In this tutorial, you'll learn to identify the different electronic sources (e.g. ebooks and journal articles) in the library collection, using LibrarySearch.

1. When searching for information in LibrarySearch, the result list will provide a range of different types of sources

    that may include books, journal articles, magazine articles, videos, newspaper articles, dissertations, and more.

    Begin by searching on the topic: wildlife smuggling

2. Each brief record in the result list indicates the source type.  For example, the third record indicates

   an online book (ebook).

3. When you click onto the Full Text Online link in this record, you'll 'jump' into the online book

    which is part of an eBook Collection (provided by the vendor, EBSCOhost).

    The record provides the book title as well as the names of the two authors.

4.  In addition to this, the record also provides the publication information, consisting of 3 parts:

   the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication.  The 3 part publication

   information is typically provided in book records, but NOT in the records for journal articles.

5. On the sidebar, there is a link: eBook Full Text.  Click onto it to open the book.

   Once opened, you should be able to read the screen and turn the book's pages.

6. A Table of Contents is located on the sidebar (along with a 'back of the book' index). The content list indicates

    that this book is quite lengthy, more lengthy than you'd expect for a journal article. These additional

    characteristics help identify this source as an online book (not a journal article). 

7. Let's return to a search result list and look at the record for a journal article (below).

   Click onto the Full Text Online link in this record to 'jump' into the database, SpringerLINK,

   which contains this journal article.

8. In SpringerLINK, the record provides the title of the article and the names of the two authors.

9. In addition to the above information, this record also provides the title of the Journal (which contains

    the article), along with the date, volume, issue, and page range for this article. These are the

    characteristics of a journal article (NOT a book).

10. You can read the Abstract (summary) at the beginning of the paper, to determine its suitability for your research

      needs, before you open the full text of the online article.  Then use the PDF icon on the page to open the article

      file. (The location of the PDF icon varies depending on the database.)

11. The pdf format of a journal article (below) tells you the length of the article (pages).

      The DOI is a permanent number that is unique to each, individual journal article and helps

      to identify this source as being a journal article. (Specific journals will have an ISSN number.)

      If you click onto the + on the sidebar, it will open a list of the different sections of this

      research paper.

12.  There are different types of articles published in journals.  Some articles can be reviews of previous research,

       while others can be historical or theoretical treatments of a topic; however, the main type of publication found

       in journals are research articles.  In these papers, authors report the results of their research project.

       A research article should include the following sections:  abstract, introduction, methods, results,

       discussion/conclusion, and a reference list.

                                                              Citation Examples

Note:  For  RMOT 191/192 courses, instructors request students to use the print format when citing books and journal articles (regardless of whether they were in print or electronic format.)

1.  The citation for the above book is as follows:

        Williams HO, Grante VT (editors). 2009. Illegal trade in wildlife. New York: Nova Science.

           176 p.

                                                                    
2.  The citation for this journal article is as follows:

     Rosen, GE, Smith KF. 2010. Summarizing the evidence on the international trade in illegal

           wildlife. Ecohealth 7 (1): 24-32.

                                                                 Summary:

This brief tutorial identified the different characteristics between online books and online journal articles in the VIU Library, and provides citation examples for both.