MAIN OBJECTIVE

• The main objective of this

tutorial is to teach you how

to conduct a library search

• Through this tutorial, you will

gain basic information literacy skills

This Tutorial covers:

• HOW TO DO THE PRELIMINARY PREPARATION

• HOW TO SELECT THE RIGHT E-RESOURCE(S)

• ADVANCED SEARCH TECHNIQUES• HOW TO EVALUATE THE SEARCH R

ESULTS• HOW TO CITE THE USED MATERIAL

S

Preliminary Preparation

means:

• Choosing your topic

• Defining your requirements

• Finding background information

• Refining your topic, if needed

Choosing your topic

• Sometimes choosing a topic is the biggest hurdle in doing research

• Begin with:Remembering your course

readings/class discussionsReviewing current periodicalsChecking reference sources

What are your information requirements?

• Try to answer the following questions: What kind of assignment do you have to complete? How much time do you have to complete your

research? How much information do you need? What types of publications do you need?

• Analyse your assignment to determine the type, quantity and format of information you will need

Finding Background Information

• Before using e-resources, locate and read short articles that will give you a broad overview of the topic

• These articles can be found in encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, etc., which are also called reference sources

Source: McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Sci. & Tech.

General Encyclopedias & Dictionaries (1)

• Encyclopedias are sets of books containing articles on various topics covering all branches of knowledge

• Dictionaries are books giving information on particular subjects or on a particular class of words, names, or facts

General Encyclopedias & Dictionaries (2)

• They direct you to more specific sources

• To locate them in the Library, do a subject heading search for “encyclopedias and dictionaries” in the Library catalog

• Examples: Encyclopedia Americana, Encyclopedia Britannica

General Encyclopedias & Dictionaries (3)

To find them, go to the Library’s homepage and do a subject heading search for “encyclopedias and dictionaries” on the WebOPAC

Subject-Specific Encyclopedias

• Subject-specific encyclopedias provide detailed articles written by experts in the given field. They cover all aspects of one subject

• To locate them, do a subject heading search in your area of interest

• For instance, “Economics encyclopedias” retrieves 5 different encyclopedias in the catalog

• Examples: Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics, Mc-Graw Hill Encyclopedia of Economics

Almanacs

• Almanacs are annual reference books of useful and interesting facts in different areas

• To locate almanacs, do a subject heading search for “almanacs” and select the suitable one

• From this search you can find 8 different almanacs

• Examples: Wall Street Journal Almanac, World Almanac

Where are These Sources Located in the Library?

• General encyclopedias, dictionaries and almanacs are located in the Atrium on the ground floor

• Subject-specific materials are distributed to different floors by subject (e.g Business Administration- 2nd floor). Please check the call number

• If you encounter any problem, please consult the reference librarian responsible for the concerned

collection

HOW TO USE THESE SOURCES MOST EFFECTIVELY?

• While reading the articles, take notes of distinct and unique words to be used as keywords in your query

• For every source that you are interested in, write down the author, title and publication information

• Locate the publications listed in the bibliography at the end of the articles

Selecting keywords/search terms

Topic: World War 2

Q: How did the World

War 2 influence

Japanese people?

Kw: World War 2,

Japan, Hiroshima

Topic : Attack at WTC

Q: What are the effects of the terrorist attack at WTC on the US economy?

Kw: World Trade Center, September 11th, US economy

Narrowing a Topic

If your query retrieves too many hits:• Use AND & NOT as operators• Using AND between your search terms

means that both terms must appear somewhere in the record

• Example: AIDS and South Africa It retrieves sources containing information

that pertains to AIDS in South Africa

Broadening a Topic

If your query retrieves very few or no hits:• Use OR as operator• OR enables you to enter other

keywords that may also be used to describe your topic

Example: AIDS or HIV or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

• Using OR between your search terms means that at least one of the terms must appear in the record

Boolean Operators

Operator ExampleSearch

The searchwill find...

