Here you can read about good sources for searching literature in pedagogy, psychology and sociology.
Books
In Blekinge Institute of Technology’s Library catalogue you can see what books are available at BTH’s libraries in Karlskrona, Ronneby and Karlshamn.
In LIBRIS you can search among 5 million titles in Swedish libraries. Here you will mainly find references for books, but also some articles. It is a good place to search for Swedish research and other literature. You will also find international material, but LIBRIS does not have full coverage of international research in these subjects.
Ebrary is a database which contains about 20.000 books in full text. It spans many different subject fields, and it contains interesting titles in pedagogy, psychology and sociology. You can read the books on the screen or print interesting parts.
Articles
In ArtikelSök you can search for Swedish articles from about 30 newspapers and about 550 journals from 1979 onwards. Here you will both find scientific articles from research journals and shorter articles from newspapers. Like LIBRIS, ArtikelSök is a good source for finding Swedish research. Some articles come in full text, but for most of them you only get the reference. If you find a reference for an article which does not come in full text, but seems interesting – keep the reference and check if the journal is held at BTH’s Library or if it can be ordered from another library.
If you want to search journal articles in full text you should use the database ELIN@Blekinge. It contains complete articles that you can print directly. The Library subscribes to a number of such databases, but to facilitate your search you can use ELIN@Blekinge. From ELIN@ you can search most of our full text databases simultaneously. It is important to remember that these databases cover a lot of different subjects, and you might need to use other search terms than when you search a specialized psychology database like PsycInfo.
It is also good to bear in mind that you might need to try synonyms to a greater extent because you are searching different databases which might not use the same subject words. Here you will find articles in a variety of subjects, but there are also many articles in subjects that may be of interest for you. Most articles are in English and you must also use English search terms.
Reference databases
If you want to make a thorough search to check what has been published internationally about your subject you should use a subject specific reference database. Read more about different types of databases in the section Database guide. If the subject you are searching for relates to other subject fields it can also be worthwhile to search special databases for those subjects.
ERIC. On the Library web page you will find links to one version that we subscribe to, ERIC CSA, and one that is free to access on the web. The free version is not updated as often and therefore lacks material from the last few years.
In ERIC you will find references for books, dissertations, research reports, articles from books and journals etc. This material can often not be accessed directly from ERIC, but you have to save the reference and then check where you can locate the text you want, either at the library or via Inter library loan.
In psychology the most important database is called PsycInfo. Much of the material in the databases are scientific (mainly in PsycInfo), but not all. If you are uncertain about what signifies a scientific article you can read more in Vad är en vetenskaplig artikel?
PsycInfo is produced by the American Psychological Association and it contains references for articles, book chapters, reports etc in the subject of psychology. It covers 1.300 journal articles, most of which are in English. Library Gräsvik subscribes to several peer reviewed psychology journals whose articles you can find in PsycInfo, e.g. Journal of Applied Psychology, Psychological Bulletin and Psychological review. Some of the articles found in the database may also be available in one of the Library’s full text databases. When you can not find the article among the Library’s journals or in full text, you can order a copy.
In the reference database Sociological abstracts you will find references for books, dissertations, research reports, journal articles etc. in the subject of sociology. This material can often not be accessed directly from the database, so you have to save the reference and then check where you can locate the text you want, either at the Library or by Inter library loan.
Dictionaries and encyclopaedias
In encyclopaedias like Nationalencyclopedin and Encyclopaedia Britannica you can find definitions of terms and good and rather extensive overview articles. For definitions and shorter explanations of terms dictionaries are useful. Both general and subject specific like for example A Dictionary of Sociology and A Dictionary of Psychology. General dictionaries and encyclopaedias do not always suffice when you are looking up a term that is used in a limited subject area. Then it might be good instead to look it up in a subject specific dictionary.
Jenny Löfkvist & Anette Pettersson
2005-06-22
