soeg.kb.dk is a catalogue over both electronic and material resources from all of the university libraries that are connected with the Royal Library (KB): among others Aarhus University, The IT-University, Copenhagen University, Roskilde University and of course the national library. Through the catalogue, you can find articles, books, databases, journals, images, manuscripts, music and much more.
soeg.kb.dk is your access point for requesting books from the KB connected libraries as well as access to electronic resources. You can request books for pick up at Roskilde University Library or any of the other library locations, if more convenient for you.
Read more about soeg.kb.dk here.
If you are only looking for electronic resources you can filter your search to only include resources that are available online. Hereby you exclude all physical materials. If you are not interested in online materials, but for instance are looking for a book in Roskilde University Library’s collection you can choose to only show physical materials in the ‘show only’ category in the left margin. Under the category, ‘Libraries’ a little further down in the left margin you can choose RUC, to exclude all other libraries from your search.
To keep a filter active in your searches you must lock it, otherwise the filter resets when you make changes in your search. To lock the filter hover the mouse over it and a lock icon appears on the left end. It turns grey as the mouse touches it and then click (see screenshot of a locked filter below). Repeat the action to unlock again, when the filter is no longer relevant.
Below the filter ’RUC’ is locked and ‘Books’ is not.
soeg.kb.dk gives you the option of making an advanced search (see the link just right of the search bar). An advanced search enables you to search for specific words in specific fields, like title or author. Advanced search is particularly good for finding all publications by an author (see the screen shot below). A search on subject words can be a good way of targeting your search, but do be aware that some relevant literature might be excluded because it has not been catalogued under the subject word you are searching for.
If it all seems very complicated, do not give up. You are always welcome to ask a librarian for help. You can ask us over the counter in the information, email us at rub@ruc.dk or book a librarian to prepare a few literature searches for you and sit down for an hour to walk you through different databases, filters or relevant search techniques with you – all tailored to your groups project.
Before you start searching for literature, you should sign in to soeg.kb.dk with your WAYF and your single sign-on. When you are signed in the system recognizes your access to retrieve electronic resources as well as requesting physical books.
You log in in the top right of the website.
soeg.kb.dk differentiates between many different types of resources. Consider carefully what types are relevant for your search and filter on resource types in the left margin. Three important resource types are student reports, books and articles.
Student reports
Under Resource types in the left margin you can choose student reports. Currently only student reports from RUC are available in the system and you can find semester assignments, bachelor assignments and master theses. You should not use student reports as references and be very careful not to copy from them, but they might, nonetheless, serve as good inspiration for your own approach or give you a surer sense of the format for your assignment. We recommend that you let yourself be inspired by the methods or theories used their structure or even their choice of literature. However, remember to retain a critical view on the student reports, after all they are student work!
Books
Books usually treat their subject in its context; they offer histories, relations, broad coverage and introductions. Whereas an article might be more specific or updated a book will typically give you a broader and more general introduction to a subject. You can choose to look for books under resource types and if at the same time you have filtered results to only show electronic materials your search will only show e-books.
Articles and articles from peer-review journals
Research articles often treat a narrow, targeted subject with limited contextualization compared to a book. Articles on the other hand can often give you material about recent developments in a research field, as they are typically produced and published faster than books. In some fields of research the majority of research is published as articles whereas other fields publish more books, therefore it is important to know the norm in your field of research. You might want to filter your search on articles from peer-reviewed journals to ensure that expert researchers in the field have approved the article for publication. Peer-review is the most used method to secure quality in research, but of course, not even peer-review is foolproof and it should not preclude you from using your critical analysis skills.