SEARCHING THE WEB

We are now moving to the LAST unit in this course. We will be looking at Web Gateways and Portals. Your last assignment (06) introduces you to a number of specialized "gateway" links in the web. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Be aware that the web contains more than one level of searching ("invisible web") - information that is NOT readily, if at all, available through simple keyword searching. There is information WITHIN databases on GOOGLE

Use of these gateways/portals to locate information on your topic. You can also (for the final) do a keyword search on your topic and add the word DATABASE to the search.

For example,

diabetes AND database
"gun control" AND database

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

This week you are taking a look at periodical databases. These are databases in which you can locate articles that appear in scholarly journals and in popular magazines (both referred to as periodical articles). You are asked to complete two assignments, one to locate scholarly articles, the other to locate popular magazines articles. Pay attention to the difference in your evaluation. This kind of information resource is VERY different from information in books. Articles appearing in journals and magazines are generally very current unlike information located in books

Use one or more subscription databases (MCTC databases or public library databases). You are welcome to use a periodical databases OTHER than Academic Search Premier (the suggested database). If you have, for example, a "health" topic, you may want to select of MCTC's health databases. JUST MAKE SURE IT S A PERIODICAL DATABASE AND NOT CQ RESEARCHER.

CONTROLLED VOCABULAY TERMS/SUBJECT HEADINGS

After examining records from the book catalogs such as MnPals you may be looking at (with the exception of Google Books), controlled vocabulary terms/subject headings. You should be identifying and possibly linking off the subjects that are assigned to the books. This is the concept that we have looked at earlier - now here are some resources that have been assigned these headings to determine the subject matter. You should be looking at these to help you determine what the books are all about. These terms are also assigned to you periodical records which you will be looking at this week.

I do not recommend Google Books as your sole book catalog. Compare another book catalog with Google Books and see if you like a more "typical" book catalog like MnPals.

jj

TRY WORLDCAT.ORG

If you cannot locate a book in MnPals, try World Cat (worldcat.org) to see what library owns the book closest to MCTC. If you did not try it for Assignment 3, try it for the final project. You can also set World Cat to own home zipcode to see what library is closest to your OWN home location. It is a very powerful catalog.

jj

EVALUATING YOUR BOOKS

I am duplicating a response from one of the discussion posting regarding the evaluation of your books. In order to evaluate the books, are you actually REQUIRED to examine the physical book in the library OR can you just take a look at the information provided online from the book records themselves and from sources like Amazon.com.

This is an excellent question. Of course it is always the best course of action when evaluating a resource (this includes periodicals as well as books), to look at the actual physical item - often more information is obtained from actually looking at the printed resource. This is sometimes a problem for students taking an online course as they do not have ready access to the printed item that they ideally may like to look at; however, in any research process, it is not always necessary especially in the case of books to actually have the item in hand. The idea is to DETERMINE IF an item WOULD work in support of a thesis. Enough information is often provided from the book record itself (contents notes, table of contents, subject headings,etc) as well as from reviews taken either from the catalog from a source such as Amazon.com to determine what the book is about and whether or not you can use it for your own research. So to answer your question, no it is not required if enough information is provided from online sources.

Library Catalogs

As we move on to Week 5 (we are more than half the way through the course!!), you will be taking a look at another kind of database, library catalogs. In this kind of database, you locate mainly books and often non-print materials that are located in a particular library OR e-books (often a library will subscribe to a SEPARATE online database of subscription e-books and link it to the print book catalog). Library catalogs are the most TRADITIONAL kind of library database in that the structure is based very much on the old card catalog withe of course additional "access" points such as keyword (title, author keyword). You are welcome to use any of the suggested library catalogs to search for books or PARTS of books that may contain information in support of your focused working thesis. The MCTC book catalog (WebPals) has recently undergone some changes in its interface. Problems may still exist in searching. A link is provided to "classic" Mnpals (the old interface) which does have some features that I tend to like better like the ability to browse for your subject headings under the "BROWSE" link.

Be alert to the "interactive" features of these catalogs such as the ability to view and write book reviews.You are asked to EVALUATE the books you locate based on SPECIFIC criteria - a handout is provided in CONTENT on evaluating your books. You will be able to link to other review sources such as the reviews that are available in Amazon.com. These reviews will help you evaluate your books.

Remember that books are books - published once with content that becomes dated fast. If you not able to view the PRINT books in a library, pay attention to the contents notes (if available) that summarize the content and to the subject headings appropriate to the book in order to determine if the book is appropriate.

SUBJECT HEADINGS-A CAUTIONARY TALE

Consider the following scenario:

You would like to purchase a "small portable fan that runs on batteries" You call a large chain store such as K-mart or Target and ask if they have a such a fan. To what department do they refer you to?

Electronics?
Yes such a fan is that.
Small Appliances?
Yes such a fan is that
Hardware?
Is it that? Could it be in that department??
Camping?
Think about that one!! There are special portable camping fans that hang from the tent.
Automobile Accessories (but you did not tell them you wanted it for a car)?
Well there are special fans JUST for cars.

Could such a fan could be "assigned"or "placed" in any or all of these departments? Such is the nature of assigning "subject headings/controlled vocabulary terms/tags" to a particular information resource.

The store makes a decision to place an item in a particular department or even in more than one department (which may or may not be the best choice/choices) much as the cataloger makes the decision to assign subject terms.

As we move on to examine library catalogs, examine the subject headings that are assigned to the books that you locate.