Library Home » Services » Instruction » Class Research Guides

LDR 7003

Proseminar in Educational Leadership

Library Instructor

• Charles Thurston

Background

In the mid-90s, when plans were formulated for the doctorate in Educational Leadership, the John Peace Library began to receive special funding in support of the degree. We have a strong collection of current monographs supporting all of our doctoral courses, and the Library’s e-journals in all disciplines of education suffices for most needs.

Traditional demands of graduate students at the doctoral level have meant spending countless hours in the library, becoming familiar with the literature. Technology has eliminated that model, but it has not necessarily made it easier for end-users to find what they need on their own.

Feel free to contact me (charles.thurston@utsa.edu) if you need help.

18 Questions About Library Doctoral Research in Educational Leadership

Answers

1.  How do I search UCAT from off-campus?
A:  The Library’s home page URL is http://www.lib.utsa.edu. From that page, click "Find Books & More (UCAT)".
Tip: The Advanced Search mode is the most powerful, since the software searches individual chapter titles in monographs as well as author, subject and title fields.

2.  After I’ve searched UCAT, how do I expand my search to cover other libraries?
A:

• "San Antonio Area Libraries" is useful if you’re familiar with, say, Trinity’s or SWTSU’s libraries and plan to drive there to check out their books. See "Other Libraries" on our home page.
  
  
• "WorldCat" is a database comprising 47 million records representing the holdings of 41,000 libraries worldwide. It serves two valuable functions:
  1. It is a nearly comprehensive database of all books that have been published on a particular topic.
  2. You can readily determine if local libraries have what you need without searching each library’s catalog.

3.  How do I check out books?
A:  Use your UTSA ID or any picture identification card. To check out books at local libraries (with the exception of Trinity), you can get a free TexShare card at the Circulation desks at the 1604 or Downtown Campus libraries. The TexShare card allows you to borrow books from almost all of the 52 public four-year colleges, community colleges, and many public libraries in Texas.

4.  UTSA doesn’t have a book that I need. What are my options?
A:  In addition to obtaining a borrower’s card (see #3 above), you can use Interlibrary Loan if you don’t need the book immediately. Electronic requests can be submitted.

5.  What is netLibrary?
A:  NetLibrary is a provider of full-text, full-image electronic books that can be checked out online for a limited time. The University of Texas system libraries work together to add thousands of titles each month. See www.netLibrary.com for additional information. You have access to some 40,000 titles tied to a powerful search engine. You must register via a pc in the 1604 or Downtown Library. See our netLibrary Tipsheet for more information on how to use netLibrary.

6.  What periodical databases are relevant to my doctoral work?
A:  In addition to the standard databases such as ERIC, ProQuest Research Library, Education Full Text you should be prepared to search other social sciences databases, including Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, PsycInfo, Academic Search Complete, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text, Professional Development Collection and JSTOR.

It is the reference librarians’ job to assist you in searching databases which you are unfamiliar with. Each database vendor has its own search protocol.

7.  Do I need to search library databases through the Library?
A:  Yes. Although some associations such as Putnam Valley ISD (http://edstandards.org/Standards.html) and the Center for Applied Linguistics (www.cal.org/) allow anyone to search their databases at no charge, this is not true of most academic database providers. Similarly, many journal publishers allow you to search the contents of their journals, but searching one journal at a time is not efficient.

8.  Where can I get a list of the education journals that the Library subscribes to?
A:  It’s very difficult to compile a list of our periodical holdings. Blame the advent of full-text databases; as we subscribe to a new database, it means that hundreds of new journal titles are suddenly "virtually available," but they don’t show up in UCAT. Furthermore, journals drop into and out of databases frequently.

9.  The Library doesn’t subscribe to a particular journal I need. What are my options?
A:  Check WorldCat for a list of the combined holdings of libraries in the San Antonio area. You should also try E-Journal Locator (on our homepage) to see whether we have full-text access in a database.

