THE PROCESS OF FINDING INFORMATION
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
After attending the library workshop students will better understand
- The importance of following a process when looking for information.
- The importance of getting an overview of financial aid before doing more in-depth research
- How to use the book catalog to find authoritative books on aspects of financial aid
- How to locate articles on aspects of financial aid within information databases
- How to avoid plagiarism by citing used sources properly
The web files associated with this handout is available at
http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/engres.htm
Today's discussion ...
- What do you need to be able to do in this library in order to complete the assignment given to you by your professor?
- How do you plan to conduct your research, sort through the information you find, select the most appropriate items, and evaluate the credibility of the materials you plan to use in your works cited sheet?
- What keywords will you use to locate the information you need?
- How many sources do you need to identify?
- What types of sources suit your topic best?
The Process of Finding Accurate Information
Finding accurate information on any topic is much easier if you follow a PROCESS in your search. A process gives you structure, and helps you organize your thinking about your topic. The paper you will write is essentially an exercise in how well you organize and present your own ideas and the ideas of others, and organizing HOW you find information for the paper will probably improve your organization OF the paper.
Here’s the process we recommend following (this handout is arranged according to this process):
1. Make sure you understand the assignment
2. Get an overview of your topic
3. Make a tentative selection of the aspect of the topic you wish to explore
4. Find more In-Depth Information: In Books, Articles, and on the Web
5. Manage the information your find
You may adapt this process as you see fit. Remember, this process is supposed to help you find accurate information needed to write your paper. As you write more papers, you will develop your own unique process for finding accurate information.
Make Sure You Understand The Assignment
This recommendation may seem self-evident, but we include this step in the process because many students just DO NOT DO IT! Instructors sometimes set specific guidelines for an assignment. Be aware of all guidelines BEFORE YOU START WORKING ON THE ASSIGNMENT.
For this assignment, your instructor will need you to fully identify the sources for all facts and ideas you mention in your paper. Plan for this at the beginning of your search by writing down the complete identifying information for every source you consult. (If you don’t do this, and then later want to use a fact or idea from a source in your paper, YOU WILL NEED TO FIND THE COMPLETE IDENTIFTING INFORMATION FOR THE SOURCE, WHICH MAY TAKE HOURS!)
Find an Overview Of Your Topic
Let’s face it. There’s a LOT of information out there. Before you “plunge” into the “sea” of information it is almost always best to get an OVERVIEW of the topic you have chosen. An overview of the topic will give you the “lay of the land,” summarizing the major issues and aspects of topic, and hopefully giving you a list of books and articles to read for more in-depth information. You will then use this overview to decide the aspect of the topic you wish to focus on.
Your topic is FINANCIAL AID. The library has numerous resources that can help you get overviews of this topic.
FINDING OVERVIEWS IN BOOKS – To find an overview of your topic in a book there are two techniques you will want to use: BROWSE THE SHELVES, and USE THE CATALOG
BROWSE THE SHELVES – At BHCC Library or ANY Library! Here are a few books in the BHCC Library that probably have articles on financial aid
Encyclopedia of Education
REF LB15 .E47 2003 |
Encyclopedia of Educational Research
REF LB15 .E48 1992 |
Encyclopedia of American Education
REF LB17 .U54 1996 |
Important tips when browsing shelves:
- Books are arranged on the shelf by subject – via a CALL NUMBER assigned to the book! (A
book’s call number is like an address!)
- Reference books do not circulate, and have the call# prefix REF.
- Many (but NOT all!) books on the same topic have similar call numbers, and so are shelved near
each other. Therefore, get the call number of ONE book that interests you, and then look at
books shelved next to this book.
- Keep in mind that many books have table of contents and indexes. USE THESE
TO LOOK FOR INFORMATION SPECIFICALLY ABOUT FINANCIAL AID! (This tip is particularly important for reference books! There are reference books on virtually every topic! There’s probably a book “Encyclopedia of Financial Aid!”)
USE THE CATALOG – At BHCC Library or ANY Library! The catalog is a tool that lets you find physical books (and other items) in a library – every physical book has a record in the catalog! A catalog does NOT contain the full-text of books!
Here’s the web address for the BHCC Library Catalog: http://catalog.noblenet.org/search~S37/
Important tips when using the catalog:
- Try a keyword search using one or more words that describe your topic. (For example,
“financial aid” ) This search looks for every appearance of the word(s) in the catalog, and “pulls up” all the records that contain the words. (There are entire books on financial aid! This is how to find them!)
- You will always need at least the call number of the book to find the book on the shelf! (We still
strongly recommend copying all the information down!)
- When you find a catalog record for 1 book about financial aid, then click on the
book’s SUBJECT, to “pull up” all books with the same subject!
FINDING OVERVIEWS IN ELECTRONIC DATABASES – As with books, electronic databases also contain overviews of financial aid, as well as a lot of other information. Suggested databases to find overviews of financial aid appear below.
Our databases are all listed on the BHCC database page, at http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm .
IMPORTANT NOTE: With a BHCC ID that has been activated at the Lending Services Desk, you can access all our databases from off-campus! To use the databases from off campus, you’ll be asked to enter your last name and the 14 digit barcode# on the back of your BHCC ID.
