Transcript eng102 bolis - Mercer County Community College

ENG 102
Finding Information
Martin J. Crabtree
MCCC Library
Agenda
• The College’s Card Catalog
• Electronic Searching
– Keywords & Boolean Searching
• Electronic Databases at Mercer
– Accessing the databases
– Databases available through Mercer Library
• Using the Web & Evaluating What You Find
• MLA resources
Using The Card Catalog
• The catalog is available online.
Used to find books, videos and
other material both in the MCCC
collection and the Mercer County
Public (MCL) libraries.
• You can have materials from
MCL brought to the college.
Deliveries arrive Tuesday and
Friday afternoons. (DVD’s not
available from MCL)
• Link to the catalog is on the
library’s web pages.
The link to the catalog is on the library’s
web pages.
Big Changes at the MCCC Library
Big changes at the West Windsor Campus
Library
• Major renovations are being made to the
library building.
• The work is expected last until early
summer 2009
• During the construction:
– The library will be located in a temporary
building next to the AD building
– The computer lab has been moved to a separate
location on campus
– All of the library’s online resources are still
available
The Library’s Computer Lab
• During the library construction, the computer
lab will be located in LA232
• A second lab (with more limited hours) will be
in ET212
• Hours are generally:
– 8AM – 9 PM Monday-Thursday
– 9AM – 4PM Friday & Saturday
• Changes to these will be posted in the
computer lab rooms
Searching Electronic Databases
And The Web Too
Starting An Electronic Search
Keywords
• Keywords are used when searching electronic databases and
web search engines
• First step - Generate a list of words (keywords) that describes
or is commonly used when discussing your topic. For example:
– Ozone
– Layer
– Depletion
– Atmosphere
– Hole
Starting An Electronic Search
Boolean Searching/Logic
• Boolean searching - Connecting keywords with the
terms
– and
– not
– or
• For example
– eagles NOT football
– (car or automobile) and exhaust
• More Terms = Fewer “Hits”
Searching More Than Just Keywords
Phrases & Truncations
• To search for a phrase, use quotation marks
– “survival of the fittest”
• Truncations allow for searching related words
all at once
– The * is usually used . For example:
• “child*” would include: child, children, childhood,
childproof, etc.
Searching More Than Just Keywords
Field Limiters
• Field limiters allow you to specify your
search within varied parameters for
example:
– Only full-text articles
– Only peer reviewed (scholarly) publications
– Date (or date range)
Let’s take a quick look at how
Boolean searching can help
So what are scholarly resources?
Scholarly Information
• Information that has been written by experts
in a given field (scholars) using proven
research methods.
• This information can take many form both in
print and electronically.
• When doing college level work, you are
expected to rely on scholarly information for
your research.
Periodicals
• Periodicals include:
– scholarly journals
– newspapers
– magazines
• Periodicals represent the bulk of
published scholarly information.
• The library has a number of periodicals available in print, on
microfilm, and especially via electronic databases.
• The library staff can help determine if a specific periodical is
available from the library.
Electronic Databases at the
Mercer Library
What is a databases?
• A collection of electronically searchable
information (frequently, but not limited to,
periodical articles) that is accessible via the
internet
• Access to this information is by paid
subscription only (paid by the library).
• It is accessible via the internet, but it is not truly
web information.
Electronic Databases At Mercer
In General
• Over 60 databases available
• Not every article is available full text though
many are
• Abstracts (summary) is often available when
full text is not
Electronic Databases
In General
• Accessible at any computer on
the MCCC/JKC campus network
• Most are available off campus,
though you do need to use a
password.
• Can print/e-mail/download
articles
Accessing Databases Remotely
• You can access most of the databases from
any computer with internet access.
• Use your student ID number (no dashes) and
your last name to log into the databases.
Remote Login Screen
Use your student ID
number & last name
Some Useful Databases
• Academic Search Premier (EBSCOHost)
– Broadest of the databases covering everything from science
to the humanities including many scholarly journals
– Not every article full text
– Need Acrobat Reader for some articles
• Literature Resource Center - Reviews, criticisms, and
biographical info on a number of authors and their
works.
More Databases
• A number of subject specific databases
are available covering:
– Business (ABI/Inform)
– Newspapers (Academic-Universe: News)
– Sociology (Proquest Social Science Journals)
– Education (Proquest Educational Journals)
– more
• Also other resources
– Encyclopedia Britannica
– Oxford English Dictionary
Searching the World Wide Web and
Evaluating What You Find
Brought to you by…
&
Searching the World Wide Web
How can I find what I want?