If a Journal Title search in UCAT yields no results, remember your option to use Interlibrary Loan (see #4 above). We do not want you to feel that you have to verify which particular library has a journal you need; we can do it far faster.

10.  Can I get an entire journal issue through Interlibrary Services?
A:  No. It’s a violation of copyright.

11.  Can I ask the Library to buy material that I need?
A:  It depends on what you’re asking for. I will order trade and professional books that you need for sustained work. Generally, the Library does not buy class textbooks. You can also ask me to consider subscribing to particular journals.

12.  Can I access other libraries’ electronic databases?
A:  As a general rule, no. Students fees at UTSA are used in part to fund UTSA student-only access to our databases. The same holds true for other academic libraries. There is one important caveat. Generally, if you are searching from within a physical library setting, you are allowed access to databases that you cannot reach by proxy.

13.  How do I keep current with new periodical articles?
A:  Use Ingenta (www.ingenta.com) to establish profiles based on your research interests. As new articles are published matching your keywords, you will receive citations to articles matching your profile.

14.  What library resources can I utilize for my position paper?
A:  If you are looking for a controversial topic, you might want to look at recent tables of contents of electronic, scholarly education journals; one list is published by AERA’s ’s Communication of Research SIG (http://aera-cr.asu.edu/ejournals/). Another excellent source is Education Week (http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html).

The ERIC database software which the Library uses (CSA) enables users to search by Publication Type, such as Opinion Papers. ERIC has abstracts of nearly 145,000 opinion papers. However, ERIC’s forte is not currency. Academic Universe and National Newspapers are both full-text and updated daily.

15.  How do I identify books dealing with quantitative and qualitative research?
A:  The Library has several outstanding book series, including over 50 titles in Sage’s Qualitative Research Methods and JAI Press’s Issues in Qualitative Research. On the quantitative side, we have 268 Sage titles in the series Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences. You can search by series in UCAT.

16.  What is a Literature Review?
A:  Literature Reviews:

• Provide a snapshot of the current accumulated knowledge of a particular topic.
• Generally review empirical studies, such as sample surveys, correlation studies, regression analysis studies, factor-analytic studies, discriminant analysis studies, two-condition experimental studies, single classification studies, factorial studies, quasi-experimental studies, and exploratory research.
• May review qualitative studies, such as naturalistic inquiries or ethnographies.
• May be selective or comprehensive.
• May compare/contrast competing theories.
• May discuss methodological, assessment, or theoretical issues.
• May organize studies’ findings into conceptually meaningful categories.
• May trace the historical development of a topic.
• May use meta-analytic methods to aggregate the results of previous studies.
• Generally offer suggestions for further research.

17.  How do I do a Literature Review?
As a prelude, it will be helpful to read Boone, D., and Beile, P. (2005) Scholars Before Researchers: On the Centrality of the Dissertation Literature Review in Research Preparation. Educational Researcher, 34(6), 3-15.
A:  You will find an excellent tutorial at www.gwu.edu/~litrev/.

ScienceDirect is an excellent source for examples of literature reviews. Type "literature" and "review" in the search box and use the pull-down "within" menu to limit your results to keyword occurrences on article titles.

NetLibrary contains several e-books on literature reviews, such as Synthesizing Research: A Guide for Literature Reviews.

Annuals, either thematic or discipline-oriented, are excellent sources of literature reviews. An example of the former is AERA’s Review of Research in Education. Jossey- Bass publishes a title in the latter category, Annual Review of Adult Learning and Literacy.

Some journals publish annual reviews in their fields. Career Development Quarterly publishes an annual review of practice and research in career counseling in its December issue.

The past decade has seen a plethora of handbooks and encyclopedias covering specific areas of education, such as Encyclopedia of Education and Human Development (M.E. Sharpe, 2005) and Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education (Routledge, 2001). In many cases, the articles in these reference books are literature reviews.

18.  How can I judge the time it will take to complete my dissertation?
A:  The University of Minnesota offers a dissertation calculator at www.lib.umn.edu/help/disscalc/

The website also provides tips on literature reviews, outlining chapters, and etc.