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RWS 508 - Scientific Writing Anne Turhollow Library & Information Access Spring 2004
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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
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Types of Information Fact Basic / Background Practical / How to Research Formal vs. Informal
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From Jim Parrot, Librarian, University of Waterloo Flow of Research Information
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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
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Domains of Information Fee Free Proprietary
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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
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Indexes and Databases Search Engines Periodical Databases Fulltext Journal Collections Data Collections Hybrids
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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
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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
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More Information Best Search Tools InfoPeople Project Finding Information on the Internet University of California, Berkeley Libraries
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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
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More Information Those Dark Hiding Places Robert J. Lackie, Librarian, Rider College Invisible Web: What It Is… Joe Barker, University of California, Berkeley Libraries
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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
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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
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Data Collections Examples - GenBank, PDBGenBankPDB Raw data Created by experts, sharing their results Usually run by government entities Generally free
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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
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Methods of Searching Follow the citations (“Breadcrumbs”) Subject searching in a database or two or three… Cited reference searching Ask an expert
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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
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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
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Database Searching Truncation Ecolog* retrieves ecology, ecologies, ecological No standard symbol Field searching Limits Language, gender, format, etc.
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More Information InfoPeople Search Tools Chart Carole Leita, InfoPeople Project Help pages on almost all databases
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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
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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
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And if we don’t have it? Inter-Library Loan / Document Delivery Overnight - 3 weeks depending on Material format Delivery method
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Help! InfoDome ResearchResearch - How to get helpHow to get help Librarians Anne Turhollow 619-594-4921 c.turhollow@sdsu.edu
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