SOME SUGGESTED DATABASES TO LOOK FOR OVERVIEWS OF FINANCIAL AID
- Facts.com - Has good overview articles on many topics in its Issues & Controversies Section (very much like overview articles in print encyclopedias) If you find something, you’ll be well rewarded.
HOW TO GET TO IT: Click on the Facts.com link from the BHCC Library Databases Web
Page. Once inside, click on the “Issues & Controversies” tab at the top right of your web page.
- CQ Researcher – Also has good overview articles on many topics (very much like overviews in print encyclopedias) If you find something, you’ll be well rewarded.
HOW TO GET TO IT: Click on the CQ Researcher link from the BHCC Library Databases Web Page.
- Infotrac Web’s Gale Virtual Reference Library – Provides the text of overview articles from specialized encyclopedias. You will need to see if it contains an overview article on financial aid.
HOW TO GET TO IT: Click Infotrac Web from the BHCC Library Databases Web Page and then click Gale Virtual Reference Library from the Infotrac Web database menu page.
A few important tips when using databases (more tips will appear later):
- As with book catalogs, you also can try a text or keyword search using one or more words that
describe your topic. This search looks for every appearance of the word(s) in the record, and “pulls up” all the records that contain the words. (You may get a lot of articles, so we recommend using more words) Typically, you can use this method with every database.
- Many databases allow you to SAVE an article to DISK, or EMAIL the article to yourself. (This
is particularly important when you don’t have a printer available.)
Make a tentative selection of the aspect of the topic you wish to explore
Now that you’ve consulted one or more overviews of financial aid, you are in a better position to determine which aspect of financial aid your paper will focus on. Clearly, you cannot cover all aspects of financial aid in your paper, so you must CHOSE an ASPECT of financial aid that you will cover. As your paper progresses, you may change the aspect of financial aid you wish to focus on, which is fine.
Find more In-Depth Information in Books, Articles, and On the Web
Now that you’ve selected the aspect of financial aid you wish to focus on, you need to find information about this particular aspect of financial aid. High quality information can be found in books, articles, and on the web.
FINDING IN-DEPTH INFORMATION IN BOOKS – As before, to find an more in-depth information within your topic in a book there are two techniques you will want to use: BROWSE THE SHELVES, and USE THE CATALOG.
Additional important tips to keep in mind when looking for more in-depth information in books:
- There are ENTIRE books about SPECIFIC ASPECTS of financial aid. Do a KEYWORD
search using terms that describe the specific aspect of financial aid.
- If you have no luck finding books in the BHCC Library, BROADEN the search, by browsing the
shelves at other libraries and using other library catalogs. First, broaden your catalog search to all the libraries in the North Of Boston Library Exchange. We also suggest searching the catalog at The Boston Public Library. The web address of the Boston Public Library is www.bpl.org.
- In general, here are the three questions you will need to answer in order to obtain in-depth
information from books:
A. What subjects have been assigned to the books on the aspect of financial aid that
interests me?
B. What books are “out there” on the specific aspect of financial aid that interests me?
C. How do I get the books on the specific aspect of financial aid?
FINDING IN-DEPTH INFORMATION IN ARTICLES
Electronic databases contain high-quality information (STUFF NOT FOUND ON THE PUBLIC WEB) – such as full-text articles from the Boston Globe, and from magazines and journals like Time, Psychology Today, and many others. Yet, databases can be confusing, because libraries usually have a lot of databases, and you need to know a bit about how to search the databases to find what you need.
IMPORTANT NOTE: With a BHCC ID that has been activated at the Lending Services Desk, you can access all our databases from off-campus! To use the databases from off campus, you’ll be asked to enter your last name and the 14 digit barcode# on the back of your BHCC ID.
SOME SUGGESTED DATABASES TO LOOK FOR MORE IN-DEPTH ARTICLES ON ASPECTS OF FINANCIAL AID
- Infotrac Web’s Educator’s Reference Complete – Contains the full-text of articles from more than 450 journals in the field of education.
HOW TO GET TO IT: Click Infotrac Web from the BHCC Library Databases Web Page and then click Educator’s Reference Complete from the database menu page (it is near the bottom of the page.)
- EBSCO’s ERIC – ERIC stands for Educational Resource Information Center. Ebsco’s ERIC contains the full-text of more than 2,200 digests in education, as well as citations and abstracts from more than 1,000 journals related to education. (IMPORTANT NOTE: There is also a freely available ERIC database listed on our database page. We suggest using the EBSCO version of ERIC, because it will have the full-text of more journal articles than the freely available one.)
HOW TO GET TO IT: Click EBSCO from the BHCC Library Databases Web Page and then click ERIC from the database menu page.
- Expanded Academic ASAP – Covers a broad range of subjects, including educational issues like financial aid.
HOW TO GET TO IT: Click Infotrac Web from the BHCC Library Databases Web Page and then click Expanded Academic ASAP from the database menu page.
