Tutorial

LIBRARY TUTORIAL

WHAT’S IN THE LIBRARY?

The library contains database records representing books, book chapters, journal articles, statistical tables, and other resources related to precarious employment. It can also be used as a tool to search the statistical tables.

SEARCHING THE LIBRARY

There are two search options available. The first option is a basic search by keyword, subject, author, or title. The image below shows the basic search option.

 

library search fields including keyword, author, title and subject heading

 

Users can specify the resource type, such as a book, book chapter, or an article by using the drop-down menu beneath the main search box, as shown in the image below:

 

search library by resource type drop down menu list

 

The second option is an advanced search. This search allows users to combine more than one type of search element. Users can search by keyword, author and title at the same time.  In the case of the example below, several search categories have been selected, including “edited books” as the resource type, along with “precarious employment” as the subject, “Vosko” as the author, and “Gender and the Contours” as the title.

library search fields populated with information for author keyword and title

As shown in the image below, the advanced search option allows users to narrow their search results by selecting a specific module:

image

WHAT’S IN THE SEARCH RESULTS?

There are two types of search results. The first search result contains a list of basic bibliographic information for each source citation including the main author(s) and main resource title.

 

basic library search result including author, title and more button
By selecting [more] a second search result is provided. This longer search result presents users with additional information on the source including editor(s), publication title, subject headings, and other associated information.

 

image 5

 

I CAN’T FIND ANYTHING!

Unsuccessful searches may be the result of using a search term that is different than the term in the CPD controlled vocabulary.  The thesaurus can guide users to find search terms within the database.  The CPD uses Canadian spelling and some subject headings are plural (i.e., immigrants not immigrant). See the thesaurus tutorial for more detail.