ENG 101

Finding Information

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

• A few things to consider when using the web

Finding books in the libraryThe online 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)

Finding things in the libraryLibrary of Congress system

• Unlike school and public libraries, the MCCC uses the Library of Congress (LC) system.

• The LC is an alphanumeric system – For example: PN 1991.2 .W65

• You can search for materials by:– Title– Author (last name first)– Subject– Keyword

Link to the catalog is on the library’s web pages.

Searching Electronic Databases

…and the web too

Starting An Electronic SearchKeywords

• 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 Lexis-Nexis) .

For example:• “child*” would include: child, children,

childhood, childproof, etc.

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

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 DatabasesIn 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 DatabasesIn General

• Accessible at any computer on the MCCC/JKC campus network

• Most are available off campus, need to request a password.

• Can print/e-mail/download articles

Broad/General Coverage Databases

• EBSCOhost - Academic Search Premier– Broadest of the databases covering everything

from science to the humanities– includes both general interest &

scholarly/professional journals– Not every article full text– Need Acrobat Reader for some articles

• Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis) - News– Large collection of newspaper information from

around the US, nearly all full text

More Databases• A number of subject specific

databases are available covering:– business– art– architecture– criminal justice– education– mortuary science– more

• Many contain full-text articles

Even more databases• New York Times Historical Newspaper – Articles from

1851 – 2000

• Literature Resource Center - Reviews, criticisms, and biographical info on a number of authors and their works.

• AP Photo Archives - Photograph collection

• Biographies Plus - Biographical information of noted people in a wide range of fields.

• Oxford English Dictionary

• Encyclopedia Britannica

• College Source Online - College catalog info (Only avail. At W.W. Library)

Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals

Different publications targeted to different

audiences

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

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!

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.)

Searching the World Wide Web Search Engines & Meta Sites

• Become familiar with your search engines features:– http://www.infopeople.org/search/chart.html– http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/– http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Int

ernet/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

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 Criteria1. 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

Now let’s visit a site…