Before I begin a new search for information (maybe for an assignment, or to help you choose your next holiday destination), I spend some time thinking about what I already know, what the gaps in my knowledge are, and the best types of information to meet my needs.
When thinking of search words, I break down my topic into broad areas and then identify the most appropriate search words. I also consider any synonyms or alternative subject words that might have been used to describe my topic.
When I come across a new piece of information (e.g. a website, newspaper article) I consider the quality of the information, and based on that I decide whether or not to use it.
Intute: Education | A free online service providing access to websites selected and evaluated by subject specialists. |
WorldCat | References to over 1 billion items in 10 000 libraries worldwide |
Google - Department for Education news | Database of the Department for Education and Skills Press notices. |
ERIC - Educational Resources Information Center | Provides access to the ERIC searchable database of more than one million abstracts of education-related articles and information, based in the U.S. |
Flickr | A photo sharing website that contains pictures relating to all subjects. Note that in order to reuse a picture from this site you may need to get the permission of the person who uploaded the photo. |
Photobucket | An image sharing website containing a search function. Note that in order to reuse a picture from this site you may need to get the permission of the person who uploaded the photo. |
Directory of Open Access Journals | DOAJ provides free access to selected scholarly journals. It can be browsed by title or subject, as well as searched for keywords. |
Wikipedia | A freely available collaborative encyclopedia. |
Encyclopedia Britannica | This site provides simultaneous searching of Encylopaedia Britannica, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, Britannica Book of the Year, and an Internet directory. Together they include more than 300,000 links to Web sites selected, rated, and reviewed by Britannica editors.. |
Guardian Education | The Guardian and Observer's educational content with special reports, exclusive online features and links to relevant sites. Searchable archive of stories goes back to January 1999. |
TES Online | Online version of the Times Education Supplement. |
TES Scotland Online | Online version of the Scottish edition of the Times Education Supplement. |
Times Higher Education | Online version of the Times Higher Education Supplement. |
BBC Education & Family | Searchable up-to-date source of news in education with contents lists, text and graphics links and links to relevant stories from the BBC archive. Also links to BBC news programmes which you can watch or hear online. |
British Education Index | An electronic archive of "grey" literature in the field of education and training. Provides access to current research papers and pre-print texts submitted for comment, full-text articles, reports and archive material. |
Department for Education: Publications | Publications section of the Department for Education and Skills website. |
Welsh Government: Education Publications | The publications section of the Welsh Assembly Government's Training and Education website. |
Ofsted - Publications | Homepage of the Office for Standards in Education. Contents include inspection reports, publications list (some available for downloading) and an enquiry service. |
Scottish Government: Education Publications | Publications section of the Scottish Executive website Scottish Executive with information on the Scottish Executive Education Department and the Enterprise & Lifelong Learning Department. |
UK National Statistics | This website contains an extensive range of official UK statistics and information about statistics. Under browse by theme there is an education and training subheading. |
UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service for the UK) | Site contents include course information, advice for students and institutions, statistical data and news. |
Higher Education Funding Council for England | Funding authority for research and teaching in higher education institutions in England. |
Higher Education Funding Council for Wales | Welsh further education funding body. |
Scottish Funding Council | Funding body for teaching and research in further and higher education institutions in Scotland. |
A study by researchers at an American University reveals that 8 out of 10 people dislike music being played while they are shopping.
Book (paper) | ISBN, Author |
Resource | Identifying information |
Book (paper) | ISBN, Author |
Book (electronic) | |
Journal article (paper) | |
Journal article (electronic) | |
Website | |
Video | |
Podcast |
Resource | Identifying information |
Book (paper) | author, title, date, publisher, where it was published, ISBN |
Book (electronic) | author, title, date, publisher, URL, ISBN |
Journal article (paper) | author, article title, journal title, date, volume, issue number, pages |
Journal article (electronic) | author, article title, journal title, date, volume, issue number, pages, URL |
Website | author or organisation, title, URL, date you visited the site |
Video | director, title of video, date |
Podcast | title, date, broadcaster, URL, type of podcast |