Save valuable research time! Online research resources offer an array of tools to help you stay current in your field. In this workshop you’ll learn how to set up email alerts and RSS feeds to:

• be notified when new articles and dissertations are published on your topic
• receive Table of Contents for the latest issue of your favorite journal
• find out when new books in your discipline have arrived in the library
• be notified of funding and upcoming conference opportunities
• follow news stories and blogs

No matter what your discipline, you’ll leave the session having set up a number of alerts to stay up-to-date with your research interests!

Date and Time: Wednesday, March 17th from  11:00am – 12:30pm

Location:  Koerner Library, room 217 (map)

Register here: http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/679

A reminder of an upcoming workshop of interest to MA and PhD students:

Phinished! How to Access Completed Dissertations & Theses

Wondering what a PHinisheD dissertation looks like? We now have access to tens of thousands of dissertations online from universities throughout North America and beyond. Learn to search for dissertations completed at UBC and elsewhere by program, topic or advisor. Then download the full text. We’ll use this guide: FAQ: Dissertations and Theses. And we’ll look at the website www.phinished.org for a bit of practical advice.

Wed 19 Nov 2008
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM
Koerner Library : Room 217
The session is free, but sign up here.

You’ve likely heard about RefWorks, the online citation management tool that allows you to save references for your research paper from online databases such as AnthropologyPlus and Google Scholar, and then formats your paper in the citation style of your choice. Perhaps you’ve had a chance to get started with RefWorks, but need some help in using its many features.

This Wednesday is your chance to find out more! Come to Koerner Library for a RefWorks session from 10:00am-312:00pm.

Workshop is free, but please register here.

Karen Hinton of Proquest will be offering training on the suite of Community of Scholars (COS) research tools the UBC Library, in partnership with the UBC Office of Research Services, has recently acquired on behalf of the UBC community.

When: Tuesday, November 4, 2008; 3:00 – 5:00pm, Koerner Library, Room 217.
Register for the session here.

The COS suite of research databases includes the following:

COS Funding Opportunities, the world’s largest compendium of available funding sources, with more than 25,000 current opportunities for grants, fellowships, and awards

COS Scholar Universe, an editorially controlled, keyword-searchable database with nearly 2 million profiles of scholars.

COS Papers Invited, a database of calls for papers for conferences and journal special editions.

COS Expertise, a profile management system that enables institutions to keep track of their faculty’s expertise and research work, with first-person profiles maintained by the faculty themselves.

(Image credit: carf)

You know they’re out there, but do you know how to find the best images for your presentation, paper or portfolio? And what are the rules about using other people’s images? Fifty minutes in this workshop will have you well on your way to being a proficient finder and user of digital images.

Wed 05 Nov 2008
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Koerner Library, Room 216
The workshop is free, but please sign up here.

You know that lots of journals and magazines are published on the web. But where? This workshop will show you where to look — whether you’re starting with a bibliography, an author’s name, a topic, or just an idea.

Mon 03 Nov 2008
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Koerner 216 (Arts Lab)
Workshop is free, but please sign up here.

Need help getting started on your term paper?

Drop-in term paper clinics are offered in the Chapman Learning Commons between October 20 and November 14. Lunchtime clinics will run Mon – Fri 11am – 1pm and afternoon clinics will run Mon – Weds 4 – 6pm.

(photo credit: western4uk via flickr)

This Friday from 10-11:30am, I’ll be doing a session on “Current Awareness Tools in the Arts“.

We’ll be looking at ways to use the research tools offered by our online resources to save yourself some valuable research time and keep-up-to-date. In this workshop you’ll learn how to use current awareness tools to:

– get notified when new articles and dissertations are published on your topic,
– get Table of Contents notifications when the latest issue of your favorite journal is published, and
– set up an RSS Reader for RSS feeds to alert you to new content in blogs, journals, databases, and newspapers.

You can register for the course here: http://toby.library.ubc.ca/booking/description.cfm?sessionid=6035

If you can’t make the session, we’ll be offering a repeat on Tuesday November 4th from 12:30-2:00 pm. Sign up for the November session here: http://toby.library.ubc.ca/booking/description.cfm?sessionid=6036

Both sessions will be held in the Koerner Lab on the second floor of Koerner Library.

Check out other offerings in the Graduate Student Workshop series here:
http://toby.library.ubc.ca/booking/searchevents.cfm?seriesid=55127194

You’ve likely heard about RefWorks, the online citation management tool that allows you to save references for your research paper from online databases such as AnthropologyPlus and Google Scholar, and then formats your paper in the citation style of your choice. Perhaps you’ve had a chance to get started with RefWorks, but need some help in using its many features.

This Wednesday is your chance to find out more! Come to Koerner Library for a RefWorks session from 1:30-3:30pm.

Register for the session here.

Coming up next week – two workshops on using Google for academic research:

Google Scholar and More
You know that lots of scholarly journals and magazines are published on the web. But where? This workshop will show you where to look for academic articles – whether you’re starting with a bibliography, an author’s name, a topic, or just an idea.

Monday, Nov 5 from 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Buchanan B114

Googling to the Max!
Master Google’s advanced features like searching for synonyms & definitions, combining or excluding search terms, and limiting your search to scholarly information.

Friday, Nov 09 from 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Buchanan B114

Note that both of these sessions are in Buchanan B114 (not in the Koerner lab) as part of the Arts Outreach series. Can’t find Buchanan B? Here’s a map.