RWS Scientific Writing Anne Turhollow Library & Information Access Spring 2004

Two Stages of Information Searching Find It! Identifying specific books, articles, reports on a given topic Get It! Physically getting those items into your hands or on your computer screen With technology, these separate tasks are blurring together

Types of Information Fact Basic / Background Practical / How to Research Formal vs. Informal

From Jim Parrot, Librarian, University of Waterloo Flow of Research Information

More Information The Scientific Publication Cycle Carol Green and Patty Carey, University of Washington Libraries Flow of Scientific Information Jim Parrot, University of Waterloo Library

Domains of Information Fee Free Proprietary

Domains of Information Free vs. Fee vs. Proprietary Different finding tools search different domains and different layers within those domains Infinite vs. Finite, or Open vs. Closed

Indexes and Databases Search Engines Periodical Databases Fulltext Journal Collections Data Collections Hybrids

Domains of Information Fee Free Proprietary Indexed by: Periodical Databases Fulltext Search Software Indexed by: Search Engines Specialty Search Software Indexed by Specialty Search Software

Search Engines Examples - Google, Yahoo, TeomaGoogleYahooTeoma Machine (“robot” or “spider”) created databases of the World Wide Web and other materials Index the free resources Creators of the information - any one who can put up a web page

More Information Best Search Tools InfoPeople Project Finding Information on the Internet University of California, Berkeley Libraries

Invisible Web There are significant portions of Internet accessible material that are not indexed by the standard search engines Dynamic pages, different formats (especially graphics), specialty databases

More Information Those Dark Hiding Places Robert J. Lackie, Librarian, Rider College Invisible Web: What It Is… Joe Barker, University of California, Berkeley Libraries

Periodical Databases Examples - Biosis Previews, CompendexWebBiosis PreviewsCompendexWeb Created by humans, usually subject experts Index a defined discipline and a finite set of published resources (mainly journals, but may include books, conference proceedings, etc.) Both the databases and the materials indexed cost money Article DatabasesArticle Databases page on InfoDome

Fulltext Journal Collections Examples - Elsevier ScienceDirect, JSTORElsevier ScienceDirectJSTOR Pay per view or subscription Created by humans, sometimes OCR Collections usually based on a publisher’s offerings Searching is very deep, but restricted to a “narrow” viewpoint

Data Collections Examples - GenBank, PDBGenBankPDB Raw data Created by experts, sharing their results Usually run by government entities Generally free

Hybrids Examples - Scirus, EntrezScirusEntrez Mixes of fulltext, web documents, and/or raw data Mix of free and fee materials Two different approaches Single database with multiple resource types Single search interface that searches multiple databases

Methods of Searching Follow the citations (“Breadcrumbs”) Subject searching in a database or two or three… Cited reference searching Ask an expert

Follow that Trail! Start with one or few known articles, etc. Track down the material in their bibliographies And continue the process from article to article

Database Searching Searching by topic, author, species, etc. in one or more databases General Search Techniques Be specific, especially if searching in a fulltext database Boolean logic Boolean Searching on the Internet, Laura Cohen, Univ at Albany LibrariesBoolean Searching on the Internet, Phrase or adjacency searching

Database Searching Truncation Ecolog* retrieves ecology, ecologies, ecological No standard symbol Field searching Limits Language, gender, format, etc.

More Information InfoPeople Search Tools Chart Carole Leita, InfoPeople Project Help pages on almost all databases

Cited Reference Searching Examples - Web of Science, Highwire PressWeb of ScienceHighwire Press Trace research forward in time from a specific reference Very powerful tool, but somewhat limited by human mistakes

Get It! Many databases provide links to the online versions of the journals OpenURL standard If database doesn’t have links The PAC SDSU Periodicals List

And if we don’t have it? Inter-Library Loan / Document Delivery Overnight - 3 weeks depending on Material format Delivery method

Help! InfoDome ResearchResearch - How to get helpHow to get help Librarians Anne Turhollow