Password: ATCstudent
Dewey Decimal Classification was created in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It is used for NON FICTION books in our library.
Before the DDC was invented, libraries had items on the shelf in the order they were acquired, which could make it difficult to fine what you were looking for. Dewey Decimal Classification provides a structure for labeling items so that they will sit with items of the same or similar topics on the shelf.
Dewey has 10 broad classifications:
ATC style guide suggests using the Cornell method to record your notes.
Watch this guide to help you practice this method.
Cornell Notes
Top Tips for Note-taking
•Write clearly- can you read back what you have written?
•Use a new page for each topic
•Add a date to the top of each page with a suitable heading
•Keep some blank space for any new information you find
•Rule a line through errors
•Use abbreviations (shorthand) – as long as you can decode what you’ve written!
Some Common Abbreviations
between = btwn
because = b/c
versus = vs.
with = with
without = w/o
that is = i.e
example = e.g.
approximately = approx
number = no.
established = est.
minimum = min
miscellaneous = misc
Referencing is the way that you describe the sources of information and ideas that you use in your assignments.
For example:
Australian education providers will need to address a number of challenges to ensure standards of special education are fully supporting students with special needs and their families (Dempsey, 2012).
What's the difference between a reference list and a bibliography?
A reference list lists the sources you refer to in your writing.
The purpose of the reference list is to allow your sources to be be found by your reader. It also gives credit to authors you have consulted for their ideas. All references cited in the text must appear in the reference list, except for personal communications (such as conversations or emails) which cannot be retrieved.
A bibliography is different from a reference list as it lists all the sources used during your research and background reading, not just the ones you refer to in your writing.
ATC students use the APA 7th citation style to reference their sources.
APA Guide (slides) - easy to follow guide to referencing using APA style
You should always include a variety of sources and you can use this guide from the University of Queensland to decide how create your references.
QUT's guide CiteWrite is very useful also
Examples of how to write a reference entry for different sources.
Are you finding too much information or perhaps not finding enough?
What we usually do is enter a couple of keywords into the search box of google! This strategy, however, will often result in too few, too many, or irrelevant results.
Boolean Operators will reduce the number of results you get, making your research more efficient and the information you find more relevant.
The most commonly-used Boolean Operators:
AND
AND joins two or more concepts by telling the database that both/all of these keywords must appear in the search results.
OR
OR joins two or more keywords for the same concept by telling the database that one or more of them must appear in the search results. It is useful when:
You have multiple ways of saying the same thing, such as measles OR "chicken pox"
NOT
Using NOT will exclude results with the term following NOT. it is useful when you want information on a topic that excludes common results.
Example 'civil rights NOT American' if you wanted to research other countries with similar struggles.
Other useful Boolean Operators:
"Quotation Marks"
Quotation marks tell the database to take the phrase as a whole, and search for the words together, and in order.
Example: Searching 'famous football players'
Without quotation marks, the database finds the word famous and football and players separately. You might get search results about any number of famous people or general information about football or players of any type of sport or game!
With quotation marks, the database ignores articles that do not contain the exact phrase "famous football players".
Asterisk*
The asterisk (*) is a kind of wild card that tells the database to find multiple "endings" of a word.
Example: Searching service.
Without an asterisk, you get only service, but not serve or servicing or serviceable.