Some things to consider when
searching the web
• Everything is NOT on the web & may never be
• No search engine covers the entire web
• The “invisible web” is huge!
• Though there has yet to be consensus,
estimates put the size of the invisible web to at
least 200% bigger than the “visible” (or
surface) web.
Source: The Invisible Web by Chris Sherman
Searching the World Wide Web
Search Strategy
• Searching the Web is much like database searching:
– Use keywords and Boolean logic (and, not, or) to better define
your search, use double quotes for phrases, etc.
• When searching the web, also consider:
– Different search engines yield different results. You may
want to try using more that just your “regular” search
engine
– Use the search engine’s “advanced search” to select limiting
parameters (language, date, domain, etc.)
Searching the World Wide Web
Search Engines & Meta Sites
• Become familiar with your search engines features.
Some websites with more info about search engines
are listed in your brochure.
• Meta search sites (like Dogpile):
– Allow you to search more than one search engines at
once.
– Can generate more “stuff” to sift through
– Limited to only basic searches, can’t use advanced search
features
– Some results can be from “paid for listing” search engines
The Invisible Web
Why is so much being missed?
• When using a search engine, you are searching a
database that represents what is known to be on the
web
– Spiders or crawlers roam the web from link to link generating
this database
– Works extremely well for static all text pages in the HTML
language
• Places information may hide include:
–
–
–
–
–
Databases, free & subscription
Non-text information such as photos or audio
Non-HTML formatted documents
Very new web pages
Password only access information
Finding the invisible stuff
• The key is knowing when you need “invisible”
information and then where to find it.
• Not every web search requires looking in the
invisible web.
• Search engines work well when looking for a
narrow, focused topic.
• Some website that may help you
find more info are in the brochure
Is this stuff
any good?
Evaluating Web Sites
Now Back to Our “Sponsors”
&
Evaluating Web Sites
• Quality varies greatly from site to site
• YOU are the sole evaluator of the
quality of information a site provides
Five Evaluation Criteria
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Accuracy - is it reliable?
Authority - is author qualified on subject?
Objectivity - is the information biased?
Currency - is the information “new” enough?
Coverage - does the info completely cover the
topic?
Evaluating Web Sites
Home Page & Site Extensions
• Search engines may put you out of context, go to the
home page or “about us” page to help you evaluate the
site.
• The site extension can help evaluate information
–
–
–
–
–
–
.gov - Governmental sites
.edu - Educational institution sites
.com - Commercial sites
.org - Not for profit organization sites
.mil - Military sites
Others are being creates that are less clear cut, e.g.: .net or
.co.uk
Evaluating Web Sites
Other Considerations
• Watch for information that is positioned to
sell you something.
• Altered web pages (either by accident or
maliciously)
• Links to other web sites DOES NOT
necessarily mean that the site is credible.
Evaluate each site separately.
Using Wikipedia
Using Wikipedia
• Wikipedia is sometimes a useful source of
information in some instances
• But, the information contained here is not
inherently scholarly information.
• Wikipedia is probably best at covering pop
culture topics as well as obscure subjects not
well represented in scholarly publications.
Think about it…
Would you want you doctor to base
his/her diagnosis or your lawyer you
defense in court bases on information
they got from Wikipedia?
With web info, the Bottom Line is…
Buyer Beware
• The web contains a vast amount of information…but
not everything
• Anyone can put information on the web, hence the
quality of web information varies greatly
• YOU will often be the only person to decide if the
quality of the info you find on the web is good
Now let’s visit a site…
Still people can get fooled…
Using the information you find
...and giving credit where credit is
due.
Using the information you find
...and giving credit where credit is due.
Using the Information You Find
• Always give credit to
the author or creator of
the information that
you use.
• This includes not only
the actual facts,
conclusions, and ideas
that an author presents
but also the words that
he/she has used.
Citing your sources of information
• Scholars routinely list the sources of the
information they use as part of their work
• You will frequently need to include a list of
the sources of information you have used for
an assignment in college.
Using the MLA Format
Using the MLA format
• You will be using the MLA (Modern Language Association of
America) style.
• The latest MLA manual is available in the library:
– MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers at:
LB 2369 .G53 2003 (in the reference collection & on reserve).
• The manual is not available on line.
• NOTE: A newly revised edition of the
handbook will be out in April
Added MLA info is at the Research &
Report Guides link
Now it’s your turn…