Information literacy

Whether you’re coming from school or college, another university, or have been out of education for a while it is important to have a good grasp of all the resources and support that are on offer to you and how to use them in the best ways for your assignments and dissertations.

These short pages will help you get more out of:

• Library resources such as books, journals, databases and specialist resources - not to mention the Library website itself

• the Internet and other resources;

• Learning and research techniques; and

• Library support such as chat/email/phone, social media, lectures & workshops and your Faculty Librarians.

When planning your assignment you should consider the following:

• Why do you need the information?  Is it for an essay, a report, a presentation or to inform a design?
  • Refer to Moodle for details of your assignment, including how it will be marked.

• What do you need to find out about?  What is your question asking you to do?
  • Applying a Search Strategy, will help you to break down your topic into concepts.  You may prefer to approach this with a Mind Map.

• How are you going to search for the information?  What keywords and phrases are going to help you locate relevant information
  • Choosing Keywords explains how to improve the relevance of your search results significantly.

• Where are you going to look for the information?  For example, do you need up-to-date information from newspapers, academic journal articles, statistical data, an image or a video?
  • The Ocean of Information guides you to appropriate sources for different contexts. It also links to guidance on how to reference them correctly.

The library is a large physical space and an even larger online space, so familiarise yourself with what it has to offer as soon as you can. 

• One of our most frequently asked questions is how do I find my books?
  • The Library Catalogue is a good place to begin. It will help you to locate the printed books in the library and provide links to ebooks, which you can access anywhere

• What if you want to browse the collections?
  • Visit the Book Locations page to search or browse for a broad subject area, e.g. architecture.

• What if you want to know where things are, e.g. the toilets or the silent zone?
  •  Visit the Find Your Space pages to find library floor plans and more.

• What about accessing books and other electronic resources from home?
  • The Accessing Electronic Resources pages will get you started.

• Start your research by reading some recommended texts on your reading list. For some topics Google can get you started with your own research. Here are some ways you can make it work more effectively.
  • Using Google Scholar is a useful introduction to advanced search techniques and Google Scholar.
  • You may wish to explore the Advanced Search on Google in more depth.

• Search the Library Discovery Service. It is a bit like Google for good quality library resources.  It searches many information sources at once
  • The Discovery Service webpage will give you a useful introduction. 
  • The Discovery Animated Guide will give you a quick overview.
• If you want to find resources recommended by your Faculty Librarian, visit the Subject pages. Choose your Faculty and then your subject area.
  • The Subject Pages are useful when you are trying to find particular types of information, for example, newspapers, journals, or visual information.

Once you’re started on your research you’ll soon become aware of the wealth of resources that are available to you. A simple check of the Library catalogue or a quick Google search will only take you so far. There are lots of other options.

Firstly take a look at the variety of resources the Library can offer with notes on why you might find them useful.

Then, if you’re taking your research to a higher level, look at our Research pages particularly under ‘For academic and research staff and PhD students’.

There is more detail on some specifics in these guides and page:

• Finding Journal Articles

• Determining if you’re looking at an Academic Journal or Popular Magazine 

• Using Google Scholar 

• Check out the Subject Pages for your area of research which have pages linked under ‘find articles’ with links to and descriptions of specialized databases.

Additional, more general, specialized resources:

• The Map Library 

• Our Visual Culture page provides a good range of audio and visual resources.

At university, assignments, projects and dissertations can often require a step up in the amount of reading that is required.  Textbook reading for a module, background reading for a subject, and perhaps keeping up with professional magazines (or ‘trade journals’) for more vocational courses.  What’s more the nature of the reading changes as you begin to look at topics in more detail and the topics themselves may be considerably harder to understand.

Given that time is limited, subjects may be difficult, and not everyone enjoys reading for pleasure, it’s worth learning a few skills that can help speed up the process or allow you to get more out of what time is available.  We’ve kept these pages short so as not to add to the reading burden!

Academic Reading: Journal Articles is a short guide to reading journal articles and conference proceedings.

You might also want to have a look at How can I tell whether it’s an Academic Journal or Popular Magazine? in order to clarify in your mind the differences between an academic journal and a popular magazine.

As you start to locate resources for your assignment or dissertation you need to begin to think about what you’re finding. Not every webpage, or book for that matter, is equal and you will need to critically evaluate what is relevant and appropriate. Things to consider:

• What kind of resource is it?
  • You may need an overview of a broad subject in which case a book might be most helpful; or you might need an in depth, up-to-date piece of research on a very narrow topic so a conference paper may be more useful. Your lecturers may be expecting to you use scholarly information and not Wikipedia articles or general web pages.  

• Where have you found the resource?
  • Is it a journal or a database which the University has paid to access? Or is it a collection of papers of unknown origins? Can you trust the source? Which leads to:

• Who has produced the resource?
  • What are the credentials of the author? Is it a website with an axe to grind? Is it a peer reviewed article in a scholarly journal? Is it a news source with a particular bias? Is it a self-published book which no one has edited? Can you assess the author or publisher’s objectivity? Who is their audience – the academic community, public interest, schools?

• Why are you using this?
  • Is it general background reading to extend your knowledge, or does it contain a piece of information or a quote that you want to reference to support your argument? It can be useful to consider balance in your reference list – do you have sufficient academic references compared to, say, web pages? Is it actually relevant to your dissertation or assignment?

• When was the resource published?
  • Is the information out of date? Have you looked for the most recent research? (Not that age should necessarily be a barrier, it will depend on subject area or perhaps a need to refer to a classic original paper). If it’s a website, does it look as if it’s still active and do the links still work?

Evaluating Internet Resources looks in more detail at assessing resources found on the web.

The ‘what’ above, can also be very helpful when you start referencing so that you know what pages to use on Referencing@Portsmouth. 

It is important at University to ensure that you are referencing your sources, referencing them correctly, and managing the process as painlessly as possible.  This will help you avoid getting into difficulty over plagiarism, make the most efficient use of your time, and demonstrate your subject mastery. 

• Plagiarism
  We don’t work in isolation and are almost always basing our work on work that has gone on before us.  “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”  Sir Isaac Newton in a letter to Robert Hooke (1676)*.

Plagiarism occurs if we fail to cite other people’s work and use it as our own, whether it is a quotation from a book, a paraphrase from a web page, data from a journal article or a paid-for essay from a “paper mill”.  Unless you can claim it is common knowledge you should reference the source.  You can even be accused of plagiarism for poor reference practices or reusing your own work without proper attribution.

• Demonstrating your reading and subject knowledge
  Good referencing practices will help you avoid plagiarism.  It also demonstrates to your readers or lecturers the width of your reading (not just from one source or one type of resource) and the depth of your reading (good quality resources, works of major importance on your subject).  

Note that references are made up of two parts: the reference (which will appear in a list at the end of your assignment or dissertation) and the citation which appears in the main text where you mention the work.

• Referencing
  Referencing is essentially about ensuring that your reader can locate the work that you are citing.  There are various systems for doing this but most University of Portsmouth students are expected to use APA 7th Edition.  Some will be asked to use Vancouver (School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences) or Oscola (law).  Always check with your lecturers what style you should use.

The Library supports referencing in three ways: Firstly through our Referencing webpage  which provides advice and lots of examples.  Secondly through our Chat and email help – although we cannot do your referencing for you, we are always happy to help give advice and pointers.  Thirdly through our seasonal referencing ‘pop-ups’ where you can ask for specialist help.

In addition, good habits of note taking and managing your references, from initial reading to final citation in a submitted piece of work, will help you to save time hunting for a tiny reference detail when you’re under pressure of deadlines.  Whether you use a notebook and pen, an app on your phone, cards in a shoebox or a dedicated piece of software, it’s worth developing good habits from the outset.  Note that apps and the ‘cite’ button found in many databases can be really helpful, but their output should always be checked for accuracy.  You may find referencing management software helpful. 

* Newton, I. (1675). Letter to Robert Hooke dated February 5. 

The University’s official advice on the use of generative AI can be found here

The Library can help you find reliable information about generative AI and its applications. Search for books, journal articles and more using our Discovery service or the Library catalogue.

TIP: Search for ‘generative AI’ or ‘artificial intelligence’ to find further readings and case studies.

AI use in assignments

You must acknowledge whenever you use AI to help with an assessment that you complete in your own time.

Any questions about the use of AI in your assignment should be directed to your lecturer, as they will have the most up-to-date information on current policies and will also have defined the acceptable use of AI for your particular assignment.

The University’s guidelines on using AI are being regularly updated and can be found here.