The Academic Services Team and your dissertation

Academic liaison librarians

The academic liaison librarians (ALLs) are specialists in information finding, evaluation and use. Each programme has a dedicated librarian, so you have probably met them over the course of your studies so far, and they may well contribute to your dissertation module. Each year they work with many researchers, bringing their experience of using journal search tools, various online searching techniques and evaluation of sources.

Subjects covered in recent dissertation tutorials include:

• using reference management tools to keep track of references and format them in the final dissertation,
• using Google Scholar to track how a key piece of research has been used elsewhere,
• using Box of Broadcasts to find news and sports broadcasts,
• planning a systematic search strategy for an extended literature review,
• hints and tips for using the best search words and tools in the Emerald business journal database,
• finding newspaper articles from our 19th Century Newspapers database,
• finding reviews and critiques for particular films and books,
• how to document a search to show that the process was appropriate for the project.

Study development

Our study development tutors can help you with a range of topics including how to:

• reflect on your planning process;
• develop your academic writing;
• improve your time management skills.

Digital Training

Our Digital Trainers are dedicated to advising on all sorts of academic technologies. They run bookable group workshops and offer one-to-one tutorials, covering how to:

• use Word for a long piece of work;
• get charts out of Excel;
• use Mahara to collate a portfolio of evidence;

and more.

If you would like more information on using images, video, or anything else that may be subject to copyright restrictions, there is specialist advice available for that too.