Transcript given on 9 February 2009 - Mercer County Community College

HIS231 - Tools & Resources
for Finding Useful Info
Martin Crabtree – MCCC Library
February 9, 2009
Agenda
• Finding books
• Periodicals
• Inter-library Loan (aka getting stuff from other
libraries)
• Review electronic searching
– Keywords, Boolean searching, truncations, & field limiters
• Accessing electronic databases from the library
• Searching the Web
– A few things to consider when using search engines
– Thinking about the quality of the web info you find
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Finding Books
Using The Card Catalog
•
The catalog is available online.
Used to find books, videos and
other material in the MCCC
collection (not periodicals).
•
You will also find items available
at the Mercer County Public
(MCL) libraries.
•
You can request that materials
from MCL be 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.
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
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.
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
PANIC!
The library doesn’t have what I
want!
OR
Getting things from
other libraries
If the library doesn’t have what
you need, we will get it for you.
Using interlibrary (ILL) loan
Three steps to ILL
1. Search the Mercer County [public] Library holdings
via the college’s online catalog & place a hold.
2. Search Jersey Cat to find & request materials
statewide online.
3. Place an ILL request in person or online. The library
will search internationally for the item you want. Note:
This ILL request form is only for a specific book or
article.
•
ILL requests do take time, allow 2-3 weeks for
materials to arrive, though they often come in
sooner (especially true for articles).
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Using interlibrary loan
• Supply as much information as you can for
needed items.
• For books: Title, Author, publisher, publish
date, edition number, ISBN #
• For periodicals: periodical name, article
title & date, volume & issue number,
pagination (pages the article is
on/pagination)*
* - Pagination is required by JerseyCat
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
So why can’t I just go
to another library and
get the stuff myself?
In some cases you can…
• At The College of New Jersey, you just
have to show your MCCC ID.
• As a MCCC student, you can also use
over 20 other college/university libraries as
well
– Fill out a form
– Have it signed by the MCCC library
– Present the signed form & your MCCC ID to
the other library
– Valid for one year (through June 30, 2009)
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Searching Electronic
Databases
And The Web Too
Starting An Electronic Search
Keywords
• Keywords are often used when searching
electronic databases and web search engines
• They are words that will likely appear within
articles that are relevant to your search.
– For example:
•
•
•
•
•
Ozone
Layer
Depletion
Atmosphere
Hole
• The search programming looks for only those
items that contain the keywords you supplied.
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
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”
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Electronic Searching
beyond just keyword
• To search for a phrase, use quotation
marks
–
“weapons of mass destruction”
• Truncations allow you to search for related
words in a single search
– The * is usually used. For example searching
histor* would yield hits for: history, historical,
historic, etc.
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Let’s take a quick look at how
Boolean searching can help
Electronic Databases
Available From The MCCC
Library
Electronic Databases
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
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Electronic Databases
In General
• Accessible at any computer
on the MCCC/JKC campus
network
• Can print/e-mail/download
articles
• Most are available off
campus, though you do need
to use a password.
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Accessing Databases Remotely
• You can access most of the databases
from any computer with internet access.
• To log on to the databases, use your:
– student ID number (no dashes)
– your last name (include punctuation here)
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Remote Login Screen
Use your student ID
number & last name
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Some useful databases
• JSTOR
– Scholarly journals in history and other subjects. Coverage begins
with the very first issue up to 2004 (a moving date, 5 years ago)
– All full text
– Can not email articles, can print or save as a .pdf
• EBSCOhost - Academic Search Premier
– 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
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
More Databases
• The reference section of the database
page includes:
– Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre &
Performance
– Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
– Grove Encyclopedia of Classical Art &
Architecture
– Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in the Ancient
World
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Finding and Using Web
Information
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
to at least 200% bigger than the “visible”
(or surface) web.
Source: The Invisible Web by Chris Sherman
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
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.)
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
PANIC AGAIN!
The website I found looks
great only I don’t read
German (or French, or
Russian, or Italian, or
Spanish, or Chinese,
or…)
Using web pages that aren’t in
English
• Web sites exist that will help in translating
web pages.
• Babblefish is one such site at:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/.
• The translations are not always the best,
but still there is a lot of useful non-English
web info out there.
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
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
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Evaluating Web Information
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?
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
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.
• Let’s look at an entry for organ donation.
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
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?
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 look for some information…
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
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.
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
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.
• To make it easy for others
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
There are two major format styles
used at MCCC
• The APA (American Psychological Association) style.
– The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
at: BF76.7.p83 2001
• The MLA (Modern Language Association of America)
style.
– MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers at: LB 2369 .G53
2003
• The both manuals are available in the library in the
reference stacks & on reserve
• Neither manual is available on line.
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Added APA & MLA info is at the
Research & Report Guides link
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
There’s so much info out
there!
Can you help me find the good
stuff?
Getting help finding what you need
• Feel free to ask any of the MCCC
librarians.
• A list of resources for HIS231 is also
available on line at:
– www.mccc.edu/~crabtrem/his231/his231.htm
Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC Library
Now let’s find some information…