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ENG 102

ENG 102. Finding Information. 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 Web Information Searching The Invisible Web

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ENG 102

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  1. ENG 102 Finding Information

  2. 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 • Web Information • Searching • The Invisible Web • Evaluating what you find

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

  4. Searching Electronic Databases And The Web Too

  5. 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

  6. 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”

  7. 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 Lexis-Nexis) . For example: • “child*” would include: child, children, childhood, childproof, etc.

  8. Searching More Than Just KeywordsField Limiters • Field limiters allow you to specify your search within varied parameters for example: • Only full-text articles • Only peer reviewed publications • Limit your search to just the titles, abstracts, the full-text, etc. of an article • Date (or date range) • A specific periodical title (or source) • Author

  9. Electronic Databases at the Mercer Library

  10. 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.

  11. Electronic DatabasesIn General • Over 30 databases available • Not every article is available full text though many are • Abstracts (summary) is often available when full text is not

  12. Electronic DatabasesIn General • Accessible at any computer on the MCCC/JKC campus network • Most are available off campus, need to request a password. An e-mail address is required to obtain a password. • Can print/e-mail/download articles

  13. Broad/General Coverage Databases • EBSCOhost - Academic Search Premier • Broadest of the databases covering everything from science to the humanities including many scholarly 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

  14. Subject Specific Databases • A number of subject specific databases are available covering: • business • art • architecture • criminal justice • education • mortuary science • more • Many contain full-text articles

  15. Non-periodical Databases.. • Literature Resource Center- Reviews, criticisms, and biographical info on a number of authors and their works. • AP Photo Archives - Photograph collection • eBooks from netLibrary- 1,800+ books available to browse & checkout electronically. • 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)

  16. Searching the World Wide Web and Evaluating What You Find Brought to you by… &

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

  18. 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 “invisible web” is huge! • Though there has yet to be consensus, estimates put the size of the invisible web between 2 and 500 times bigger than the “visible” (or surface) web.

  19. 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.)

  20. Searching the World Wide Web Search Engines & Meta Sites • Search Engines: • There are many search engines out there. Yahoo! and Google are two of the most popular. • You may others exist that you may want to try such as: Alta Vista, Alltheweb, Infoseek, & Lycos • Meta search sites (like Ask Jeeves, Dogpile): • Allow you to search more than one search engines at a time. • 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

  21. Sample Web Search • Topic - Censorship in the field of Radio, NOT Television • Try search in: • Google (note Google’s “cached” feature) • MSN

  22. The Invisible WebWhy is so much being missed? • When using a search engine, you are searching a database that represents what is known to be on the web • Spiders or crawlers roam the web from link to link generating this database • Works extremely well for static all text pages in the HTML language • The problem arises when pages are ever changing or not in HTML

  23. So where is all of this stuff hiding? • By far, a great amount is contained in databases (both paid and free) • Other places include: • Non-text information such as photos or audio • PDF formatted documents • Very new web pages • Password only access information

  24. Finding the invisible stuff • The key is knowing when you need “invisible” information and then where to find it. • Not every web search requires looking in the invisible web. • Search engines work best when looking for a narrow, focused topic.

  25. Some helpful invisible websites • www.lii.org - searchable annotated directory of Internet resources • www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm - Direct Search, large listing of free databases • infomine.ucr.edu [NO www] - good for searching academic information • completeplanet.com [No www] blend of database, directory, & search engine information. • www.firstgov.gov - search federal government sites

  26. Evaluating Web Sites Is this stuff any good?

  27. Now Back to Our “Sponsors” &

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

  29. 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?

  30. Evaluating Web SitesThe Home Page • Search engines may put you out of context, go the home page to help evaluate the site • A good home page will include contact information such as phone numbers and street addresses (not just an e-mail address)

  31. Evaluating Web SitesSite Extensions The extension can help evaluate information • .gov - Governmental sites • .edu - Educational institution sites • .com - Commercial sites • .org - Not for profit organization sites • .mil - Military sites • Others are being creates that are less clear cut, e.g.: .net or .co.uk

  32. Evaluating Web SitesOther Considerations • Watch out for information that is positioned to sell you something. • Altered web pages (either by accident or maliciously) • Links to other web sites DOES NOT necessarily mean that the site is credible. Evaluate each site separately.

  33. 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…

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