Finding & Using Information from the MCCC Library Martin J. Crabtree MCCC Library

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 Some things to consider when using the web

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, the “R” section is medicine. –RB37.3: Medical laboratory technology as a profession –RC : Infectious and parasitic diseases –RC121.A6: Anthrax

The link to the catalog is on the library’s web pages. 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.

Medical Laboratory Technology Periodicals at Mercer Journal of Laboratory & Clinical Medicine Laboratory Medicine Medical Laboratory Observer

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 60 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/ /download articles

Getting to the databases Use the library quick link at mccc.edu to get to the library’s homepagemccc.edu Go to the “Online Databases & Search Engines” link (in the left column) of any of the library’s web pages.

Databases with useful information CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)– One of the premier databases for medical field information. Drawback many articles aren’t in full-text.CINAHL Health Source: Nursing Academic Edition – Less comprehensive thanHealth Source: Nursing Academic Edition CINAH but still contains many scholarly journals in much more than just nursing.

Some of these databases may be helpful too Biomedical Reference Collection MEDLINE Nursing & Allied Health Collection

Let’s look at some of the databases Topic: BotulismBotulism

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 searches the entire web The “invisible web” is huge! Though there has yet to be consensus, estimates put the size of the invisible web between 2 and 500 times bigger than the “visible” (or surface) web.

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.)advanced search

Searching the World Wide Web Search Engines & Meta Sites Become familiar with your search engines features: – – – net/SearchEngines.htmlhttp:// net/SearchEngines.html Meta search sites (like Ask Jeeves, Dogpile): –Allow you to search more than one search engines at once. –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

The Invisible Web Why is so much being missed? 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: –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 best when looking for a narrow, focused topic.

Some helpful invisible websites – The Centers for Disease Control & Preventionhttp:// - searchable annotated directory of Internet resourceswww.lii.org - Direct Search, large listing of free databaseswww.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm infomine.ucr.edu [NO www] - good for searching academic informationinfomine.ucr.edu completeplanet.com [No www] blend of database, directory, & search engine information.completeplanet.com - search federal government siteswww.firstgov.gov - MLT Resource Guide from the MCCC Libraryhttp://

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

Five Evaluation Criteria 1.Accuracy - is it reliable? 2.Authority - is author qualified on subject? 3.Objectivity - is the information biased? 4.Currency - is the information “new” enough? 5.Coverage - does the info completely cover the topic? Search engines may put you out of context, go the home page or the “about us” page to help evaluate the site

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

Let’s take a look at a website…

Still people can get fooled…

Now let’s try out the databases…