Research Library

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Research _at_ Library

• Lim-Yeo Pin Pin
• Senior Librarian
• Reference Services
• Central Library

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Introduction

• How to do research in the Library
• How to find different types of information
• Literature Review
• Data Collection

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Research Question

• What explains residential construction starts?
• What determines office demand?
• Why is construction productivity low?

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Search Strategy
END
Cite references Write assignment
START
Y
Research topic Search statement
Enough info?
Use references found at back
Get from Other libs
Search for materials
N
Retrieve material Print Electronic
Check LINC Check databases
Lib has?
Y
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Search Strategy

• Search for materials
• - Books
• - Articles (journals, conference papers)
• Facts (Statistics)

List terms to describe concepts Construction
starts Housing starts Housing cycles Building
permits
START
List concepts in topic E.g. What explains
residential construction starts?
Use LINC to check if the Library has?
Information sufficient?
Consult - Lecturer - Librarian
Y
END
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Search Statement

• Formulate your search statement
• construction starts OR housing starts
• Construction industry AND Singapore
• housing AND (start OR cycle)

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Boolean Operators

• AND is used to indicate that both terms must be
  present
• OR is used to indicate that either terms may be
  present
• ( ) is used to indicate order of processing
• is used to truncate a term
• Start retrieves start, starts and starting

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Search Statement
construction AND productivity
(construction OR building) AND (productivity OR
efficien)
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Literature Review for Books

• Use LINC Library Integrated Catalogue
  linc.nus.edu.sg
• Simple keyword search
• View results
• Click on subject headings in relevant records
• Email relevant records

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Example from LINC

• Use Simple search
• Type keywords
• Browse hits
• Export records

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What is housing starts?

• Search using Simple search
• Type Housing starts
• Find book Guide to economic indicators / Norman
  Frumkin.
• Definition Housing starts data represent the
  beginning of new privately owned homes,
  apartments.
• Methodology, relevance, trends

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Info from Guide to Econ Indicators

• Importance of housing starts
• Links to overall economy
• Jobs for construction work
• Production of construction materials equipment
• Consumer spending on appliances, furniture
• Rate of housing starts influenced by
• No. of households
• Household income
• Interest rates

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Evaluate Search Results

• If residential housing starts gets too little
  citations
• Add or try alternative keywords
• Housing demand
• Building permits
• Property launches
• Housing development
• New builds
• Real estate sales

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LINC Advanced features

• Author/Title Search
• Keyword Search
• Simple
• Advanced
• Subject Search
  (Library of Congress Subject Headings)
• Search Specific Library
• Search Special Collection
• Journals Collection
• Theses Collection
• Singapore/Malaysia Collection

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LINC Advanced features

• Limit this Search by
• Year of publication
• Words in the TITLE, AUTHOR, SUBJECT
• Sort results by year
• Material type
• Language
• Publisher

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LINC Advanced features

• Truncation and Boolean
• Truncate search term by 1-5 characters with an
  asterisk
• Advanc
• Open-ended truncation with two asterisks
• Woud
• Parenthesis to indicate order
• Construction and (concrete or steel)

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Literature Review for Articles

• Use an appropriate index/abstract
• Search using your keywords
• Use subject headings, identifiers, phrases found
  in relevant records
• Download bibliographic citation abstract
• Check if library has journal or book

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Indexes/Abstracts for Building

• International Civil Engineering Abstracts
• Iconda
• Compendex
• Web of Science (SCI SSCI)
• ABI-Inform
• www.lib.nus.edu.sg

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• Get a list of relevant articles for your topic.
• E.g.
• Residential construction costs and the supply of
  new housing
• The role of interest rates in influencing
  long-run homeownership rates
• Macroeconomic factors do influence aggregate
  stock returns 
• Regional housing supply and credit constraints

