UrFU Library: Lesson 16. Selecting electronic resource

Lessons

Lesson 16. Selecting electronic resource

Selecting electronic resource, we should consider semantic, typical, geographical, and language search limits and timespan (see Lesson 14).

THUS, semantic limits are related with a resource subject area. There are interdisciplinary resources, for example, eLIBRARY, SCOPUS, WoS CC.

There are also specialized resources that cover a specific subject category and can be used by researchers in this very sector or in related ones, for example, chemistry database — Reaxys, physics — IOP, mathematics — AMS.

Users can select electronic resources in the corresponding section of UrFU Library website including subscribed resources (see Figure 1) as well as open-access resources. This section presents the name of each resource, its topic and content, access mode. Be these characteristics changed, the information is immediately updated.

Figure 1. Searching resources in chemistry in the section “Resources — Databases” of the English version of UrFU Library website

Kind of publication is also of a great importance for retrieval purposes. General approach to this attribute is demonstrated by Figure 2. It displays the scheme of the University resources. For example, you would better search technical inventions in patent databases, while to solve humanitarian tasks you would better search monographs and journal articles.

Figure 2. Map of resources

Language and geographical limits allow selecting resources including international authors as well as regional content. They may contain publications in different languages. Apart from this, a user can select only Russian or only international resources, databases of a specific country, and find a resource adequate to a user’s language level.

Chronological limits allow selecting resources regarding retrospective and availability of a digital document. Thus, Russian segment frequently lacks electronic books or articles published more than 10-15 years ago. Retrieval of earlier printed items should be started with electronic and traditional catalogues (UrFU Library Electronic Catalogue).

WE RECOMMEND designing your own mind map* of resources in your research topic. It will allow connecting all the the above studied criteria for solving specific search tasks. You can use free online mind mapping services to make links to necessary resources (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Mind Map “Scientific Electronic Resources for UrFU Researchers”, 2018

*Mind map is a graphical way to represent ideas and concepts. It is a visual thinking tool: https://litemind.com/what-is-mind-mapping/#:~:text=A%20mind%20map%20is%20a,power%20lies%20in%20its%20simplicity; https://www.mindmeister.com.

Material prepared by Asya Kosenko, translated by Natalia Krasnogor

Ural Federal University Library