MAT208 - Tools & Resources for Finding

Useful Info

Martin J. Crabtree

MCCC LibrarySeptember

2005

Agenda• Finding books• Periodicals• Inter-library Loan: Getting things from other

libraries• Review electronic searching

– Keywords, Boolean searching, truncations, & field limiters

• Accessing electronic databases from the library• Printed indexes• Searching the Web

– A few things to consider when using search engines– The Invisible Web– Thinking about the quality of the web info you find

Finding BooksUsing The Card Catalog

• The catalog is available online. Used to find books, videos and other material in the MCCC collection (not periodicals).

• You will also find items available at the Mercer County Public (MCL) libraries.

• You can request that materials from MCL be 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.

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.

Following the citation trail…

• Most journal articles have a bibliography at the end of them.

• This is a list of the books, articles, websites, etc. that the author used in preparing the article

• These citations can be VERY helpful in your research.

Following the citation trail…

• Say you find a really great journal article• Check out the citations at the end of the

article. • The author of the article may have

already done some of your research for you!

• This list of items (focused on the topic of the article) will likely have more useful things for your research.

PANIC! The library doesn’t have what I

want!

OR

Using inter-library loan to get needed

materials

The MCCC library has many resources available but…

• There will be times when the book or article that you need is not in the MCCC collection.

• When this happens, you can use the library’s inter-library loan (ILL) service.

• The MCCC library can get you practically any resource that you need.

Three steps to finding materials that are NOT in the MCCC Library’

collection

1. Search the Mercer County Public Library (do not use for periodicals)

2. Search statewide on-line using JerseyCat3. Have the MCCC library search worldwide

for what you need

Searching the Mercer County Public Library

• As mentioned previously, you can request materials from MCL on-line through the catalog

• Materials from MCL arrive at the college on Tuesday & Friday afternoons

So the Mercer County Public Library doesn’t have what I

want.

What’s my next step?

JerseyCat is the next step

• JerseyCat is a consortium of over 55 academic and public libraries in New Jersey.

• JerseyCat is accessible via the world wide web.

• You can search the catalogs of participating libraries and request the item right on line.

• You can search for both books and periodicals.

Link to JerseyCat appears in the left column of all library webpages

You’ll be taken to the library’s ILL policy page, click on JerseyCat link at

bottom

Let’s look at JerseyCat

JerseyCat doesn’t have it either…

Now What!

Place an ILL request with the MCCC Library

• In person at the library– Fill out an ILL request form.

• On line – http://www.mccc.edu/student_library_ill_for

m.shtml

So how long does will it be ‘til I get my items?

• Generally it takes 2-3 weeks to get materials in.

• Often, items come in earlier but we can’t guarantee this.

• Extremely rare/unique items can take longer.

Searching Electronic Databases

And The Web Too

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

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”

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:

• “child*” would include: child, children, childhood, childproof, etc.

Searching More Than Just Keywords

Field Limiters• Database field limiters allow you to

specify your search within varied parameters for example:– Only full-text articles– Only peer reviewed/scholarly journals– Limit your search to just the titles,

abstracts, the full-text, etc. of an article– Date (or date range)

Let’s take a quick look at how Boolean searching can help

Electronic Databases at the Mercer Library

Electronic DatabasesIn General

• Over 60 databases available• Not every article is available full text

though many are• Abstracts (summary) is often

available when full text is not

Electronic DatabasesIn General

• Accessible at any computer on the MCCC/JKC campus network

• Most are available off campus, need to request a password.

• Can print/e-mail/download articles

Some of the 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

• Many are subject area specific:– Business– Nursing– Criminal justice– Mortuary Science– More

Using the indexes

• Indexes help to supplement what is available electronically

• These books list articles by subject in a given year.

• They only list the citation for the articles.

• Helpful indexes:– Applied Science & Technology– General Science Index

• Indexes are available in the library

Searching the World Wide Web

How can I find what I want?

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.

Searching the World Wide Web

Search Strategy• Searching the Web is much like database

searching:– Use keywords and Boolean logic (and, not, or) to

better define your search, use double quotes for phrases, etc.

• When searching the web, also consider:– Different search engines yield different results.

You may want to try using more that just your “regular” search engine

– Use the search engine’s “advanced search” to select limiting parameters (language, date, domain, etc.)

Searching the World Wide Web Search Engines & Meta Sites

• Become familiar with your search engines features:– http://www.infopeople.org/search/chart.html– http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/– http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/

Internet/SearchEngines.html

• Meta search sites (like Ask Jeeves, Dogpile):– Allow you to search more than one search engines

at once.– 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

Sample Web Search• Search – "linear algebra"

eigenvector* "search engine"• Try searching in:

– Google (note Google’s “cached” feature)– Altavista

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

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

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.

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.

• http://bubl.ac.uk/ - BUBL Link, listing of internet resources covering “all academic subject areas”

• http://www.mccc.edu/~greenbay/ - The MAT 208 webpage has a link to more resources

Let’s pause for a bit for some TV

Evaluating Web Sites

Is this stuff any

good?

Evaluating Web Sites

• Quality varies greatly from site to site

• YOU are the sole evaluator of the quality of information a site provides

Five Evaluation Criteria1. 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?

Evaluating Web SitesHome Page & Site Extensions

• Search engines may put you out of context, go to the home page or “about us” page to help you evaluate the site.

• The site 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

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