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Turku University Library

Basics of Information Seeking

Locating Resources

  • All materials acquired by the library can be found using the library's Volter database.
  • Electronic materials can be used remotely with a University of Turku username. Log in to Volter with your UTU credentials, search the material you need and open it.
  • Electronic journals may be available through several different publishers and the availability of volumes may vary. In Volter, choose the link that contains the volume you need. Some journals might have a so-called embargo, meaning that the latest issues are not immediately available online.
  • Always check library’s Volter database for locating print material. Pay attention to classification and alphabetization. For example "Calonia Kurssik Per" means the book is located in Calonia library, course book collection, and alphabetized by "Per". Books can be alphabetized by book's name or by author. Quick Guide to Volter
  • Best ways to find databases:
  • Full-text databases contain full articles.
  • Reference databases contain reference information (e.g. author, title, journal, volume) for articles and books. For the full text you have to use another database. Reference databases often contain links to full texts available in other databases.

Scholarly Search Engines and Google Scholar

Searching for scholarly information online is different than searching in the library resources or your discipline’s subscription-based/licensed databases. In library databases, the resources have been formally described to facilitate information retrieval. The resources have also often gone through an expert approval process to ensure reliability. Everyone is free to publish material online, which is why you should always be alert and critically assess the sources when searching for information there. However, this does not mean online resources or search engines cannot be effective tools for scholarly information retrieval.

Since Google Scholar doesn’t contain all subscription-based resources, the databases bought by the library are useful especially when conducting more demanding information retrievals.

Benefits of using databases vs. Google Scholar:

  • Discipline-specific databases are sure to contain relevant and reliable information for the discipline.
  • Search words can be targeted to only specific information that describe the contents of the resource, such as title, abstract, or keywords.
  • With the editing features, you can refine the search results to a manageable amount.
  • Search results can be limited to peer-reviewed articles.
  • Use of search words is more versatile.
  • Resources with descriptive metadata enables a more precise search.
  • Resources are directly accessible as library subscriptions.

From the library’s databases you can find resources suitable to use as research data, such as statistics, newspapers, news services, historical newspapers and digitised museum collections.

 

Google Scholar is a commercial and freely accessible search engine specialised in scholarly information. When using Google Scholar, it’s good to remember that the search results are always ranked based on, for example, user’s previous searches, available links, commercial interests and website’s download speed.
 

Benefits of Google Scholar

  • Searching is easy, you can quickly find different types of resources.
  • So-called grey literature, e.g. conference proceedings, resources in open access repositories, and other open access resources are indexed widely.
  • Based on the search results you can see which journals and databases are useful for your search and what sources you should explore more thoroughly.
  • To find better search results, you can use the Google Scholar search help.
     

Problems with Google Scholar

  • Doesn’t find all the information available online, not even close.
  • A very western search engine; if your topic is about anything other than Europe or North America, you should always use other resources and search engines as well.
  • Search results are ranked based on the user’s preferences (previous searches), commercial interests and, for example, website download speed.
  • Some commercial publishers have prevented Google’s automatic web crawlers from indexing their databases.
  • No exact information of contents: We don’t know what Google Scholar has indexed and what is missing.
  • All the information available in Google Scholar is not necessarily academic.
     

What you can find with Google Scholar

  • Google Scholar is a more scientific way of searching for information than basic Google.
  • Retrieves information from scholarly and academic online sources.
  • You can for example search for theses, doctoral dissertations, scholarly articles, and reports.
  • With Google Scholar, you can find resources that can’t be found from the library’s databases, such as conference presentations.
  • No authority monitors the scientific level of Google Scholar, so you should always evaluate the search results critically.
  • Search strings can be modified by adding quotation marks around search words to create a phrase search: "mystery shopping".
  • All the information found with Google Scholar are not available in full, but you can check whether a book you are interested in is available in Volter or if an article can be found in one of the article databases of the Turku University Library.

 

Adding Library Links to Google Scholar

  • You might not be able to open all the resources found with Google Scholar.
  • If you are using Google Scholar outside the university’s network, you should add the library link of the Turku University Library in the settings.
  • Changing the settings can look different depending on the browser and language settings.
  • You can add the library link from Settings – Library links. Write 'Turku' in the search box and choose Turku University Library from the list.
  • Click Save when you’re done.

After this, there’s a link on the right-hand side of the results list. By clicking on it you can check whether the resource is available in the library’s subscription-based databases.
 

Same Instructions as an Image

Decorative, same information listed above.

Additional Help for Locating Resouces

What to do if you can’t find a book or an article from Volter, the library's guides or even on Google?

  • The national Finna database contains printed materials from all Finnish academic libraries. If a book is not available in the Turku University Library, it might be available in the library of Åbo Akademi University, Turku University of Applied Sciences, or even the University of Helsinki. Finna also has information about other scientific libraries’ and public libraries’ collections.
  • Academic libraries in Finland are open to anyone. You do not need to be a student at, for example, Åbo Akademi, in order to use their materials. E-resources, however, can only be used on site.
  • Search by content type Journal/Article in Finna contains citations from Finnish articles. If you find a good article there, take note which journal, year and issue it was published in. Search for the journal from Volter to see if we have access to it.
  • If the resource is not available in the library collections, you can request it as an interlibrary loan. Please note, however, that interlibrary loans are subject to a fee.
  • You can request articles from journals available in the National Repository Library through the interlibrary service. Article copies from the Repository Library are free of charge.
  • You can also make an acquisition request to the library.

Finding a Specific Article to Read

A majority of articles can be found as full texts in databases. Some articles may have been published open access online, in which case the entire text can also be found with Google / Google Scholar.

If an article isn't available directly online, you can search for the journal or book where the article was published from the library’s Volter database. Below are some examples:

  • Article in a book: Berlant, Lauren. 2000. ”The Subject of True Feeling: Pain, Privacy and Politics.” Transformations: Thinking Through Feminism, ed. Sara Ahmed, Jane Kilby, Celia Lury, Maureen McNeil and Beverly Skeggs, 33-47. London: Routledge.
    • In Volter, search for the book Transformations: Thinking Through Feminism with editors Sara Ahmed, Jane Kilby, Celia Lury, Maureen McNeil and Beverly Skeggs.
    • The book contains Lauren Berlant’s article “The Subject of True Feeling: Pain, Privacy and Politics” on pages 33-47.
  • Journal article: Tuusvuori J. S. 1999. American philosophy X. Johdatusta Amerikan historiaan. Niin & Näin 6 (2) 18-21.
    • Search for the journal Niin & Näin, volume 6 from 1999. You can see which libraries have the printed journal available. The journal information in Volter also includes a link to the electronic version, when available.

Please pay attention to the volumes and available years of both printed and electronic journals! Different databases may provide different volumes.

Libkey Nomad Browser extension

Libkey Nomad is a browser extension created by Third Iron. It helps you to find articles acquired by Turku University Library. If you go straight to publisher’s or aggregator’s page or use Google for searching not using library’s services, you will not be able to access materials provided by the library. Libkey Nomad let’s you know if article you found is available through the library services and will provide you with a link to access or download it.

For more information about Libkey Nomad and instructions on how to use the browser extension, see the BrowZine guide.