Information Literacy: How to Access, Evaluate, and Use Information Effectively & Efficiently

Colleen D. Anderson, Reference Librarian, Bryant UniversityContact: canderso@bryant.edu, phone: 401-232-6299

Spring 2009

Learning Goals

After this lecture, you should know:

• How to use the HELIN library catalog to locate books, journals, & DVDs

• The differences between library databases and the Internet and when to use each

• How to search efficiently using Google and Google Scholar

• How to evaluate information retrieved from the Internet

• The difference between a trade journal, newspaper, news journal, and academic journal

• Where to find library databases and the different types of databases by subject

• How a database index is arranged and effective search strategies

• How to search for an article and view or export the article citation in MLA or APA style format

• What tools are available to you for managing citations and creating bibliographies

Exercises

During this class, you will be asked to:

Locate a book held by another HELIN library and request the book using a HELIN request.

Sign up Bryant as your library preference in Google Scholar and locate an article or book on the topic of gun control written by Bryant Professor, Gregg Carter.

Use the Journals List to find out which database (s) carries the full text of particular publication.

Locate an article using Proquest Business Databases and view the article citation in APA format.

Locate a listing of articles on a particular topic in Academic Search Premier and export the article citations.

The HELIN Library Catalog

• Use the HELIN library catalog to locate books, government documents, journals, DVDs, and videos.

• Bryant is part of the HELIN consortium, a consortium of Rhode Island academic libraries. As a Bryant student with a working library barcode, you can request books from other HELIN libraries and have them delivered to the Access Services desk at the Krupp library. It will take approximately 3 days for the books to arrive, and you will be notified by email when the books are ready for you.

• Once you have located one book on your topic, look at the full cataloging record for the book and browse the Library of Congress subject headings. You can click on these subject headings to link into more information on your topic.

The HELIN Library Catalog

Click here to search for journals, DVDs, and videos

Click here to search by author , title, etc.

Exercise #1: the HELIN Encore Library Catalog

Search for the book The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce. What HELIN library holds the 2004 edition of this book in their collection? What LC Subject link would I use if I want to locate more books providing criticism on works by Joyce?

Go through the process of requesting the book; however, please do not make the final submission!

The Internet vs. Library Databases

Some Differences

The Internet

Randomly organized information

No standardized review process by editors, publishers, and librarians

Unsophisticated search and export features

Much credible information requires payment

Library Databases

Well-organized information

Information reviewed by editors and publishers and selected by librarians

Sophisticated search and export features

Information subscribed to by the library and made available as part of tuition payments to the university.

Google

Myth: Google is always bad to go to for information used in class papers and projects.

Truth: Google can be a very useful tool for locating CERTAIN types of information.

Google is very effective for locating the following:

**Cartoon by Mike Lynch taken 7/3/2007 from Mike Lynch Cartoons at

http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

• a stock price• current news• the company PR department• government data

Searching Google more effectively

Use the Advanced Search feature!

Holds together search phrases

.gov limits to government sites;

.edu limits to educational sites

Searching Google more effectively

What’s Google Scholar?? scholar.google.com

Google Scholar is Google’s response to a demand for an easily searchable repository of scholarly materials.

Content in Google Scholar includes: Content is from:• Peer-reviewed papers - academic publishers• Theses - professional societies• Books - preprint repositories• Abstracts and articles - universities & other scholarly organizations

On-campus users at participating schools will see links in Google Scholar search results which facilitate access to their library's resources. These links lead to the library's servers which, in turn, direct patrons to the full-text of a desired article which may be available free via a database in their library.

(see: Google Scholar Library Links:http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/librarylinks.html)

How to set your preferences to link to Bryant library holdings

Click on Scholar Preferences

How to set your preferences to link to Bryant library holdings

Type in Bryant University and click on Find Library

Exercise #2: Finding a scholarly book or article on gun control

You have a paper to do for sociology, and you have selected to research and report on gun control. You know Gregg Carter, a sociology professor at Bryant, has written extensively on this topic. Using the advanced search features of Google Scholar, find a book or article written by Professor Carter that will be useful for writing your paper. Is the book available in Bryant University’s library?

Evaluating Internet Information

Some criteria to evaluate internet information:Domain name:Does the domain indicate a government site (.gov), an educational site (.edu), an organizational site (.org), a company site (.com) or an individual’s site (look for a personal name following a ~ or %). Is this an appropriate site to search for the type of information you need?

About Us:Read the “about us” or “about” or “who we are” tab. Does the group or organization provide their mission statement? Why does the site exist?

Author Credentials:

Look for the author of the information. Does he/she have credentials posted? Does the author possess credentials that give him/her authority to speak on the topic?

Site Sponsor:

Look for the sponsor of the site. Does the sponsor have a bias? Are they open about their bias? Does the site use inflammatory or discriminatory language?Facts and Additional References: Are facts and additional references on the topic provided by the author? Timeliness:When was the site last updated? When was the document you are using written and/or updated?

Different Publications – Different Purposes

Articles from the library may be available in print or electronically through one of the library databases. The articles reside in one of the following types of publications:

Trade JournalsCover particular industries and include industry news, ratings and rankings, interviews of industry leaders, etc. Trade journals are a good source to use when conducting a company/industry analysis or looking for an industry forecast.

Peer-Reviewed Scholarly JournalsPublish articles written by scholars and reviewed by a jury of peers. These articles include, but are not limited to, original research with data. Peer-reviewed scholarly journals are a good source to use when writing a research paper in the humanities, business, or the social sciences.

