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Safari: Section 6: Organising information of 30

Copyright © 2014 The Open University

Safari

Section 6: Organising information

The Safari website has now been updated to provide links to more up-to-date

information and activities on digital and information literacy.

This document contains the original content of the website. Please note that this is

several years old and only provided here as a reference. Some of the material may

be out-of-date.

This document will not be updated. At the time of publication, all links were checked

and working.

For more up-to-date material, please refer to the OU Library Being digital website.

Being digital is a collection of short, easy to follow activities. They cover the skills

we all need to be effective online, whether it’s searching efficiently, critically

evaluating information, communicating and sharing online, or selecting the right

online tool for your needs.

Being digital can help you develop essential skills for study, work and lifelong

learning.

http://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/resource/node:97934&f=27689



Contents

Safari .......................................................................................................................... 1

Section 6: Organising information .............................................................................. 1

Topic 1: Introduction ............................................................................................... 4

Topic 2: Why organise? .......................................................................................... 5

Activity ................................................................................................................. 5

Activity: Incomplete sources ................................................................................ 7

Some ‘golden rules’ ............................................................................................. 9

Topic 3: Ways to organise .................................................................................... 10

Sue .................................................................................................................... 10

Sandra .............................................................................................................. 11

Matthew ............................................................................................................ 11

Topic 4: Social bookmarks .................................................................................... 12

Setting up folders in Internet Explorer 8 ............................................................ 12

Setting up folders in Mozilla Firefox 31.0 .......................................................... 12

Scenario ............................................................................................................ 13

Topic 5: Citing references ..................................................................................... 14

Activity: Why cite? ............................................................................................. 14

When do I need to cite? .................................................................................... 15



A final comment about citations ........................................................................ 18

Topic 6: Bibliographies ...................................................................................... 19

Activity: Finding a book ..................................................................................... 19

Activity: Finding a journal article and referencing a web page .......................... 20

Referencing the web ......................................................................................... 22

How should my references look? ...................................................................... 23

Activity ............................................................................................................... 23

Tool to help you................................................................................................. 27

Activity: Writing a reference list ......................................................................... 28

Topic 7: Summary ................................................................................................. 30

Activity: Reflection and action plan.................................................................... 30



Topic 1: Introduction

This section should help you to:

understand the importance of organising your own information;

identify some of the systems available;

describe how to use bookmarks/favourites for web resources;

understand how and why to cite references in your work;

produce a bibliography.

This section will be especially useful to you if you are involved in project work or

longer TMAs (Tutor Marked Assignments).

NB – If you plan to complete all the activities in this section you will need to allow

between one and two hours to finish everything. Some activities will require you to

use paper and pen to make notes or record your thoughts.



Topic 2: Why organise?

Our Science post-graduate student, Mary, has identified lots of sources to help her

with her assignment on GM foods and feels she is almost ready to write it.

However, as she has been sifting through the pile, she has discovered some

puzzling things amongst the materials she has collected in her file.

Activity

You will be presented with three examples of how Mary has recorded her sources on

GM foods. For each example identify any issues Mary might encounter, if she wants

to use them for her assignment. Makes some notes on your thoughts. There is a

discussion after the third example.

Example 1

Mary has written the following in her notebook:

“Chapter five assessing the risks

from 1989 report – good background stuff

Quote "During the course of our study a number of authoritative reviews have

been published of the risks associated with the release of GEOs. These

include a statement by committees of the International Council of Scientific

Unions and reports by the United States National Academy of Sciences..."

* Page 38 Quote "A release licence should be required before a release may

take place." Licences should be issued by …”



Example 2

Mary has photocopied two pages from a book or a journal. When the item was

photocopied, the contextual information (title, author, source and page numbers)

were missed off.

Example 3

Mary has written the following on a scrap of paper:

“Swiss launch law on genetically modified food.”

Discussion

Example 1

We think that these must be some notes that Mary has made about one of the

sources she's looked at – there's even a good quote, flagged up as important

– but there's no indication of the title of the book or journal article in which she

found it. She thinks these might be notes made from one of the books she

found when she made a special trip to the university library. The notes look

really useful. She thinks the book could have been by Smith, but she can't

quite remember the title.