Venndiagram

AND TV andCensorship

itemscontaining"TV" and"censorship"

OR TV or movies itemscontainingeither "TV"or "movies"or both

NOT TV not movies itemscontaining"TV" but not"movies"

AND & NOT:

Narrows a search, resulting in fewer hits

AND & NOT:

Narrows a search, resulting in fewer hits

OR:

Broadens a search, resulting in more hits

OR:

Broadens a search, resulting in more hits

How to Select the Right E-Resources

Selection of the right article database depends on:

• The subject area of your topic• The types of sources needed• Your level of knowledge of the topic• Date of publication of the articles needed• Format of the article (full text, full image,

abstract, etc.)

Subject Area of your Topic (1)

• Which subject area is appropriate for your topic?

Topic Focus Narrower focus

Subject Area

Database

Drugs Drug abuse and genetic

factors

Gene & environment correlation

Medicine Medline(Abstracts)

Drugs Drug Education Peer pressure and drugs

Psychology PsycInfo (Abstracts)

Drugs Drugs and Employment

Economic effects of addicted

employees

Business ABI/Inform(Proquest)

(Full image&Abstracts)

BSP(Ebscohost)

(Full image&Abstracts)

Subject Area of your Topic (2)• Once you have determined which subject

area is appropriate for your topic, look at the list of 31 online databases available at http://www.library.ku.edu.tr/search-online-database.shtml

• The list has been organised alphabetically as well as by subject

• Short descriptions and user manuals of these databases are provided by the vendors from databases’ websites

Types of Sources Needed

There are three types of databases:

1. General Interest / News Article Databases

2. Discipline-Based Article Databases

3. Subject-Specific Article Databases

General Interest/News Article Databases

They contain a mixture of popular magazines, daily newspapers and fewer scholarly journals

Examples: Facts on File (EBSCOhost) (Information) Newspaper Source (EBSCOhost) (Full

Image)

Discipline-Based Article Databases

They cover the subject fields within the disciplines of Science, Arts & Humanities or Social Sciences

Examples: Institute of Physics Publications(IoPP) Business Source Premier

(EBSCOhost) (Full Image & Abstracts)

Subject-Specific Article Databases

They cover a specific subject area and

have highly scholarly coverage

Examples: ERIC (Education and related disciplines) Engineering Village – 2 (Engineering) PsycINFO (Psychology and related

disciplines)

Dates of Publication of the Articles

• Most online article databases began in the early 1980’s

• If you are doing a retrospective/deep literature search, some of these databases will be of limited help

• However, PsycINFO for example, has been indexing since 1887

• JSTOR provides complete backsets for covered journals from the first issue published until the last 3-5 years

Level of Knowledge of the Topic

If you are new to your topic:Look for articles in easy-to-understand

language. Those found in general interest databases use common terms

Articles in discipline-based databases usually have less jargon

Articles in subject-specific databases assume that users have some background knowledge of the subject and often use special language

Hints for Searching

• If your search terms do not return enough hits, try using Boolean operators with other terms

• Use complete and specific words for your search

• Always check your spelling• Use synonyms in your search to find

articles on the same subject using different terminology

Advanced Search Techniques

OPERATOR EXAMPLE WHAT IT FINDS

WITHIN Education W/5

Internet

One word must be within a specified number of words of another word.

NOT WITHIN Mississippi NOT W/3 OF RIVER

One word must NOT be within a specified number of words of another word.

PRECEDED BY European PRE/2 Community

One word must precede another word by a specified number of words

WITHIN DOC Basketball W/DOC Michael Jordan

Two Words must appear in the same article

Adjacency Operators

Combining Boolean Operators and Adjacency Operators

Operators Example What It Finds

OR and WITHIN Trend w/5 (Internet OR Web)

Articles on Internet trends and web trends.Using OR will broaden the search, but using WITHIN limits the search

AND NOT and

WITHIN DOC

Java AND NOT coffee W/DOC Sun

Articles about Sun's Java technology, but not articles on growing coffee. Using AND NOT and using Within Doc both limit the search.

OR and

PRECEDED BY

Military policy PRE/1 (U.S. OR American)

Articles covering US military policy as well as articles referring to American military policy.

AND and NOT WITHIN Herniated disc AND spinal cord NOT W/5 lumbar

Articles about spinal cords AND herniated disks in the cervical and thoracic regions of the spine, but not the lumbar region.