NewspapersReport on the news of the day and also include commentary and editorials.Newspapers are a good source to use when looking for current political or economic news or when following the news on a particular company.

News JournalsPublished monthly or weekly, report on the news for a particular subject area. For example, Forbes and Fortune report on business news; the Economist reports on world events and economics. News Journals are a good source to use when writing a report on science, political science, economics, or business; any paper where you need to be updated on recent events.

Publication Examples

A Trade Journal:use when researching an industry

Peer-reviewed academic journal: use to locate scholarly research

A Newspaper: Use to locate daily news

A News Journal: Use to locate news occurring within a particular subject area

Information content located in library databases

Articles from scholarly journals Located in Proquest databases, EBSCO databases, and subject-based databases

Articles from trade journals, news journals, and newspaperslocated in EBSCO, Proquest, and Lexis/Nexis databases

Articles focused on particular subject areas (e.g., literature, psychology)Located in subject specific databases such as : Gale Literature Resource Center, PsycInfo & PsycArticles, EBSCO Communication & Mass Media Complete,

EconLit, etc.

Country Information Located in ITDN, EIU Country Commerce, Internet Securities Emerging Markets

Company Data Located in Hoovers Academic, Mergent Online, and Mergent Horizon

Overviews of Contemporary Topics Located in CQ Researcher and Opposing Viewpoints

Selected library databases by content type

Articles on General Topics

Academic Search Premier

Proquest Research Library

News Articles on Companies

ProquestEBSCO Business Source

PremierLexis/Nexis

Articles on Literary Works

Gale Literature Resource CenterMLA International Bibliography

Articles on Psychology

PscyInfoPsycArticles

Company Data

Mergent OnlineMergent HorizonHoovers Academic

Industry Information

IBISWorldS&P NetAdvantageHoovers AcademicPlunkett Research Online

Articles on Communication

Communication & Mass Media Complete Proquest Psychology Module

Articles on “Hot” Topics

CQ ReseracherOpposing Viewpoints

Country Information & Data

CountryWatch in Ebsco

EIU Country CommerceITDNISI Emerging MarketsMergent Country Reports

To locate more library databases by subject area, go to:

The Journals List

Use the Journals list link to locate the full text of a particular journal or newspaper. The journals list will point you to the database that carries the full text of a publication.

Exercise #3: locating the full text of a newspaper or journal

• What database(s) carry the full text of the Wall Street Journal Eastern Edition?

• What database (s) carry the full text of College Literature? What dates are available full text?

How database indexes are arranged

Library databases contain thousands of full text articles students can retrieve using any of the following search limits: author, title, keyword, subject, company name, etc.

Each article retrieved has a corresponding “record” for it in the database. If you look closely at some of these records, you will see descriptors (word tabs that describe the article), listed at the top and side of the screen.

You can use the Advanced Search feature in a particular database to make your searches more exact by using these descriptors.

Use the Basic Search features to run searches where there is limited information on your topic. Use the Advanced Search features where there is a wealth of information on your topic and you want to narrow your search to find exactly what you need.

Basic Search Protocols

ConnectorsUse AND to limit your results to documents that include both terms.

Use OR to expand your results to retrieve documents with either term or both terms included in the document. This is an excellent search to run if there are synonymous terms for your search term.

Examples: AIDS or Acquired immune deficiency syndrome

cars or automobiles

“insurance industry” or “financial services industry”

Use AND NOT to exclude a term from your search.

Example: adults AND NOT (children or adolescents)

Use Truncation to pick up variant endings of a search term. This is most commonly represented by:* or ! Example: wom* to pick up woman or women; human* to search humans or humanize, etc.

Be careful using subject search!!

Running a subject search is often a very effective way to locate information on a particular subject. The subject search provides a way to create a search using an authoritative list of subject terms created by indexers. The subject term describes the content of the article. Using the subject search feature can ensure that you locate articles containing synonymous terms for the same concept. If you choose to run a subject search, be careful to verify your subject to make sure your term matches the term being used by the indexers.

Use the browse subjects link to verify your subject term when using Proquest. Use the subject terms thesaurus to verify your subjects when using the EBSCO

databases.

Exercise #4: Use the Advanced Search feature in Proquest

Run an advanced search in the Proquest Business Databases to locate a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that discusses Hasbro’s attempts to save its rights to the game Scrabble. What popular game played on Facebook is Hasbro claiming infringed on the company’s copyright and trademarks?

Look at the “cite this” icon located in the yellow strip at the bottom of the page. Click on this icon to view how to create the citation to this article for your paper’s bibliography or works cited page.

Exercise #5: Use the Advanced Search Feature in PsycInfo

Run an Advanced Search in PsycInfo database to locate articles on the subject of obsessive compulsive disorder. Mark the first 3 articles and then click on the Folder View and print or email the article citations.

Tools for Managing citations and building a works cited page

For quick formatting of one article, book, or document, go to:

Citation Machine at http://www.citationmachine.net/

For storing citations, inserting in-text citations, and automatically creating a bibliography for a particular paper, use the References tab located in Microsoft Word 2007.

EndNote is a bibliographic manager that lets you create folders for individual papers and projects and use these folders to store bibliographic citations. You can export citations from Proquest and EBSCO databases into EndNote. With EndNote you can also automatically create in-text citations and bibliographies.

Sign up for a workshop on managing citations using EndNote!

Librarians Have Answers!