Transcript css101 second part - Mercer County Community College

Information Literacy
CSS101 - Part 2
Martin J. Crabtree
MCCC Library
October 2004
Agenda
• Review: so just what IS information
literacy?
• Using the the Mercer Library’s catalog
• Review: searching electronic resources
• Review: databases and Web information
• Your turn to use the databases & the web
What is information literacy?
Information literacy is the ability to:
• Realize that you need information to
find something out/answer a question
• Know where to go to get the information
you need
• Ask the right questions to get the
information you need
• Put all the information you found
together to answer your question
•
Using The MCCC Card Catalog
to find books and more
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)
•
You will need to have your
student ID card to borrow
books or use the library’s
computer lab
The link to the catalog is on the
library’s web pages.
Let’s look at the Mercer
Library’s Catalog…
Starting An Electronic Search
Keywords
• Keywords are used when searching electronic
databases and web search engines
• First step - Generate a list of words (keywords) often
nouns 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
– “weapons of mass destruction”
• Truncations allow for searching related
words all at once
– The * is usually used. For example:
• “child*” would include: child, children, childhood,
childproof, etc.
Electronic Databases at the
Mercer Library
Electronic Databases at MCCC
In General
• Over 40 databases available
• Many contain periodical articles
• Some are useful for searching specific
subjects like business, art, or criminal
justice.
•Others are also useful
tools like the Encyclopedia
Britannica and the Oxford
Dictionary
Electronic Databases
In General
• Accessible at any computer
on the MCCC/JKC campus
network
• Most are available off
campus, need to request a
password.
• Can print/e-mail/download
what you find
Let’s take a look a the
databases…
Using the World Wide Web
Using the internet/world wide
web
• Before using the web for most college
research, try using databases first:
– You will have fewer hits to go through
– You’ll likely find some good information
quickly
– The information is always high quality
• The internet & web are not the same
thing
Some things to consider when
searching the web
• Everything is NOT on the web and 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 between 2 and 500 times bigger
than the “visible” (or surface) web.
Searching the World Wide Web
Search Strategy
• Searching the Web is much like database
searching:
– Put together a list of keywords describing the
information you desire
– Use Boolean logic (and, not, or) to better define your
search, use double quotes for phrases, etc.
• When searching the web, also:
– Consider which search engines/sites may best suit your
search needs. Different search engines yield different
results.
– Use the search engine’s “advanced search” to select
limiting parameters (language, date, domain, etc.)
Some helpful invisible websites
• www.lii.org - searchable annotated directory of
Internet resources
• www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm - Direct Search,
large listing of free databases
• infomine.ucr.edu [NO www] - good for searching
academic information
• completeplanet.com [No www] blend of database,
directory, & search engine information.
• www.firstgov.gov - search federal government sites
Is this
stuff any
good?
Evaluating Web Sites
Evaluating Web Sites
• Quality varies greatly from site to
site
• YOU are the sole evaluator of the
quality of information a site
provides
Five Web Info Evaluation Criteria
1. Accuracy - is it reliable?
2. Authority - is author qualified on
subject?
3. Objectivity - is the information biased?
4. Currency - is the information “new”
enough?
5. Coverage - does the info completely
cover the topic?
The Bottom Line…
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…
Now it’s your turn…