Transcript File - Hillcrest High School Library

Online Research: Databases And
Internet
HILLCREST HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY
RICHES
Types of Information: :Library Databases
EBSCO, World Book Encyclopedia, Culture
Grams, Gale-Cengage and Others
 Scholarly journal articles
 Popular magazines
 Newspaper articles
 Reference book articles
 Books
 No advertising or sponsors can be found.
When to Use Databases
 Best for college-level and high school research
 For debate
 When you need highly credible information and
strong recency
Review Process for Databases
 Articles are written by journalists or experts in a
professional field.
 Publishers and experts evaluate database
information for accuracy as well as reviewing sources
cited or used in the publication.
 Information databases are reviewed and updated
regularly.
Constancy and Permanence
 Published content from journals, magazines,
newspapers and books does not change.
 Most material will remain in the database for a
significant length of time.
 You can retrieve the information again—so can
someone else who is checking your work.
Retrieval and Storage
 Most databases allow you to save the article quickly.
 Email to yourself, print, download or save to a folder
for easy access when working with the article or
taking notes.
Usability
 Database search engines allow users to search for
and retrieve focused, relevant results. Using search
parameters provided allows careful sorting.
 Thousands of hits is not uncommon. You will find
articles duplicated in various databases, adding to
the credibility of the information.
Cost and Accessibility
 Library subscription databases are paid for with
library or school funding.
 Canyons School District databases can be referenced
at school or at home. When using the Pioneer
databases off campus do this:
Login: pioneer
Password: discover
Citation
 Most databases include a citation tool that will
generate a correct citation in several styles,
particularly MLA and APA. You just copy to your
Works Cited or References page.
Information from Internet Search Engines
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Google, Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia and Others
Popular web sites (Facebook, Wikipedia)
Commercial web sites ( Amazon, eBay)
Educational web sites (ReadWriteThink, Khan)
Government and Organization web sites
Statistics (U.S. Census)
Current news and information (CNN, PBS)
Email, blogs, chat
When to Use Internet Resources
 Personal information needs, travel, shopping,
entertainment.
 When you have lots of time to sort and evaluate
information.
Review Process for Internet
 Lack of control—anybody can publish on the Internet
 No editorial evaluation or control. Need to
personally evaluate information for bias, accuracy
and completeness.
 Sites may or may not be updated.
Constancy and Permanence
 Web site content can change within a few hours or
minutes.
 Web page may disappear or the site may move to a
new address.
 May not be able to access the information again.
Internet Information Retrieval and Storage
 Need to copy and paste relevant pieces of the site.
 Copied links may not always guide you back to the
place you desire.
Usability of Internet Information
 Less ability to retrieve precise results. Grab bag of
results.
 Top hits are often commercially driven.
 Confusion about what appears on the site. Need to
search through sites to sort and determine relevance.
Cost and Accessibility
 Most Internet sites are available to everyone.
 Often designed and paid for by organizations or
businesses.
 Many web sites contain proprietary information and
will require you to create a log in and give passwords
when you enter.
 Some sites require a subscription.
 Will not pull information from library databases.
Citation of Internet Information
 No citation is provided.
 You will need to search the site for needed
information about an author, date, etc.
 You will need to format the citation from scratch or
gather information and use a citation creator, such
as Citation Machine or KnightCite.
Google or Database?
 Complete the Google/Database Experiment