Example 2

We think this looks like a photocopy of a journal article, but it isn't a very good

one because the photocopier has cut the name of the journal and the article

title off the top. Mary remembers being in a bit of a hurry when she made this

copy, and didn't think to check that it had worked properly before heading off

from the library.

Example 3

We think this is part of a reference – it could be a reference to a book or a

journal article, there isn't really any clue, and it could be the title of a chapter

or journal article, or a quote. Mary can't remember why it was so important.

Activity: Incomplete sources

Think about all these incomplete sources and the problems is Mary likely to run into

if she wants to use them in her assignment. What should she have done differently?

Make a note of your thoughts and then go to the next page to see our comments.



Discussion

The table below provides some suggestions.

Problem How you can avoid this problem

Mary has incomplete references, so she

will be unable to quote from these in her

assignment, or add them to her reference

list.

Make a note of all relevant details e.g.

author, title and date when you are

reviewing resources so that you can

acknowledge your sources appropriately

in your own work.

This will also help you to find other works

by the same author.

She hasn’t got sufficient information to be

able to track down where she originally

found them e.g. from which book,

database etc.

Make a note of when and where you got

the information from, e.g. local library.

That way you can track back your steps if

you need more details later.

Her photocopy is incomplete; bits have

been cut off the copy.

When copying, check that you haven’t

cut off parts of the page, e.g. chapter

title, pages numbers etc. Also make sure

that the full reference is written on it

somewhere even if you have to do this

by hand at the time you find it.

Table 1: Ways to avoid incomplete sources



Some ‘golden rules’

You need to remember to record the following information.

WHAT you find – journal article/book chapter etc.

WHEN you find it – date

WHERE you find it – place: publication title (e.g. Journal of Animal Research)

as well as physical location (e.g. University library)

WHO created it in the first place (author, editor etc.)?

Like Mary, you will probably be gathering information from a wide variety of sources.

You will need to keep track of what you have got, where you found it, and what it

was about in order that you can incorporate it into your work.

However, doing this isn't just about physically organising the bits of paper you

gather, it's about organising yourself too. This might mean planning ahead to ensure

you have the right information at the right time. For example you may need to apply

some time in advance for a book via interlibrary loan (for a book that isn't in your

local library), in order to make sure that you get hold of it in time for when you are

going to need it. Keeping track of what you've ordered and when, and what you still

might need to get hold of is tedious but essential.

Systematically keeping track of what you've got or what you've had, and recording

information about your information, will ensure that you don't have to retrace your

steps, can cite references accurately, and provide an accurate bibliography at the

end of your project. Being organised in the way you approach your information is

ultimately going to save you the one thing that you may not have a great deal of as

you get to the point of completing your assignment – TIME!



Topic 3: Ways to organise

In order to investigate ways of organising information we asked some of our OU

friends and colleagues about the methods they use. All of them are doing modules

that require them to write quite lengthy TMAs or projects but they all have different

ways of organising the information that they need to complete these assignments.

Sue

“I keep photocopies of what I've read in a box file. I used to keep a separate

list on my word processor of everything that was in the file but it was too much

effort to keep it up to date. I find it just as easy to make sure that the reference

is written on the top of my notes, and the notes are clipped to the photocopy,

if I made one. I did try storing the articles in alphabetical order by who'd

written them, but that made it more difficult to find things again – I tend to

think in terms of topics, rather than who wrote what, so the articles tend to be

filed alongside other articles on the same subject.”

Brian

“I keep all my lecture notes and articles in binders, with file dividers, according

to what topic they're on. That way everything is in the right place for when I

come to revise for the exams or write the assignments.”



Sandra

“I put web pages, ejournals and online stuff into my social bookmarks. I use

delicious as it's quite simple to use, and I can access it from any PC

connected to the internet. I like the social aspect of seeing who else has

tagged sites I use, as it can lead to me to find new stuff for my studies.”

Matthew

“I use RefWorks to organise all my references. It’s really useful because some

of the key databases in my subject allow me to export records straight in

RefWorks, and it works with Google Scholar too. This saves me having to

manually type things in. I use it to create my bibliographies automatically.”