- EBSCO’s Academic Search Premier – Covers a broad range of subjects, including educational issues like financial aid
HOW TO GET TO IT: Click EBSCO from the BHCC Library Databases Web Page and then click Academic Search Premier from the database menu page.
More important tips when using databases:
- Some databases assign subjects to their articles. This means if you find one article on a subject,
you can then click on the article’s SUBJECT, to “pull up” all articles assigned the same subject!
It is also possible to browse subject lists in these databases.
- Databases do NOT contain every article that has been written about financial aid! Typically,
only recent articles are in databases (articles published after 1980, or even later)
- Many databases allow you to SAVE an article to DISK, or EMAIL the article to yourself. (This
is particularly important when you don’t have a printer available.)
- If you are interested in searching for articles that appeared in the Boston Globe, or the New York
Times, or a favorite magazine or journal, THEN search our alphabetical list of all magazines,
journals, and newspapers we get – either in print or in a database, at
http://ph8vq3lq6p.search.serialssolutions.com/
FINDING IN-DEPTH INFORMATION ON THE WEB
A lot of information is on the web, which makes it very confusing very fast! Also, no one monitors the quality of the information on the web – some web pages are accurate, while others are not. The key question to consider is…How do we know a website is trustworthy? For every webpage you visit, consider the following questions: (You will need this for question 4 of your assignment!!)
- How accurate is the information? (Look for spelling errors and typos, a current creation date, well-supported arguments, and even peer review.)
- How credible is the information? (Look for information on the author – name, job and job title, organization, affiliation, contact information, relevant credentials.)
- What kind of documentation does the information have? (All facts – especially numbers – should have sources. Look for a list of works cited or bibliography.)
- How appropriate is the information? (Look for balance – more than one view is acknowledged – and an objective rather than emotional writing style. The author should also take care to distinguish between their opinion and fact.)
Here’s a helpful webpage posted by Sonoma State University Library that talks more about evaluating information: http://library.sonoma.edu/research/subject/evaluate.html
In general, web pages posted by the government, or by educational institutions are trustworthy. Their web pages have a “.gov” or “.edu” in the web address.
**When no printer is available, try saving the web page to a disk. Also be sure to write down the web page’s complete web address, because a saved web page may not give you the complete address.
Good general search engine: (REMEMBER: YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN ABOUT EVALUATING THE WEB PAGES YOU FIND USING GOOGLE! )
http://www.google.com (Google has advanced search techniques – if you’re interested)
Where librarians start Web research:
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Manage the information you find
Managing the information you find is crucial. Effective managers of information do the following:
1) Keep all the information they find organized (A notebook or folder is ideal.)
2) Have the sources for all information FULLY IDENTIFIED – whether the information is from
a book, an article, a website, or a person.
3) Clearly distinguish their own ideas from the ideas within sources that were consulted.
4) Properly identify the sources they mention in their paper, and do NOT commit plagiarism.
Your instructor wants you to fully identify the sources of all ideas and facts you mention in your paper. Clearly, if you are a good manager of information, you will be able to do this. Entire books and articles have been written about the effective management of information. There are two aspects of managing information that concern you before you write your paper: (1) Avoiding Plagarism, (2) Do proper citing of the sources you mention in your paper.
AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty in which students present the words and ideas of another person or group as their own. You will be reading and interacting with the words and ideas of others, and so clearly there is a risk of plagiarism.
WEB RESOURCE THAT DISCUSS PLAGARISM AND TELL YOU HOW TO AVOID IT:
http://library.camden.rutgers.edu/EducationalModule/Plagiarism/ - This is link to an excellent series of online videos about plagiarism developed at the Rutgers University Libraries.
DO PROPER CITING OF THE SOURCES YOU MENTION IN YOUR PAPER
When you fully identify the sources for all the ideas and facts you mention in your paper, you must present the full identification information for each source in a citation style. There are numerous citation styles in use. The Modern Language Association (MLA) citation style is often used for papers in the humanities and social sciences, and this is the citation style your instructor wants you to use.
The BHCC Library offers an online tool to help you create and manage your citations, called Noodlebib, which is part of a subscription resource called NoodleTools
NoodleTools is found via the BHCC Library Website at http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm. NoodleBib – within NoodleTools – automates the process of creating a citation. It uses a wizard which asks you information about the type of citation you want to create, such as MLA, and then prompts you to provide the necessary information. For a book this would mean entering title, author, etc. At the end of the process you have a citation in the proper format.
To use NoodleTools you are required to create a new folder. Doing this is very easy; there is a link on the homepage that walks you through the process. There are also tutorials available. One of these is part of the NoodleBib software. The other is available on the internet at http://facsupport.curry.edu/LevinLibraryTutorials.html
SCREEN SHOT OF NOODLETOOLS:
Details about Modern Language Association citation format is also found in the book
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
REF LB 2369. G53
This volume is very detailed and even covers citation formats for the different electronic resources you will be using. For a good treatment of the same material available on the World Wide Web, check out the Duke University Libraries'
Guide to Citing Sources
http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/works_cited.htm
- Your end goal should always be creating a list that makes it easy for your reader to find the sources you’ve drawn on to write you paper.