CMNS 125, Professional Communications (John Bermingham)

Example Searches:

"artificial intelligence" (often the full word searches better than the letters AI and remember to use the quotation marks when search a phrase)

"generative ai" workplace communication

effective workplace communication

Remember to try the Geography limiter: Canada

“Grey literature” refers to any piece of published writing that is not considered part of the usual publication ecosystem. Whereas scholarly journal articles go through a rigorous peer-review process, grey literature can have a much faster publication time, filling the information gap and sharing knowledge about new emerging and niche areas. Discoveries through grey literature can be used to influence government policies and industry goals. Grey literature also helps researchers identify areas that need further exploration. 

Grey literature comes in a variety of formats including, but not limited to:

• Policy papers
• Working papers
• Government publication/documents
• Newsletters
• Industry reports/research
• White papers

Because grey literature is not part of the typical publication process, it can be challenging to find specific items. To locate pieces of grey literature, you need to think of who would be interested in producing this type of information, and search accordingly. These producers can include think tanks, non-governmental organizations, non-profit organizations, industry groups, and consulting firms. 

Simon Fraser University offers a comprehensive library guide on grey literature:

For the topic of How is AI going to transform tomorrow’s workplace

Examples of suggested organizations include but are not limited to:

Below are a few of articles on the topic of artificial intelligence and the future of the labour market:

Finally, please be mindful of bias when it comes to these agencies, organizations and companies. Before using their material, it is worthwhile to do a bit of background research on these institutions to ensure they are valid sources for your report.

Click on your topic and choose the titles that interest you the most. You may need to revise the default search to find more titles.

Remember to click on the PDF Full Text or Read Online to access the ebook and the title (as highlighted below) to find more information like the ISBN from the full item record. 

Although librarians have carefully compiled these sources, there is no substitute for your own evaluation. Use the following guides to help you.

There are a number of valuable sources available online. But they can be tricky to find.

To avoid searching through endless unreliable websites, improve your Browser (eg: Google/Bing/etc.) searches from the start.

Use these as part of your search:

• site:.edu (to search only U.S. universities), e.g. covid learning site:.edu
• site:.ac.uk (to search only UK Universities), e.g "artificial intelligence"  workplace site:.ac.uk
• site:.gc.ca OR site:.canada.ca (to search the Canadian gov website.) , e.g: "social media" "academic success" site:.gc.ca 
• site:.gov (to search government websites) eg: site:.gov.us       site:.gov.bc etc.
• site:.org (to search organizations)

Also include words like dissertation, thesis, or pdf to bring up more reliable documents. 

Example:

Sample search: "Social media" harm site:.gc.ca

One popular resource for finding Canadian Media Articles is Canadian Major Dailies.

Here are a few tips on using the database:

Input your subject terms into the search box as demonstrated above 

E.g.    "artificial intelligence" and workplace

"social media use" and "academic success"

Covid impact learning

All the results will be from Canadian newspapers. 

Once you view the results, you may want to limit your search to a specific newspaper or time period: