Browsing the collection
When you get familiar with where the main physical education book materials are located in the library you can always use this knowledge to your advantage when browsing the collection. For example, if you notice where the main books on gymnastics are (say under the call number GV 461) you can go to the 9th floor and browse the main physical education area (GV201-555) to see what other books we may have on gymnastics and related subjects. Other subject areas important to physical education are as follows:

Journal articles
Using the catalogue to find library materials is the basic search strategy in any research project once you know what topics you are looking for. The catalogue lists all library materials in the collection, including books, videos, maps, government documents and journal or periodical titles that the library owns.
It is very important that you realize that journals are listed in the catalogue by title, not by article title. For example, if you have a reference to an article title by a particular author in the journal Sport History Review, you need to look for the journal first under the title option in the catalogue (e.g., sport history review). If the library had the journal title, then you would check to see which issues were in the collection, what issue you needed for the article in question, and the location of the journal on the shelf.

So, how do you find journal articles? You need to consult indexes, either in book form or in online database form.

Journal indexes/databases
Journal articles are best found by consulting library indexes (or abstracts if short summaries of the articles are included in the indexes). For a basic introduction to indexes check the library page on Finding journal articles on the library home page.
If indexes are available online in electronic format they are referred to as databases. For a good selection of suggested databases to use in Applied Health Sciences check the Applied Health Sciences databases page on the library home page. From this page the most important databases for physical education topics are listed in alphabetical order. It is important to read the annotation summaries under each database to find out what topics are likely to be covered in the database. For core physical education subjects, for example, Sport Discus is probably the first place to look. For aspects of physical education that are more medical in orientation then Cinahl or Medline are probably more relevant. With some experience in using these databases you will quickly get to know the types of articles that are likely to be found in each.
Don't forget that some of the databases have full-text article available directly online (check which ones at Full-text list).

All indexes are not available as online databases. You should remember that online databases are selective in their coverage of journals and there is simply not a comprehensive database available that has all the articles you may need for background material on your topic. For example, one of the best indexes on physical education and sports is the Physical Education Index. This is not an online database. It is easy to use and you must consult it as a matter of course in your research. Like most indexes it is published every year and lists articles by topic under an alphabetical index. The same searching principles apply to this index (and other book indexes) as in searching online databases except you cannot combine subjects or keywords together in a search.

If you were searching wrestling as a topic, for example, you would find very little information available on Sport Discus but a substantial number of articles listed in issues of Physical Education Index. Other subjects will be treated in a similar manner depending on the journals that each index source indexes so it is very important to check all the journal index sources available to you.

 

 

This page is http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~dsuarez/physeduc/physgen_refine_examples_textpage2

Updated: June 11, 2001