Transcript AVI 101 - Mercer County Community College

AVI 101
Finding Information
Martin J. Crabtree
MCCC Library
September 16,2004
Agenda
• The College’s Card Catalog
• 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
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.
Aviation Periodicals at Mercer
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Aviation Week
Regional Airline World
Plane & Pilot
Professional Pilot
Private Pilot
Air Transport World
Airways
Aviation Monthly
Aviation Maintenance
The Aviation Consumer
Business & Commercial Aviation
Helicopters
FAA Aviation News
Aviation Tradescan Index
• Monthly index to
articles in a number of
aviation periodicals
• “History” is one of the
subject areas listed in
the index
Amelia Earhart ( 1897-1937)
First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
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 may need Acrobat Reader to
view
• Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis) – News: Collection
of newspaper information from around the US, nearly
all full text
• ABI/Inform – Business information including the Wall
Street Journal
• Biographies Plus - Biographical information of noted
people in a wide range of fields.
• New York Times Historical Newspaper – Articles
from 1851 – 2000
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 and may
never be
• No search engine covers the entire web
• The things a search engine misses (aka
invisible web) is huge. Estimates put the
size of the invisible web between 2 and
500 times bigger than the “visible” web.
Searching the World Wide Web
Search Strategy
• Searching the Web is much like database
searching:
– Put together a list of keywords
– Use Boolean logic (and, not, or) to better define your
search
– Use double quotes for phrases, truncations, etc.
• When searching the web, also:
– Consider which search engines 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.)
Searching the World Wide Web
Meta Sites
Meta search sites (like Ask Jeeves, Dogpile):
– Allow you to search more than one search engine
at a time.
– 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
Sample Web Search
• Topic – Wiley Post
• Try search in:
– Google (note Google’s “cached”
feature)
– AltaVista
Wiley Post in early pressure
suit 1934
So why are search Engines
missing so much?
• 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
• The problem arises when pages are ever
changing or not in HTML
So where is all of this stuff hiding?
• By far, a great amount is contained in
databases (both paid and free)
• Other places include:
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Non-text information such as photos or audio
PDF 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 very well when
looking for a narrow, focused topic.
• www.lii.org - searchable annotated
directory of Internet resources
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
United Airlines Stewardesses 1930
Five Evaluation Criteria
1.
2.
3.
4.
Accuracy - is it reliable?
Authority - is author qualified on subject?
Objectivity - is the information biased?
Currency - is the information “new”
enough?
5. Coverage - does the info completely cover
the topic?
Evaluating Web Sites
• Search engines may put you out of context, go
the home page to help evaluate the site
• A web site page will include contact
information such as phone numbers and street
addresses (not just an e-mail address)
• Look for the “about us” page for more about
who is responsible for the website and it’s
contents
Site Extensions
The 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
Other Considerations
• Watch out 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.
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…