Starting Your Research

Anthropology 306Library Instruction

Fall 2002

What is the assignment?

Paper, Presentation, Annotated Bibliography?

Due date – when is the last date for ILL? Citation Style? APA? MLA? Types of publications?

Basic Search Strategies: Sources Available

Does your topic cover recent events or research? Newspapers, magazines, journals or the Internet are the

best sources.

Do you need current, general information? Try a popular magazine.

Do you need current, in depth information? Try a scholarly journal.

Do you need an overview? Try an encyclopedia, handbook or dictionary

Do you need something more detailed? Try a book on the subject

Types of Periodicals:Scholarly Journals Articles must go through a peer-review or

refereed process.

Scholarly/academic articles that are read by academic or scholar "referees" for advice and evaluation of content when submitted for publication. Referees recommend to the editor/editorial board whether the article should be published as is, revised, or rejected. Also sometimes know as "peer-reviewed" articles.

Articles are usually reports on scholarly research.

Articles use jargon of the discipline.

Popular Magazines and Newpapers

Authors are magazine staff members or free lance writers.

Authors often mention sources, but rarely formally cite them in bibliographies.

Individual issues contain numerous advertisements. There is no peer review process. Articles are meant to inform and entertain. Illustrations may be numerous and colorful. Language is geared to the general adult audience

(no specialized knowledge of jargon needed).

Evaluating Print Resources Every book, periodical article, or other resource should

be evaluated to determine its quality and its relevance to your topic and the nature of your assignment.

Use the criteria below to help you evaluate resources.

Authority Content & Coverage Timeliness Accuracy Objectivity

Evaluating Internet Resources

Types of Web Sites: the url is a key

.gov

.edu.org.com

AuthorityContent & CoverageTimelinessAccuracyObjectivity

World Wide Web sites come in many sizes and styles. How do you

distinguish a site that gives reliable information from one that gives

incorrect information? Below are some guidelines to help.

Internet Resources vs. Surfing the Web Internet Resources include:

Internet accessible databases and journals Use a Web interface Usually require subscription

Exception: ERIC Wizard Equivalent to print indexes and journals Authoritative and reliable

Surfing the Web: Use free search engines

E.G.: Yahoo, Google, HotBot Critical evaluation required

Anyone can put up a Web page! Evaluating Web pages (

http://library.csun.edu/mwoodley/Webeval.html)

Use Databases to Find Resources Books – online catalog

CSUN Library Online Catalog Articles – index, abstracting

service, or full-text database Find Articles and More

Web pages – search engines Internet Search Tools

Basic Search Strategies: Words to Search by Jargon Keyword Controlled vocabulary – Subject

words/phrases

Key Words Controlled Vocabulary

Basic Search Strategies: Putting concepts together

“English mathematician who helped establish modern symbolic logic and whose algebra of logic, now called Boolean algebra, is basic to the design of digital computer circuits. “

Boolean Operators:and, or, not"Boole, George" Encyclopædia Britannica http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=82823

[Accessed August 18, 2002]. George Boole, 1815-1864

Basic Search Strategies: Putting concepts together

Boolean operator and

Venn diagrams serve as a visual expression of the Boolean operations

Indians gambling

Basic Search Strategies: Putting concepts together

Boolean operator or

burials

Basic Search Strategies: Putting concepts together

Boolean operator not

Indians gambling

casinos

and

not

Truncation Symbol used at the end of a word to retrieve

variant endings of that word. Allows you to search the "root" form of a word

with all its different endings. Broadens or increases search results.

For example: bank* will retrieve: banks, banking, bankers, bankruptcy

However: cat* will retrieve cat, cats, but also cataclysm, catacomb, catalepsy, catalog, etc.

Use OR instead: cat or cats Databases and Web search engines use different

symbols to truncate. Check “Help”to find the correct truncation symbol.

Wildcards Some databases allow for wildcards

to be embedded within a word to replace a single character. For instance, in InfoTrac, you can also use ? within a word to replace a character. For example:

comp???tion retrieves composition, competition, computation, etc.

wom?n retrieves woman, women

Searching Tips

Journal Titles: Look in Online Catalog to see if we own Subject access: very broad subject headings

Book Titles: Look in online Catalog to see if we own Subject access: general terms that describe

the book as a whole Articles

Titles: Look in indexes and full-text databases to find titles of articles

Subjects: specific for the article

DatabasesPopular Government ScholarlyLexis-Nexis Lexis-Nexis American History

(index)

Ethnic News FirstGov Anthropological Index

Academic Search Elite BIA Anthropological Literature (index)

Expanded Academic ASAP

eHRAF

ABI Newstand JSTOR

Academic Search Elite

Expanded Academic ASAP

Contact Information

Mary S. Woodley mary.woodley@csun.edu 677-6302