PSY 101 Finding Information Martin J. Crabtree MCCC Library
November 16, 2004 Slide 2 Agenda Finding books The Colleges Card
Catalog Library of Congress vs. Dewey System Periodicals, scholarly
vs. popular Electronic Searching Keywords & Boolean Searching
Electronic Databases at Mercer Whats 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 Slide 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. (DVDs not
available from MCL) You will need to have your student ID card to
borrow books or use the librarys computer lab Slide 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 Slide 5 The link to the
catalog is on the librarys web pages. librarys web pages. Slide 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. Slide 7 Scholarly vs. Popular
Periodicals Different publications targeted to different audiences
Slide 8 Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals 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 Slide 9 Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals
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 Slide 10 Searching Electronic Databases And The
Web Too Slide 11 Starting An Electronic Search Keywords 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 Slide 12 Starting An Electronic
Search Boolean 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 Slide 13
Searching More Than Just Keywords Phrases & 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. Slide 14 Electronic Databases at
the Mercer Library Slide 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. Slide 16 Electronic Databases In 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 Slide 17 Electronic Databases In 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
Slide 18 Getting to the databases Use the library quick link at
mccc.edu to get to the librarys homepagemccc.edu Go to the Online
Databases & Search Engines link (in the left column) of any of
the librarys web pages. Slide 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.PsycINFO PsycAtricles- Collection of
full-text articles (these articles are also a part of PsycINFO).
Some need Acrobat Reader to view.PsycAtricles EBSCOhost - Academic
Search Premier - Broad collection covering many subject areas. Not
every article full text, some need Acrobat Reader to viewEBSCOhost
- Academic Search Premier Slide 20 Searching the World Wide Web How
can I find what I want? Slide 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. Slide 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 engines advanced search to select limiting parameters
(language, date, domain, etc.) Slide 23 Evaluating Web Information
Is this stuff any good? Slide 24 Evaluating Web Sites Quality
varies greatly from site to site YOU are the sole evaluator of the
quality of information a site provides Slide 25 Five Evaluation
Criteria 1.Accuracy - is it reliable? 2.Authority - is author
qualified on subject? 3.Objectivity - is the information biased?
4.Currency - is the information new enough? 5.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 Slide 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 Slide 27 Using the information you
find... and giving credit where credit is due. Slide 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. Slide 29 Plagiarism can take many forms
Plagiarism, the presenting of someone elses 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. Slide 30
Plagiarism when paraphrasing or writing a summary Incomplete
paraphrasing or summarizing anothers 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. Lets look at an example... Slide 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
havent 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
Slide 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). Slide 33 Both manuals are not
online though there are places that can help For the APA style try:
http://www.psywww.com/resource/apac rib.htm
http://www.psywww.com/resource/apac rib.htm For the MLA style try:
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/ DocMLA.html
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/ DocMLA.html Slide 34 Now its
your turn to get some information
