Welcome
Welcome to IKC101. My name is Jennifer and I am your embedded librarian for IKC101. This research skills guide has been created to help you with your research for IKC101.
Each section introduces the steps you should take when researching for an assessment. You'll find links to videos and resources that will give you the tools to find relevant and reliable information. Use the activities on the Test your knowledge tab to see what you need to revise.
Getting started with your assessment
The first thing is to make sure you clearly understand the task and what topic you are seeking information for, this is called topic analysis. Check your assessment task details in your Subject Outline for the full instructions for the assessment.
Your question for Assessment 2 is is to select two events from the Australian History Timeline; one pre-1967, the other post-1967.This will enable you to investigate the evolution of approaches to Australian policy for Indigenous Australian peoples.
With an understanding of your task you then need to plan how you will search for information. This starts with identifying and brainstorming keywords.
From your assessment task:
Keywords | Synonyms or related terms |
Indigenous | Aboriginal, First Nations, Torres Strait Islander, Indigenous Australia |
Referendum | Election, poll, vote, mandate |
Policy | action, administration, guideline, strategy, scheme, management, rule |
Protection Act | Segregation, Stolen Generation, forced removal, forced adoption, |
For guidance in topic analysis visit the following links:
Create a search strategy
When you search using Primo Search or a library database, use the keywords and limits you identified above to create your search. Combine the keywords with "search operators", rather than searching with a whole sentence or question. Search operators tell Primo or the database how to search with your keywords. Here are some examples:
Search Operator/Symbol | Example | |
Boolean Operators | Use AND to retrieve results that contain both of your search terms. | Indigenous AND culture |
Use OR to retrieve results that contain any or all of your search terms. | segregation OR discrimination | |
Using NOT to exclude irrelevant results. | Aboriginal kinship NOT clan | |
Phrase | Use quotation marks to search for a phrase | "land rights" |
Grouping | Group terms or equivalent keywords with parentheses to create complex searches | (Indigenous OR Aboriginal) AND Australia |
Truncation | Search for terms with different word endings using an asterisk | protect* = protected, protection, protects |
Wildcard | A question mark can be used ti replace a single letter with a word | organi?ation = organisation, organization |
Potential search strings for your topic could include:
- "land rights" AND (indigenous OR Aborig* OR "First Nations" OR "Torres Strait Island*")
- "Stolen Generation" AND (Indigenous OR Abori*) AND Australia
- (Indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "first nations") AND "land rights" AND Australia
To understand how search operators work, please visit these library pages for more information:
Choose the right place to search
Before you start searching, think about what types of information you need and where you can search to find those types of resources.
Primo Search
Primo Search is a good place to start as it allows you to use one search box to bring back results from most of our Library collection including books, eBooks, journal articles, newspaper articles and more. You may get a large number of results and some of these will be from outside your subject/discipline area. Check the content is relevant to your assessment task before you use it.
Library databases
Databases will help you find academic resources and are often subject specific. You will get fewer results than Primo, but they will be more relevant to your subject/discipline.
I recommend trying the following databases:
- Indigenous Collection This link opens in a new windowAn Informit database of entirely full-text material from journals, books, conference proceedings, and reports, covering all aspects of Indigenous Studies. The link here will take you the Informit platform with Indigenous Collection selected.
- Australian Public Affairs (APAFT) This link opens in a new windowAn Informit Australian database of citations and article summaries from more than 560 journals, with most also available in full-text. It covers current affairs, economics, health, humanities, law, literature, politics, and social sciences. The link here will take you to the Informit platform with APAFT selected. See more ... below.
The Indigenous Australian Studies list has more databases you can search.
Learn how to search efficiently in Primo and Library databases:
Evaluate
Using credible information will improve the quality of your assessment and may result in better marks, but how can you tell whether the resources you've found are credible and suitable for your assessment? Have you been asked to use peer reviewed, academic or refereed articles? Are you using authoritative websites?
The information below will help you evaluate the information you find, in books, journal articles, or online to make sure it’s reliable.
Reading, writing and referencing
The Academic Skills team can help you to build your writing, referencing and reading skills to be successful at Charles Sturt.
Explore resources from the Academic Skills team in the Learning Skills section of the Student Portal.
Here are some pages to get you started:
Using the library for locating resources for assessments
To help you with Assessment 2, I have put together a video on how to use the library and get the most out of your searches.
Keen for more?
If you're interested in finding out more, check out the following:
- Call: 1800 275 278
- Online chat
- Email us
- Book an appointment