Get a head start at University

Posted on 3 Jul 2009 at 11:00

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Most academic search engines work as you'd expect them to. Just type the words you want to search on and hit Enter. There are options to use one or more advanced search operators for greater precision. Where things differ from regular search engines is the results themselves and how they're displayed. For instance, our Google Scholar search on the word 'Jacobite' returned, among many others, this result:

[BOOK] The Jacobite Risings in Britain, 1689-1746

B Lenman - 1980 - Holmes & Meier Pub

Cited by 30 - Related articles - Web Search - Library Search

This tells us about a book called The Jacobite Risings in Britain, 1689-1746, written by B Lenman and published in 1980 by Holmes and Meier. Often a link like this is live, and clicking on it displays an online copy of the article or book, or at least an abstract of it. In this case, however, the link isn't live, so you'd have to take this information to the library. Luckily, if you click the Library Search link, Google will search the library database WorldCat.org for Professor Lenman's book. If you give it your postcode, WorldCat.org will tell you the full bibliographic details of the book, including ISBN number, and also which libraries in your area house a copy.

Other links perform equally useful functions. If you click on 'Cited by...', Google Scholar shows you all the publications in its database that cite Professor Lenman's book. The Related articles link finds publications on similar topics. These two links alone can help you compile a reading list in minutes that would have taken hours to assemble without an academic search engine.

Forums, blogs and newsgroups

As well as being a huge electronic library, the internet is also a great way of communicating with the wider academic community. The best way to do this is through public forums that are dedicated to your particular subject.

The oldest type of forum system running is Usenet. This hosts a series of text-based newsgroups on a loose network of distributed servers. There are newsgroups on every conceivable subject, including thousands of academic newsgroups. The easiest way to post is by using Google Groups (http://groups.google.com). This gives you access to all of Usenet, and no special software is required.

Normal web forums are also a good place to exchange ideas. Good forums for UK students can be found on http://thestudentroom.co.uk and http://yougofurther.co.uk (run by UCAS). Before posting, you should read the rules of any forum you use and check out the Usenet primer at www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/primer/part1.

Whether you're posting on Usenet or a normal web forum, there are a few things to bear in mind if you're to get the best results possible. First, unless you're in a forum that's dedicated to homework help, don't just ask people to give you ideas for your assignment. No-one wants to do your work for you; the best-case scenario is that you'll be ignored. Similarly, don't post ill-informed or half-baked ideas and expect others to fill in the gaps. Do your research first and then, once you have some ideas, post and ask for clarification and feedback. Make sure you post in the right place - it's a good idea to lurk in a forum for a while before posting, just to make sure it's the right one for your purposes.