Truncation

• Use the truncation character ? to find articles containing several words with the same root

Example: Type educat? to find "educator“, "educators“, "educated“, "educating“, "education“, and "educational”

Wildcard Character

• Use the wildcard character * in the place of characters in your search terms, when more than one letter is likely to fit that space

Example :Type educat** to find articles containing "educator" and "educated."

Note: This search will not find "education", which follows "educat” with four letters rather than two

Nesting

Nesting enables you to combine several search statements into one search. Use parentheses to clarify the relationship between the combined search terms.

E.g. Architecture and (Istanbul or Constantinople)

combines “architecture” with either “Istanbul” or “Constantinople”

Evaluation of the Search Results

Criteria to consider when evaluating the search results are:• Quantity• Diversity (Variety)• Date of Publication• Quality and Reliability• Additional Resources

Quantity & Diversity

Quantity

Enough resources are

needed to:

• Support your argument • Include a variety

of viewpoints and

materials

Diversity

Include many different resources• Primary Sources Contemporary accounts of an eventand original documents Examples: letters, newspaper articles• Secondary Resources Retrospective sources based on primary resources; include scientific or scholarly analysis Examples: books, editorials

Quality and Reliability

Some factors to think about whenassessing the quality and reliability of apublication are:

• What is the tone? • Who is the intended audience? • What is the purpose of the publication? • What assumptions does the author make? • Does the content agree with what you know or

have learned about the issue?

Additional Resources

Does the source provide other leads?

Documentation (i.e. footnotes and bibliography)

• Provides additional resources • Substantiates the author's research

Evaluating Web Pages

When evaluating web pages, check these issues:

Authority (Who wrote/maintains the page?)Purpose/intended audienceCurrency of the dataObjectivity vs. BiasSupport

Web Page Checklist (1)

Authority• Look for the author’s name or a copyright credit

() or link to an organization• Look for bibliographic information about the

author• Look at the domain name(.com-

commercial, .edu-education, .gov-government, .org-organization etc)

• (~) means a personal site (www.home.ku.edu.tr/~ayilmaz.html)

• Look for contact information

Web Page Checklist (2)

Purpose / Intended Audience• What is the purpose of the page?• Who is the target audience?Currency• Is the information up-to-date?• To find whether the web page is up-to-date,

one way is to click on ”View” then “Page Info” in Netscape for “Last modified” information

• Is the author being objective or biased?

Web Page Checklist (3)

Support• Does the author support the

information that s/he uses?• Is the support respectable?• If checking support is hard to make,

be suspicious!

Comparison of the Contemporary Materials

You can also find what you are looking

for in these contemporary materials: Scholarly Journals Substantial News General

Interest Periodicals Popular Magazines

Scholarly Journals

• Articles in scholarly journals are written by scholars or researchers in the field, discipline or speciality

• Purpose is to inform, report or make available original research

• Published by professional organizations

Examples: Harvard Business Review

American Journal of Sociology

Substantial News General Interest Periodicals

• They are written for an educated, general audience either by the magazine’s staff, a scholar or free-lance writer

• They provide general information to a wide, interested audience

• Published by commercial enterprises for profit

Examples: Fortune,Time

Popular Magazines

• Written by the publication’s staff or free-lance writers for a broad based audience

• Designed to entertain or persuade people

• Published for profitExamples: Reader’s Digest Sports Illustrated

How to Cite the Used Materials?

• Copying and paraphrasing statements from a source and using them without proper use of quotation and citation is plagiarism

• Proper citation is important to avoid plagiarism and to give author’s credit for their work

• There are two commonly used style formats, APA and MLA style formats

APA Style

• Established by the American Psychological Association

• Preferred by most of the disciplines in the social sciences

Example: Book by Two or More Authors Cone, J. D., & Foster, S. L. (1993). Dissertations

and theses from start to finish: Psychology and related fields. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

• To learn how to cite other types of sources, look at www.apastyle.org

MLA Style• Established by the Modern Language

Association• Preferred by most of the disciplines in the

humanitiesExample: Book by Two or More Authors Cone, John D., and Sharon L. Foster.

Dissertations and Theses from Start to Finish: Psychology and Related Fields. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1993.

• For other other types of sources look at www.mla.org

Please feel free to consult Reference librarians at any stage of your research

for further help.

THANK YOU