We can't tell you which system to use – everybody's preferences will be different,

particularly when it comes to deciding between paper and computerised systems.

However, we think that paper-based filing systems are fine for most undergraduate

work. If you are comfortable with computers and your work is likely to continue

beyond a single assignment, to extended essay or even Masters Level, it may be

worth looking into computerised solutions.



Topic 4: Social bookmarks

Whichever internet browser you use you will probably already have discovered the

‘favourites’ or ‘bookmarks’ features and saved some of you favourite sites. This

enables you to return to them easily at a later time. However, have you organised

them into folders? If you’ve only got a few bookmarks it's not really necessary to do

this, but once you have more than a dozen or so then you might like to try organising

them into folders according to topics.

The following instructions refer to versions of browsers that were current at the time

of writing (December 2014).

Setting up folders in Internet Explorer 8

Select Favorites (US spelling).

Select Organise Favorites from dropdown menu.

Select New Folder at the bottom of the box, to create your folder

You can now drag your bookmarks into the correct folders.

Setting up folders in Mozilla Firefox 31.0

Select the Show your bookmarks icon to the right of the URL and search

bars. (Scroll your cursor over the symbols to identify the correct icon).

Select Show all bookmarks.

Select the Unsorted Bookmarks in the left hand column.

To create a new folder, select Organise at the top of the box, and then New

folder.

You can now drag your bookmarks into the correct folders.



The downside of these kinds of’ Favorites’ or ‘Bookmarks’ is that they are based on

your own PC so if you use more than one machine for your studies or work then you

have to save copies on each machine you use.

This is where online social bookmarking tools can be really useful, as they allow you

to save your favourites to a website which you can then access from any PC

connected to the Internet. You can also add keyword tags to sites you save; this

enables you to group together items on the same subject. With the bookmarking

feature in your browser you put one site in one folder, whereas when using social

bookmarks and tagging, you can assign many different tags to the same site. In this

way, when you search through your tags, that same site can appear as a resource

within as many subject groups as are relevant.

Scenario

Our Science post-graduate student, Mary, does her studying at home, at work and in

her local library. She’s saved sites of interest onto her ‘Favorites’ on her home PC,

but this means that when she’s studying at work she doesn’t have access to these

resources. A friend has recommended that she try out Delicious, a social

bookmarking site. She can set up an account, import all her favourites into Delicious

and tag them and then she will be able to access them from anywhere. If she makes

her sites public, she will also be able to share them with her friends and her study

group by giving them a link to her page.

http://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/resource/website:99941&f=27689



Topic 5: Citing references

When you are writing an assignment, you will often find that you need to refer to the

work of other people in order to support your ideas and illustrate the arguments you

are putting forward.

Acknowledging the work of others in your writing is all part of the process of

communicating your own work to other people interested in what you have written.

This process of acknowledgement is known as ‘citing’.

Activity: Why cite?

Why do you think it is important to cite references in your work? Make a note of your

thoughts and then read the discussion below.

Discussion

Here are some of the things we thought of:

You will be recognising the intellectual input someone else has made to your

work – passing off someone else's work as your own is called plagiarism.

It shows that the points you are making in your work are supported by other

people – your arguments are stronger if you can back up what you say with

evidence.

It enables other people reading your work to find the things you have referred

to quickly and easily.

It shows your tutor not only what you have been reading but also where you

have been reading around the subject.



When do I need to cite?

Commonly known facts and dates (e.g. that World War II ended in 1945) do not need

crediting in your work. Everything else, such as quotations, statistics, or any ideas or

opinions that aren't your own, should always be cited in your work.

The extracts below are taken from students’ essays and illustrate the kinds of things

you should avoid.

Extract 1

“Although instructors may be lured by the freshness of full motion videos or

two-way conferencing, the type of instructional delivery depends primarily on

four aspects.”

