1. The Big Picture: Navigating the Sea of Scholarly Information
Textiles Graduate Seminar
Honora N. Eskridge
September 20, 2006

2. Information Discovery
What is research?
Changing expectations
What kinds of research do you do in graduate school?
Literature reviews:
Journals
Conferences
Citation trails (Web of Science).
Patentability.
Product development (marketing/business data).
Physical data and chemical properties.

3. Flow of Scholarly Information
Which literature types do you use the library to find?
Which library tool do you use for each type of literature?

4. What We’re Going to Focus on…
The role of journal articles in communication between researchers.
Economics of scholarly information – Why can’t Google get you everything you need?
Article discovery
Article access
Managing information

5. Web Search Engines – Yahoo!, Google, Lycos, etc.
World Wide Web – Millions of web pages!
This is the surface of the Web

6. The Deep Web Web Search Engines
World Wide Web – Millions of web pages!
Web pages containing search tools
The Deep Web

7. Silos of Information Web Search Engines $ $ free! $ free! $ $ free! $
World Wide Web – Millions of web pages!
Web pages containing search tools (DATABASES)
Silos of Information $ $
free! $
free! $ $
free! $ $ $
free!

8. Compare looking for research articles to finding and buying an airline ticket
Searching Google doesn’t work – you have
to select the right type of database (Expedia, Travelocity).
The database is free – ads pay for it.
Discovery. You are now searching a database for a specific
document – the right ticket.
Now you choose the best document for your needs,
in this case the best flight.
Access means buying the ticket.
The ‘document’ costs money!

9. Searching Google doesn’t work well – you have
to select the right type of database (Compendex, Inspec).
The database costs money – no ads! The library pays for it.
Discovery. You are now searching a database for specific
documents – research articles.
Now you choose the best document(s) for your needs,
in this case an IEEE article.
Now you determine if the library owns this article
Access occurs because the library bought the journal.
The ‘document’ costs money!

10. Discovery and Access are separate functions
Discover citation in database:
-Proof document was published.
Access to document is available only because:
-The library bought the journal the article appears in.
-Proof NCSU owns document.
-The Library bought it.
Discovery and Access are separate functions

11. Economics of Scholarly Info
Academic Information is a BIG BUSINESS
The players:
Scholars Writing
Publishers Packaging/Selling
Database (index/abstract) companies Discovery/Selling
Libraries Access/Buying
Big Money!
NCSU Elsevier subscriptions.
These factors directly influence what you can read and use in your research!!

12. Important Databases for Textiles
World Textiles
Textile Technology Index
Business Source Premiere (TATM)
Lexis Nexis Academic (TATM)
Compendex (TE)
Web of Science (TECS/TATM)
Scifinder Scholar (TC/PCC)
PubMed (Medical Textiles)

13. Article Discovery

14. Managing Information Managing Information Learn how to
Set up alerts for new journal articles
Use Refworks
Use RSS (depends on your field)
We can teach you how to manage your information
More efficient and more organized = more productive.

15. Contact Information
Honora N. Eskridge
Head, Textiles Library and Engineering Services
Scott Warren
Assistant Head, Textiles Library and Engineering Services