ENG 024
Finding Information
Martin J. Crabtree
MCCC Library
Agenda
•The College’s Card Catalog
•Electronic Searching
–Keywords & Boolean Searching
•Electronic Databases at Mercer
–Databases available through Mercer Library
–Accessing the databases
•Giving credit to your information sources
•A few things to consider when using theweb
Finding books in the libraryThe online card catalog
•The catalog is availableonline. Used to find books,videos and other materialboth in the MCCCcollection and the MercerCounty Public (MCL)libraries.
•You can have materialsfrom MCL brought to thecollege. Deliveries arriveTuesday and Fridayafternoons. (DVD’s notavailable from MCL)
•You will need to have yourstudent ID card to borrowbooks or use the computerlab
Finding things in the libraryLibrary of Congress system
•Unlike school and public libraries, the MCCCuses the Library of Congress (LC) system.
• The LC is an alphanumeric system
–For example: PN 1991.2 .W65
•You can search for materials by:
–Title
–Author (last name first)
–Subject
–Keyword
Searching Electronic Databases
…and the web too
Starting An Electronic SearchKeywords
•Keywords are used when searching electronicdatabases and web search engines
•First step - Generate a list of words (keywords) oftennouns that describes or is commonly used whendiscussing your topic. For example:
–Ozone
–Layer
–Depletion
–Atmosphere
–Hole
Starting An Electronic SearchBoolean Searching/Logic
•Boolean searching - Connecting keywords withthe terms
–and
–not
–or
•For example
–eagles NOT football
–(car or automobile) and exhaust
•More Terms = Fewer “Hits”
Searching More Than Just KeywordsPhrases & Truncations
•To search for a phrase, use quotationmarks
–“weapons of mass destruction”
•Truncations allow for searching relatedwords all at once
–The * is usually used. For example:
•“child*” would include: child, children, childhood,childproof, etc.
Electronic Databases at theMercer Library
Electronic Databases at MCCCIn General
•Over 60 databases available
•Many contain periodical articles
•Some are useful for searching specificsubjects like business, art, or criminaljustice.
•Others are also usefultools like the EncyclopediaBritannica and the OxfordDictionary
Electronic DatabasesIn General
•Accessible at any computeron the MCCC/JKC campusnetwork
•Most are available offcampus, need to request apassword.
•Can print/e-mail/downloadarticles
Broad/General Coverage Databases
–Broadest of the databases covering everything fromscience to history
–Not every article full text
•Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis) - News
–Large collection of newspaper information from aroundthe US, nearly all full text
•Issues & Controversies from Facts on File
–Contains information on controversial subjects in thenews
Using the information you find
...and giving credit where creditis due.
Using the Information You Find
•Always give credit to the author orcreator of the information that you use.
•This includes not only the actual facts,conclusions, and ideas that an authorpresents but also the words that he/shehas used.
Plagiarism can take many forms
•Plagiarism, the presenting of someone else’sintellectual work as your own.
•It may be done deliberately, but it may also bedone without your realizing it.
•The copying, word for word, from a book or anarticle is the most blatant form of plagiarism.
•Changing a few words is still plagiarism!
Using the World Wide Web
Using the internet/world wideweb
•Before using the web for most collegeresearch, try using databases first:
–You will have fewer hits to go through
–You’ll likely find some good informationquickly
–The information is always high quality
•The internet & web are not the samething
Some things to consider whensearching the web
•Everything is NOT on the web and maynever 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 invisibleweb between 2 and 500 times biggerthan the “visible” (or surface) web.
Searching the World Wide WebSearch Strategy
•Searching the Web is much like databasesearching:
–Put together a list of keywords describing theinformation you desire
–Use Boolean logic (and, not, or) to better define yoursearch, use double quotes for phrases, etc.
•When searching the web, also:
–Consider which search engines/sites may best suit yoursearch needs. Different search engines yield differentresults.
–Use the search engine’s “advanced search” to selectlimiting parameters (language, date, domain, etc.)
Let’s pause for a bit forsome TV
Evaluating Web Sites
Is thisstuff anygood?
Evaluating Web Sites
•Quality varies greatly from site tosite
•YOU are the sole evaluator of thequality of information a siteprovides
Five Web Info Evaluation Criteria
1.Accuracy - is it reliable?
2.Authority - is author qualified onsubject?
3.Objectivity - is the information biased?
4.Currency - is the information “new”enough?
5.Coverage - does the info completelycover the topic?
The Bottom Line…
Buyer Beware
•The web contains a vast amount ofinformation…but not everything
•Anyone can put information on the web, hence thequality of web information varies greatly
•YOU will often be the only person to decide ifthe quality of the info you find on the web is good
The Bottom Line…
Buyer Beware
•The web contains a vast amount ofinformation…but not everything
•Anyone can put information on the web, hence thequality of web information varies greatly
•YOU will often be the only person to decide ifthe quality of the info you find on the web is good
Now let’s visit a sitego to: