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Navigating MCCC Library: Finding Information Effectively

Learn to search for books, periodicals, and electronic databases through the MCCC Library. Understand keywords, Boolean searching, and evaluating sources. Access vital resources easily!

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Navigating MCCC Library: Finding Information Effectively

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  1. PSY 101 Finding Information Martin J. Crabtree MCCC Library November 16, 2004

  2. Agenda • Finding books • The College’s Card Catalog • Library of Congress vs. Dewey System • Periodicals, scholarly vs. popular • Electronic Searching • Keywords & Boolean Searching • Electronic Databases at Mercer • What’s a database? • Databases available through Mercer Library • Accessing the databases • Web Information • Searching • The Invisible Web • Evaluating what you find • Your turn to do some searching

  3. Using The 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) • You will need to have your student ID card to borrow books or use the library’s computer lab

  4. Finding Books • Unlike school and public libraries, MCCC uses the Library of Congress (LC) system. • The LC is an alphanumeric system, for example • BF1-990: psychology • For the book Elementary Principals of Behavior the call number is: BF319.5.O6 M34 1997

  5. The link to the catalog is on the library’s web pages.

  6. Periodicals Periodicals include: scholarly journals newspapers Magazines Periodicals represent the bulk of published scholarly information. The library has a number of periodicals available in print, on microfilm, and especially via electronic databases. The library staff can help determine if a specific periodical is available from the library.

  7. Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals Different publications targeted to different audiences

  8. 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

  9. 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 Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals

  10. Searching Electronic Databases And The Web Too

  11. 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

  12. Starting An Electronic SearchBoolean 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”

  13. Searching More Than Just KeywordsPhrases & 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 example: • psychol* would include: psychology, psychologist, psychological, etc.

  14. Electronic Databases at the Mercer Library

  15. 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.

  16. Electronic DatabasesIn General • Over 40 databases available • Not every article is available full text though many are • Abstracts (summary) is often available when full text is not

  17. Electronic DatabasesIn General • Accessible at any computer on the MCCC & JKC campus network • Most are available off campus, need to request a password (forms available after this class). • Can print/e-mail/download articles

  18. Getting to the databases • Use the library quick link at mccc.edu to get to the library’s homepage • Go to the “Online Databases & Search Engines” link (in the left column) of any of the library’s web pages.

  19. Databases with psychology information • PsycINFO – One of the oldest and largest collections of article citations. Some articles date back to 1887. Many articles are NOT available full-text. • PsycAtricles- Collection of full-text articles (these articles are also a part of PsycINFO). Some need Acrobat Reader to view. • EBSCOhost - Academic Search Premier - Broad collection covering many subject areas. Not every article full text, some need Acrobat Reader to view

  20. Searching the World Wide Web How can I find what I want?

  21. Some things to consider when searching the web • Everything is NOT on the web and may never be. • No search engine covers the entire web. • The quality of the information on the web varies greatly.

  22. Searching the World Wide Web Search Strategy • Searching the Web is much like database searching: • Put together a list of keywords describing the information you desire • Use Boolean logic (and, not, or) to better define your search, use double quotes for phrases, etc. • When searching the web, also: • Consider which search engines/sites may best suit your search needs. Different search engines yield different results. • Use the search engine’s “advanced search” to select limiting parameters (language, date, domain, etc.)

  23. Evaluating Web Information Is this stuff any good?

  24. Evaluating Web Sites • Quality varies greatly from site to site • YOU are the sole evaluator of the quality of information a site provides

  25. Five Evaluation Criteria • Accuracy - is it reliable? • Authority - is author qualified on subject? • Objectivity - is the information biased? • Currency - is the information “new” enough? • 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

  26. 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

  27. Using the information you find ...and giving credit where credit is due.

  28. Using the Information You Find • Always give credit to the author or creator of the information that you use. • This includes not only the actual facts, conclusions, and ideas that an author presents but also the words that he/she has used.

  29. Plagiarism can take many forms • Plagiarism, the presenting of someone else’s intellectual work as your own. • It may be done deliberately, but it may also be done without your realizing it. • The copying, word for word, from a book or an article is the most blatant form of plagiarism.

  30. Plagiarism when paraphrasing or writing a summary • Incomplete paraphrasing or summarizing another’s work could cause plagiarizing without your realizing it. • To prevent this, you should avoid: • Using the original sentence structure. • Simply substituting a few words here and there. • Using any of the author's key words or unusual words. • Let’s look at an example...

  31. Good paraphrasing • It takes some effort to do a good job of paraphrasing. • One helpful method is to: 1. Read the original sentence 2. Without looking at the sentence, try writing the idea of the sentence in your own words 3. Look back at the original sentence again to see it you haven’t used too much of the original language -Adapted from “Avoiding Plagiarism”, at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia webpage: http://www.usip.edu/writing/plagrsm.shtml

  32. Giving credit to the authors you use • There are a number of formats you can use to cite the resources in your paper. • The APA and MLA styles are two of the most frequently used formats. • Both style manuals are available at the library: • The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed. at: BF76.7.p83 2001 (in the reference collection). • MLA handbook for writers of research papers at: LB2369.G53 2003 (in the reference collection & at the circulation desk).

  33. Both manuals are not online though there are places that can help • For the APA style try: http://www.psywww.com/resource/apacrib.htm • For the MLA style try: http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocMLA.html

  34. Now it’s your turn to get some information…

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