1. Information Sources for English 3323: Technical Writing Kevin Drees Engineering Librarian Created June 2004 Updated March 2005 drees@okstate.edu Edmon Low Library Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK KD 6/04

2. Content of this instruction:  Critical thinking skills  Keyword vs. subject search  Information Cycle: scholarly vs. non-scholarly material  Primary vs. secondary sources  Subscription databases from Library via the web vs Web search engines  Knowledge base of the library  Discipline/Subject Specific Databases  Format  Article,  technical reports  government documents  Availability (Print/Electronic)  Subject experts

3. Disciplines  Business/Financial  Engineering  Agriculture

4. Formats  Articles  Technical Reports  Government Documents

5. Availability  Electronic  Print  Note: using both the print and electronic will increase the odds of finding useful information and better “composite sketch” of the topic, company, or industry

6. Critical Thinking – deciding about how to search and what types of sources to use – driven by audience analysis.  1. Keyword vs. subject search  2. Information Cycle: scholarly vs. non- scholarly material  3. Primary vs. secondary sources  4. Subscription databases from Library via the web vs Web search engines

7. Critical Thinking –  1. Keyword vs. subject search  keyword search –  Synonyms: targeted, exact, specific Example: company name  subject search – use when keyword fails.  Synonyms for subject search: classification, category, broadened searching Example: industry, product type

8. Critical Thinking –  2. Information Cycle:  Analysis increases along the cycle  scholarly vs. non-scholarly material  Web (scholarly/non-scholarly) vs subscription database (scholarly except for news accounts)

9. Critical Thinking –  3. Primary vs. secondary sources  preference of primary source materials over secondary Primary source material: the article, speech, etc., verbatim – a good approach to get exactly what was said Secondary source material A summary someone wrote by looking at the primary source. May contain an analysis in the context of the discipline.

10. Critical Thinking –  4. Subscription databases from Library via the web vs Web search engines  Understanding the distinction

11. Knowledge Base  Subject Specific Databases  Business/Financial  Engineering  Agriculture  Format  article,  technical reports  government documents  Availability (Print/Electronic)

12. Business/Financial  Goal: to increase your searching ability in business and financial sources  keyword search –  company name  Subject search –  Industry  Product type

13. Electronic  Hoover’s  Factiva  Business Source Elite  ProQuest Direct  Edgar

14. Print  D & B Million Dollar Directory –  NAICS (North American Industrl Class. System) 2000  SIC (Standard Industrial Class.) Manual  Standard and Poor’s Register – Corporations  International Directory of Company Histories

15. Print cont. – definitely consult:  Value line investment survey.  Stand & Poor’s Industry Surveys  Oklahoma Manufacturers Register  Oklahoma Directory of Manufacturers and Processors  D & B Regional Business Directory

16. Summary - Business/Financial  keyword (specific) vs subject (category) searching  Subject searching  Value line investment survey – composite stats  S&P Industry Survey – many tables and graphs  Articles – description of the industry or the company itself  Further assistance – Librarians, reference desk.

17. Engineering  Electronic  Compendex  EBSCO  Acad Search Elite  ASTA (Applied Science and Technology)  Biological Abstracts (multiple years)  Medline  INSPEC  IEL (IEEE Electronic Library)  Science Direct  Web of Science

18. Agriculture  Electronic  ASAE (American Society of Agricultural Engineers)  CAB Abstracts  EBSCO  Agricola - compiled by the U.S. National Agricultural Library (NAL)  Biological Abstracts (multiple years)  Biological & Agricultural Index  USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) www.usda.gov

19. Technical Reports - defined  Are written to convey new developments or final results of scientific and technical research.  Are usually funded by government departments or corporate bodies.  Deliver technical information to the funding organization.  Provide a forum for peer information exchange.  Anne Graham, Barker Engineering Library, MIT, grahama@mit.edu,grahama@mit.edu http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/types/techreports/definition.htmlhttp://libraries.mit.edu/guides/types/techreports/definition.html, Accessed August 14, 2004

20.  The most important resources for locating tech reports and other info produced by the Government for this technical writing course.  Library Catalog  Regular search  Limited to gov docs  Science.gov –  site searches 30 Government agency databases and makes use of 1700 agency selected websites pertaining to science.  May not be able to pull the full text from this source. Contact Gov Docs  Gov Docs Dept – 5 th Floor of Library  Gov Docs Librarians  Print vs electronic over date ranges  Identify agencies relevant to your topic Tech Reports - locating

21.  NTIS http://www.ntis.gov/  All (nearly) government publications are available from NTIS (National Technical Information Service)  OSU Gov Docs will request the item in Microfiche – take the NTIS record (abstract and other data) to Gov Docs- 2 weeks- patron photocopy the mf copy

22. Government documents - defined  a record of activities of government’s numerous agencies, regulatory bodies, and departments  content ranging from agriculture to zoology and impact on all academic disciplines.  Authorship by agency, a unique classification system, and a variety of output formats often confound users,  Primary source materials readily available from government sources include verbatim testimony obtained from congressional hearings and environmental impact statements.

23. Government Documents – identifying relevant materials  Search the following in this order  Library Catalog  Regular search  Limited to gov docs  GPO Access  from the OSU Library Indexes and Databases Page  GPO Monthly Catalog  from the OSU Library Indexes and Databases Page  Google UncleSam  from the OSU Library Indexes and Databases Page  Gov Docs Dept – 5 th Floor of Library  Gov Docs Librarians  Print vs electronic over date ranges  Identify agencies relevant to your topic

24. Government Documents  Primary source material:  Example: Congressional hearings appear  Congressional LexisNexis – via Indexes and Databases page. Science.gov – www.science.govwww.science.gov Thomas - (legistative information on the Internet http://thomas.loc.gov/ http://thomas.loc.gov/  Secondary source material  Example: search for Congressional hearings in a source with major newspapers like New York Times –  ProQuest

25. How can I tell it is a Gov Doc  A government agency: EPA, etc  Found the publication in the “GPO Monthly” (Catalog of US Gov Pubs)  http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgp/index.html http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgp/index.html  Call numbers in Gov Docs 5 th floor Libr  SuDocs (slashes and colons)  Jackson numbers (3 letters)  OSU catalog limited to Gov Docs on the limit tab _____________________________  Exception to the above – sometimes non-Gov publisher items are placed in Gov Docs _

26. Government websites via agency or service  Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov/ http://thomas.loc.gov/  Catalog of US Gov Pubs http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgp/index.html http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgp/index.html  EPA www.epa.govwww.epa.gov  Science.gov www.science.govwww.science.gov  NTIS (National Technical Information Service) www.ntis.gov/ www.ntis.gov/  USDA (US Dept of Agriculture)  www.usda.gov www.usda.gov  Dept of Labor http://www.dol.gov/http://www.dol.gov/  Business stats

27. Summary  Search respective databases & print sources  subject (category) searching as well as Keyword (specific)  Locate primary sources as needed  Visit Gov Docs – Library, 5 th Floor