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Example of Search in Index

• Search Web of Science
• Keywords housing starts

Title The role of interest rates in influencing
long-run homeownership rates Author(s) Painter
G, Redfearn CL Source JOURNAL OF REAL ESTATE
FINANCE AND ECONOMICS 25 (2-3) 243-267 SEP-DEC
2002 Document Type Article Abstract As a
stated policy objective, the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) seeks to
boost the national homeownership rate to 70
percent by 2006. To accomplish this goal, they
estimate that 3.8 million additional families be
added to the ranks of U.S. homeowners.
Furthermore, HUD estimates that the homeownership
gap between minority and nonminority families
must be reduced by a full 15 percent. Many policy
instruments-both targeted and otherwise-have been
suggested to increase homeownership.
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Record in Web of Science
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View full text article
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InfoGate

• Search across multiple resources via single
  interface
• Preliminary tool to determine which databases are
  most useful to your research
• Useful if you need a few relevant documents
  quickly
• Links to full text
• Limitations
• small no. of databases searched simultaneously
• small no. of citations retrieved from each
  database
• Error messages
• Response time may not be as fast

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Evaluate Search Results

• If (Construction and housing) gets too many
  citations
• Narrow search using
• Additional terms
• Scholarly journals
• Subject classification

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Is journal refereed?

• Refereed means article is examined and evaluated
  by others
• Check Ulrichs on Disc
• Check ISI list of journals
• http//www.isinet.com/isi/journals/
• Check list in LION

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Search for Conference Papers

• ISI Proceedings
• Iconda
• Compendex
• Search LINC for proceedings

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Example from ISI Proceedings
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Conference Proceedings in LINC
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Search for theses

• NUS theses
• Search LINC
• Foreign theses
• Search Proquest Digital Dissertations Search
  Index to Theses (UK)http//www.theses.com

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Search for Theses in LINC
Author Lim, Tze Chern. Title The CPF and the
demand for housing / Lim Tze Chern. LOCATION
CALL STACK STATUS CL Closed Stacks
HD30 1997 50 Y9307 REQUEST ITEM Descrip. 75
p. ill. Note Supervisor Dr. Lim Kim Lian.
Academic exercise--Dept. of Economics
Statistics, Faculty of Arts Social Sciences,
National University of Singapore, 1997.
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Search for Newspaper Articles

• Factiva
• LexisNexis Academic
• Includes full text of many newspapers, foreign,
  regional and local
• The Straits Times and Business Times from 1994

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Newspaper Articles from Factiva
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Tips for Literature Review

• Be patient
• Be systematic
• Try different databases
• Try different keywords
• Keep proper records
• Record full details of citations

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Data Collection

• Construction InfoNet (BCA)
• Realis (URA)
• EIU CountryData
• International Financial Statistics(Stack ZZ248
  CL Loans Desk 2)
• Statistics, Data, Time Series
• Excel format

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Data from REALIS
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Data from Construction InfoNet
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Evaluate Search Results

• Too many retrieved
• Limit by additional concepts
• Too little retrieved
• Include synonyms or alternate terms
• Too many irrelevant retrieved
• Exclude terms that caused the irrelevancy
• Nothing retrieved
• Use more general search terms
• Reduce the number of concepts used
• Refocus the search

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Evaluate Articles

• Authority
• Author
• Publisher
• Accuracy
• Factual
• References
• Objectivity and Purpose
• Biased
• Scholarly

• Review process
• Peer reviewed
• Frequently cited
• Suitability
• Information required
• Language
• Timeliness
• Date
• Period covered

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APA Book Citation Style

• Author. (Year). Title of book. Place of
  publication Publisher.
• Atkin, B., Borgbrant, J., Josephson, P. (Eds.).
  (2003). Construction process improvement. Oxford
  Blackwell Science.

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APA Article Citation Style

• Author. (Year). Title of articles. Journal title,
  vol (no), pages.
• Somerville, C. T. (2001). Permits, starts, and
  completions Structural relationships versus real
  options. Real Estate Economics, 29 (1), 161-190.

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Library Instruction ONline www.lib.nus.edu.sg/li
on/

• Help in finding info
• Help with using LINC
• Help with searching databases
• Building tutorial

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Did you learn something new?

• Mark and email records
• Use indexes to find articles
• Use Boolean logic for searching

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Conclusion

• Make full use of the library
• Rich resources for your research
• If you have problems, ask the librarian at the
  Information Desk
• Email
• pinpin_at_nus.edu.sg
• askalib_at_nus.edu.sg