It isn't obvious at first glance why this should be avoided. But if I had simply copied

this quotation and included it in my work without acknowledging that it was the work

of someone else, I would have been guilty of plagiarism

It may seem very tempting to 'borrow' ideas and words from somebody else's work,

especially if you aren't all that familiar with the subject area. But if you don't use your

own words, your writing won't 'read' all that well - people's writing styles differ, after

all. Notice how different the quotation above is from the rest of the writing on the

page you are reading now. Also, if you don't work towards expressing ideas in your

own words, it is unlikely that you'll take them in. (Quote from Dewal, Nancy (2000).

'Information literacy at a distance: instructional design issues', Journal of Academic

Librarianship, vol. 26, no.1.)



Extract 2

“It has been shown that dogs are more intelligent than cats …”

What research? Whose research?

Extract 3

“We know from the research that 95% of statistics are made up.”

How do we know? Who proved this?

If you have read academic research papers, journal articles or books, or even the

more serious articles in broadsheet newspapers, you will probably have come across

citations. There are a number of ways in which this is done and some references do

not even include direct text quotations.

Below are some examples with explanations of what they are.

Example 1

“The best advice is to experiment with a range of different search tools, and

settle on the two or three that provide you with the best results (Parker,

1999).”

This is an example of citing somebody else's idea or opinion, you are paraphrasing,

not referring to the author in the text nor directly quoting from their work but if you

didn't acknowledge their idea, it would look like it was your own.



Example 2

“However, Tim Berners-Lee, widely acknowledged as the inventor of the

World Wide Web ...”

As this is a commonly known fact, you wouldn't need to cite it in your work.

Example 3

“As Gash (2000) states, browsing the Internet can be enjoyable. Sometimes

information can be found by accident, but this can take time and the serious

searcher might find this frustrating, particularly if they are not familiar with how

search engines work.”

This is an example of acknowledging someone else's opinion directly.

Example 4

“This is further illustrated by Spender: "As there are no teachers, librarians or

sages to help you make your way around on the information superhighway,

the most common complaint is that it is too hard to find what you need."

(Spender, 1995, page xvii)”

Quotations from someone else's work should always be acknowledged.



A final comment about citations

Identifying an original author in your text is sometimes not enough to fully

acknowledge someone else's research, especially for academic work. Think back to

the snippets on the previous pages – from the information given about them in the

text would you be able to locate the sources we have referred to in your library?

Probably not. Directing your readers to the sources you have used to produce your

work is all part of the research process. Citing references in the body of your work

should go hand in hand with providing a bibliography – a list of those same

references – at the end of your piece of work. So, make sure to provide a citation

next to the opinion or idea that you have used within your written work, this will

signpost any reader to look for a full reference in the list of references at the end.



Topic 6: Bibliographies

At the end of your piece of work, you should provide a list of all the things you have

referred to in your work. These might be arranged in alphabetical order by author, or

in the order they are mentioned in your work. The convention at the Open University

is that you should call this list ‘references’.

‘Bibliography’, quite literally means ‘list of books’ – it enables you to find a book (or

journal article) in your own library, regardless of where the person who wrote the

bibliography got their original copy from. Sometimes there may be sources you have

consulted as background reading, but have not mentioned in your work – you might

like to put these in a separate list entirely, after your list of references, calling it

‘bibliography’. The rest of this topic examines the type of information that you need to

include in a bibliography.

Activity: Finding a book

Imagine you are going into a library or bookshop to look for a book. What information

do you think you might need in order to find it quickly? Make a note of your thoughts

and then read the discussion on the next page.



Discussion

You would need the following information:

the book's title

who wrote the book

who published the book

the book's ISBN number

the year the book was published

the place the book was published.

If the library or bookshop has a searchable database of books, two of these in

combination – for example, author and year, publisher and title – will enable you to

track down an item eventually. However, the key to a good bibliography is supplying

all the information, so that there are no gaps, and the detective work for your readers

is minimised. Remember that what you are trying to do is to give your readers the

opportunity to find and read the same things you have read, so you need to be as

precise as possible.

Activity: Finding a journal article and referencing a web page

Now we want you to consider two more types of information: journal articles and web

pages. For each of the questions below make a note of your thoughts, and then read

the discussion below.

Think about a journal article. What information would you need to give

somebody in order for them to find it?

