SOC201 - Tools & Resources for Finding Useful Info Martin J. Crabtree MCCC Library October 2005

Agenda Selecting your topic & writing a thesis statement Finding books Periodicals Inter-library Loan: Getting things from other libraries Review electronic searching –Keywords, Boolean searching, truncations, & field limiters Electronic databases from the library –What’s availably for sociology –Accessing the databases Searching the Web –A few things to consider when using search engines –The Invisible Web –Thinking about the quality of the web info you find Formatting your paper & giving credit to your resources – APA format

Selecting a topic & writing a thesis statement

Finding Books Using The Card Catalog The catalog is available online. Used to find books, videos and other material in the MCCC collection (not periodicals). You will also find items available at the Mercer County Public (MCL) libraries. You can request that materials from MCL be brought to the college. Deliveries arrive Tuesday and Friday afternoons. (DVD’s not available from MCL) 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.

Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals Scholarly Purpose is to inform the scholarly world of original research in a given field Has a serious format Contains many graphs & charts few photos Regularly uses footnotes and bibliographies Written by scholars or researchers Popular/General Interest Purpose is to inform, entertain and/or sell to a wide audience Attractive/slick appearance Frequently uses photos and a few graphs & charts Rarely uses footnotes or bibliographies Written by staff or freelance writers

Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals Scholarly Uses the terminology and jargon of the subject, assumes reader knows it Published by professional or educational organizations Contains little if any advertising Examples: Annals of Microbiology, Journal of Abnormal Psychology Popular/General Interest Rarely uses subject terminology or jargon, when used, contains explanation Published by commercial enterprises for profit Extensive inclusion of advertisements Examples: Newsweek, People, Psychology Today

Following the citation trail… Most journal articles have a bibliography at the end of them. This is a list of the books, articles, websites, etc. that the author used in preparing the article These citations can be VERY helpful in your research.

Following the citation trail… Say you find a really great journal article Check out the citations at the end of the article. The author of the article may have already done some of your research for you! This list of items (focused on the topic of the article) will likely have more useful things for your research.

PANIC! The library doesn’t have what I want! OR Using inter-library loan to get needed materials

It’s not in the library, not full-text in the database… now what? The library can get what you need. We will find a library that has the item you need and arrange for it to be sent to Mercer for you to use (if a book), or get you a copy (if an article). All you have to do is ask…

Using inter-library loan (ILL) Three steps to ILL 1.Search the Mercer County [public] Library holdings via the college’s online catalog & place a hold. 2.Search Jersey Cat to find & request materials statewide online.Jersey Cat 3.Place an ILL request in person or online. The library will search internationally for the item you want. Note: This ILL request form is only for a specific book or article.ILL request Go to the Inter-library Loan link on any of the library’s web pages for links to JerseyCat and the on-line ILL request formInter-library Loan

So how long does will it be ‘til I get my items? Generally it takes 2-3 weeks to get materials in. Often, items come in earlier but we can’t guarantee this. Extremely rare/unique items can take longer.

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.

Searching More Than Just Keywords Field Limiters Database field limiters allow you to specify your search within varied parameters for example: –Only full-text articles –Only peer reviewed/scholarly journals –Limit your search to just the titles, abstracts, the full-text, etc. of an article –Date (or date range)

Let’s take a quick look at how Boolean searching can help

Electronic Databases at the Mercer Library

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. Can print/ /download articles

Some of the databases EBSCOhost - Academic Search Premier –Broadest of the databases covering everything from science to the humanities including many scholarly journals –Not every article full text –Need Acrobat Reader for some articles

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 “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: – – – hEngines.htmlhttp:// hEngines.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

Sample Web Search Search – "linear algebra" eigenvector* "search engine" Try searching in: –Google (note Google’s “cached” feature)Google –AltavistaAltavista

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 - 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 - BUBL Link, listing of internet resources covering “all academic subject areas”

Evaluating Web Sites 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?

Evaluating Web Sites Home Page & Site Extensions Search engines may put you out of context, go to the home page or “about us” page to help you evaluate the site. The site 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

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

Formatting your paper & giving credit to the authors you use There are a number of formats you can use to format your paper and cite the resources you have used. You will be using the APA (American Psychological Association) style. The latest APA manual is available in the library: –The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed. at: BF76.7.p (in the reference collection & on reserve). The manual is not available on line. For more help with the APA style, go to: – (click on APA) –