search articles in research database
 Most periodical databases allow users to
search by author, title, journal title, volume
and frequency 
 When doing a search for a topic, it is best to
start with a keyword search   
 Seeking Quality Information
Authority: 
 Seek out sources written by experts in their field, and keep in mind that many
sources are specialized for certain subjects or fields.    
Accuracy:  
 It's important to be definite about the points you make in your research
assignment.
Objectivity: 
 An objective source states only the facts and does not try to persuade its
readers, push an agenda, or advocate a cause.
Currency:
 Look at your research paper as an addition to the ongoing conversation about
your topic. 
Coverage: 

 How comprehensive is the coverage of the topic?  

 Ethics of Information Use
 Permission to Use Sources
 To Cite or Not to Cite
  Copyright versus Fair Use
  Protected Images
  Personal Communication
 Credit the original source
 Avoid plagiarism
 Standard writing styles
 Resources @ Library
Total Collection Political Science

274,000 Printed Books & 15,000 Books (Oriental,

Documents English & Urdu)

180,000 Electronic Books 4000 e-contents apx.

320 Print Journals 15 Associated Journals

35 online databases 5 Associated Databases

36,000 e-Journals dating back

Associated political resources
to 1800s…

3,200 Audio-Visual Material ………………..

Electronic Resources: e-databases
16 scholarly journals including the flagship journals “Operations
Research “ and “Management Science”.

Cambridge University Press collection of nearly 380 leading

peer reviewed research journals across natural and applied
sciences, social sciences and humanities.

Over 1100 peer reviewed journals on all disciplines are

available with back issues starting from 1997.

JSTOR is an archival database with complete back files of

over 1,000 core scholarly journals covering business, religion
& philosophy, humanities, social sciences, languages and
literature etc.

Emerald Insight provides full text of all 300 Emerald online

journals with back files, many going back to 1990s.
Electronic Resources: e-Books

Offers an increasing selection of more than 147,000 e-Books in

business, economics, computers, engineering and technology .

The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the

evolution of the English language over the last millennium. The
OED covers words from across the English-speaking world.

Provides access to IMF Balance of Payment Statistics,

Directory of Trade Statistics, International Financial Statistics
and other IMF statistical sources.

World's leading online collection of over 67,000 books and

155,000 journal articles in the humanities, social sciences,
economics and management sciences.
Library Portal
http://libraryportal.lums.edu.pk
Off Campus Access
 Web Discovery Service

Search Options
Search Types
ISI Web of Science
SCOPUS
Google Scholar
Questions?