Transcript ENG 101 - Mercer County Community College

ENG 101
Finding Information
Martin J. Crabtree
MCCC Library
November 2004
Agenda
• Finding books
– The College’s Card Catalog
– Library of Congress vs. Dewey System
• Electronic Searching
– Keywords & Boolean Searching
• Electronic Databases at Mercer
– What’s a database?
– Databases available through Mercer Library
– Accessing the databases
• Web Information
– Searching
– The Invisible Web
– Evaluating what you find
• Your turn to use the databases
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)
•
You will need to have your
student ID card to borrow
books or use the library’s
computer lab
Finding Books
• Unlike school and public libraries,
MCCC uses the Library of
Congress (LC) system.
• The LC is an alphanumeric
system, for example
– HE9760-9900: Air
transportation [business focus]
– TL500-780: aeronautics
[technology focus]
• TL515-550: Aeronautics - History
The link to the catalog is on the
library’s web pages.
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.
Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals
Different publications targeted
to different audiences
Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals
Scholarly
• Purpose is to inform the
scholarly world of original
research in a given field
Popular/General Interest
• Purpose is to inform,
entertain and/or sell to a
wide audience
• Has a serious format
• Attractive/slick appearance
• Contains many graphs &
charts few photos
• Frequently uses photos and a
few graphs & charts
• Regularly uses footnotes
and bibliographies
• Rarely uses footnotes or
bibliographies
• Written by scholars or
researchers
• Written by staff or
freelance writers
Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals
Scholarly
• Uses the terminology and
jargon of the subject,
assumes reader knows it
Popular/General Interest
• Rarely uses subject
terminology or jargon, when
used, contains explanation
• Published by professional or
educational organizations
• Published by commercial
enterprises for profit
• Contains little if any
advertising
• Extensive inclusion of
advertisements
• Examples: Annals of
Microbiology, Journal of
Abnormal Psychology
• Examples: Newsweek, People,
Psychology Today
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.
Electronic Databases at the
Mercer Library
What are electronic 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
subscription only, paid by the library.
• It is accessible via the internet, but it is
not truly web information.
Electronic Databases
In General
• Over 40 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, need to request a
password (forms available
after this class).
• Can print/e-mail/download
articles
Getting to the databases
• Use the library quick link at mccc.edu to get to
the library’s homepage
• Go to the “Online Databases & Search Engines”
link (in the left column) of any of the library’s
web pages.
Databases with aviation information
• EBSCOhost - Academic Search Premier - Broad
collection covering many subject areas. Not every
article full text, some need Acrobat Reader to view
• Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis) – News: Collection
of newspaper information from around the US, nearly
all full text
• Literature Resource Center - Reviews, criticisms, and
biographical info. on a number of authors and their
works
• Biographies Plus - Biographical information of noted
people in a wide range of fields.
• N. Y. Times Historical Newspapers– Articles from
1851 – 2000
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 and may
never be.
• No search engine covers the entire web.
• The quality of the information on the
web varies greatly.
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.)
Evaluating Web
Information
Is this
stuff any
good?
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?
Search engines may put you out of context,
go the home page or the “about us” page to
help evaluate the site
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