Dissertation or extended written piece: Library Research Lecture

LIBARY RESEARCH LECTURE

• Focus

• Relevance

Dissertation Titles-

"The role of costume within the film " A taste of Honey "

"Did western society ever need cars; are they necessity and how have they contributed to the formation of the urban environment"

• Start by having a focussed title.

• Narrow down your question for relevant research

Primary and secondary 

Primary Research - Getting own original data.

Secondary Research - Reading up on a subject making use of findings of others for corroboration disagreement.

Research Methods 

Visual practise , experiment , interest & enquiry  (research and critical diaries)

Questionnaires (qualitative/quantitative)
-Have a test run first then refine
-have a mix of questions
-state deadline to get results back quick

Interviews
-give the questions out before meeting the person

Case study

Site visits

Literature search 1 

• Books- Academic sources

• Journals

• Websites/Blogs/on line forums

• Video/DVDs

• Cds/tapes/casettes /Vinyl Recordings

• Tv/Radio

• Newspaper/Maps/Reports

• Printed ephemera

Literature Search2

Knowing where to look most effectively

Effective use of catalogues

- Narrow and broadening search terms.

- Using related items

Browsing using dewey decimal Classification 

BOOK SEARCH

• Leeds College of Art Library http://library.leeds-art.ac.uk

• Leeds Metropolitan University Library www.leedsmet.ac.uk/lis

• University of Leeds (SCONUL) www.leeds.ac.uk/library

• The British Library in Boston Spa www.bl.uk

• COPAC http://copac.ac.uk

JOURNAL SEARCH 1

InfoTrac
-a store of online magazine articles

http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/leedscad
-if at college, click the “proceed” button
-if at home, you may need to type in a password: tryinfomarks

JOURNAL SEARCH 2

JSTOR
A store of online magazine articles

http://www.jstor.org/

Unfortunately, only available on college computers

JOURNAL SEARCH 3

Art Full Text
Journal index + some full text articles available
http://portal.leeds-art.ac.uk/ 

INTERNET SEARCH

Athens
-a store of password protected sites.
-each student who wishes to access this site will need to ask the Librarian for a login and password

http://www.athens.ac.uk 

WGSN
A database of fashion information and trends
www.wgsn.com
Log-in: leedscollege
Password: wgsn123

TIPS

• Don’t bite off more than you can chew (keep the topic and title focused and manageable) 
• Create a sense of momentum (note taking, writing a draft section when you can, keeping your bibliography up to date)