Providing references to information from the World Wide Web is especially

problematic. Why do you think this is?



Discussion

We think you’d need the following information to find a journal article:

author

title

journal title

volume number

page number

issue

year of publication.

Providing information on web pages can be problematic because:

much information is transient – there one day and gone the next

it isn't always evident who the author/publisher is

web addresses change

the information given might quickly go out of date.

Referencing web–based materials is particularly challenging because of these

problems and because, more and more, important and relevant information is found

on the web. We shall look at how to reference these sources next.



Referencing the web

As we have seen, you are likely to come across several problems when referencing

information from the web. It is increasingly being recognised as a valid information

source – sometimes the sole source of certain information – but pages on the web

tend to change frequently. So, how can you describe the exact source you have

found?

One way to tackle the problem is to add to the reference the date on which you

visited the site to gather the information you used. This won't ensure that your

readers will get the same information if they look at the site another day, but it will

make your use of the source more valid – as if to say, ‘on this date the site was there

and the information I got from it was like this’.

So, a reference to something you have found on the web might look like this:

Lancaster University Computing Department, Research Schemes: Cooperative &

interactive systems [online], Lancaster University Computing Department. Available

from: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/research/advinteractivesystems.html [Accessed

January 13 2011].

Of course, there are other kinds of documents on the web too. The OU Harvard

Guide (OU login required) provides advice on referencing all sorts of materials.

http://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2620

http://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2620



How should my references look?

No matter how diligent you are about citing every source you consult, if your

references aren't presented in a systematic, consistent way, the people reading your

work are going to become frustrated when trying to track down the sources you have

used.

The trick is to adopt a suitable citation style, for the citations in the text and for the list

at the end, and use it throughout your piece of work. There is no one ‘right’ style –

many publishers and organisations have come up with rules which dictate how the

references in the text and in the list at the end are presented.

Activity

Over the next two pages you will find two versions of the same piece of text. Look

carefully at them and make a note of:

what is different

what is the same?

Then read the discussion which follows after the two versions.



Version 1: MLA

As Gash states, browsing the Internet can be fun. Sometimes information can be

found by accident, but this can take time, and the serious searcher might find this

frustrating, particularly if they are not familiar with how search engines work. This is

further illustrated by Spender: "As there are no teachers, librarians or sages to help

you make your way around on the information superhighway, the most common

complaint is that it is too hard to find what you need" (Spender, pxvii). Even when

using search engines it can be difficult to find what you need, as recent research has

shown that the majority of search engines only return 10 ‘hits’ within the first 20 on

the results list that might be relevant to the searcher (Gordon and Pathak). The best

advice is to experiment with a range of different search tools, and settle on the two or

three that provide you with the best results (Parker).

References

Gash, Sarah. Effective Literature Searching for Research. Second ed. Aldershot:

Gower Publishing Limited, 2000.

Gordon, Michael, and Praveen Pathak. "Finding Information on the World Wide Web:

The Retrieval Effectiveness of Search Engines.” Information Processing &

Management 35.2 (1999): 141-80.

Parker, Jo. Using the Internet: What's It All About? August 1999. Website. Available:

http://oulib1.open.ac.uk/wh/guides/internetguide.htm. 19 July 2001.

Spender, Dale. Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace. Melbourne:

Spinifex Press, 1995.



Version 2: Nature

As Gash(1) states, browsing the Internet can be fun. Sometimes information can be

found by accident, but this can take time, and the serious searcher might find this

frustrating, particularly if they are not familiar with how search engines work. This is

further illustrated by Spender: "As there are no teachers, librarians or sages to help

you make your way around on the information superhighway, the most common

complaint is that it is too hard to find what you need".2 Even when using search

engines it can be difficult to find what you need, as recent research has shown that

the majority of search engines only return 10 ‘hits’ within the first 20 on the results list

that might be relevant to the searcher 3. The best advice is to experiment with a

range of different search tools, and settle on the two or three that provide you with

the best results. 4

References

1. Gash, S. Effective Literature Searching for Research (Gower Publishing Limited,

Aldershot, 2000).

2. Spender, D. Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace (Spinifex

Press, Melbourne, 1995).

3. Gordon, M. & Pathak, P. Finding information on the World Wide Web : the

retrieval effectiveness of search engines. Information Processing & Management 35,

141-180 (1999).

4. Parker, J. (1999). Using the Internet: what's it all about? (Open University Library;

online at http://oulib1.open.ac.uk/wh/guides/internetguide.htm)



Discussion

The table below highlights the differences between these two examples:

Differences MLA Nature

In-text citations Represented by author

surname

Represented by a number

Reference list In alphabetical order by

author order, title is bold

and date is at the end

In numeric order, title is

italicised, publisher, place

and date are all in

brackets at the end.

Table 2: Examples comparisons

Despite all these differences, the information that builds up each reference is the

same, and would enable you to track down that source for yourself.

The choice of citation style you use is often dictated by WHO you are writing FOR –

this might be your tutor, the journal your article might be published in, or your

organisation. It also depends on your topic and how you would like your bibliography

to look. If your college or university does not specify which style you must use then

the most important thing is to choose a particular style and use it consistently and

uniformly, so that your readers get clear information.

If you would like to delve into further examples of citing references, there is a guide

on the Library's web pages.





Tool to help you

You will find that creating bibliographies can be quite a lengthy process.

Bibliographic software packages can help do this as they will create your list of

references, and the in-text citations, for you automatically. If you are using a word

processor, check to see whether it offers a referencing function (called ‘Endnotes’ in

Microsoft Word).

There are a number of freely available web-based bibliography and database

management tools. These let you create your own personal database by importing

references from text files or online databases.

CiteULike – a free social bookmarking service to help academics to share, store, and

organise the academic papers they are reading. It specialises in academic papers,

and provides specific tools for that purpose.

Mendeley – free desktop and web-based tool. Features include automatic extraction

of information from PDF documents; the facility for annotation and searching across

all content, and the option to share publicly or privately for collaboration.

Zotero – free bibliographic software. Features include automatic capture of

information from websites, formatted citation export and integration with Microsoft

Word.

If you are comfortable with computers and your work is likely to continue beyond a

single assignment, to extended essay or even to Masters Level, then we strongly

recommend that you investigate one of the free tools listed above.






Activity: Writing a reference list

You may need to refer to the OU Harvard guide to citing references for this activity

(OU login required).

Imagine you are putting together a list of references to go at the end of an

assignment. Using a pen and paper or your word processor, write down how the

following references should look when formatted for the reference list.

a) A book written by Andrew Northedge, published in Milton Keynes by The

Open University in 1990. It's called The Good Study Guide.

b) A journal article called Getting to Know the Invisible Web by C. Brian Smith,

which appeared in volume 126, issue 12, of the Summer 2001 Supplement of

the Library Journal, pages 16 to 19.

c) The Learner's Guide, a web page produced by the Open University, written by

the Learner's Guide team, which I looked at on 23rd June 2001. The URL is

http://www3.open.ac.uk/learners-guide/index.htm

When you have finished go to the next page and read the discussion.

http://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices/resource/lil:x443&f=27689



Discussion

You might not have the italics, but your references should look something like this:

Book

Northedge, A. (1990) The Good Study Guide, Milton Keynes, The Open University.

Journal

Smith, C.B. (2001) ‘Getting to know the invisible web’, Library Journal Summer 2001

Supplement, vol.126, no.12, pp. 16-19.

Web page

Learner's Guide Team (2001) The Learner's Guide [online],

http://www3.open.ac.uk/learners-guide/index.htm (Accessed 23rd June 2001).



Topic 7: Summary

In this section we have looked at how important it is to organise your information. We

also looked at the tools you might use to store your information. We practised using

social bookmarks, and started thinking about citing references and creating

bibliographies.

Activity: Reflection and action plan

Thinking about the topics we have covered in this section, write yourself a short

‘action plan’ of steps you can take and tips you can apply to your work in terms of

organising your information. What in particular are you taking away with you after

studying this section? What was new to you?

safari: organising information - open university · 2015-09-23 · setting up folders in mozilla...

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