information research skills 27 january 2011. how to search for ideas brainstorming for ideas ...

INFORMATIONRESEARCH SKILLS

INFORMATION RESEARCH SKILLS

27 JANUARY 2011

How to search for ideas Brainstorming for ideas Information research

skills Online resources Copyright and plagiarism

issues

INTRODUCTION

Good research – product of a well-focused question. Narrow the question until it is one that can be answered within the limited time of a course or a grant and with the resources available to the researcher.

Research – discipline of accumulation – each researcher adding to the increasing knowledge within field of study.

INTRODUCTION Effective

researcher – aware of own prejudices, assumptions, beliefs, vision of the world.

Research is learning and learning causes change.

INTRODUCTION

Joy of research – comes from discovery of information that surprises, challenges, questions, makes us reconsider, reflect, revise.

HOW TO SEARCH FOR IDEAS

Internal research – find out what I already know about the topic. what I have experienced. what I remember. External research – find out what others

know.

HOW TO SEARCH FOR IDEAS

On the Internet – find people like experts, writers, students like you.

Political discussions, documents, great speeches, government agencies, books, magazines, newspapers, journals, great art, literature, scientific experiments, museums, virtual field trips.

Find people to interview, mentors, people to get ideas from, gather useful information, supporting data.

HOW TO SEARCH FOR IDEAS

Go to a public area – observe people’s conversations.

Go to garage sales etc. – listen to comments made by people purchasing the items.

Explore a topic through different genres of writing e.g. football – through novels, poems, movies, plays, essays, songs, newspapers, TV shows etc.

HOW TO SEARCH FOR IDEAS

Check out biographies of famous historical figures.

Listen to news broadcasts on the radio. Track a story in the newspapers and

magazines. Browse through bibliographies. Visit special collection libraries.

HOW TO BRAINSTORM FOR IDEAS Email – brainstorm with friends, mentors, to find

subjects to write about, find people who know something about your subject, interview those people.

LISTSERVS – electronic mailing list software application, a set of email addresses for a group. One email is sent to all in the group.

Topica (online marketing) – http://www.topica.com/

CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS

Interview – informal, formal

Prepare by finding out as much as you can about the person you are interviewing.

At least 4 or 5 principal questions.

Tape the conversation so that information is not misinterpreted, or left out. Face to face interview is best.

BRAINSTORMING FOR IDEAS

Be specific with requests for information. Don’t write : I am doing this research into

censorship of information on the Internet. What can you tell me?

Instead ask : Can anyone suggest good Web sites that discuss court cases that deal with censorship of information on the Internet?

BIG SIX SKILLS

Task Definition - Define the problem- Identify the information requirements of

the problem

Information-seeking strategies- Determine the range of possible sources- Evaluate different possible sources to

determine priorities

BIG SIX SKILLS

Location and Access- Locate sources- Find information within sources

Use of Information- Engage the information in a source- Extract information from a source

BIG SIX SKILLS

Synthesis

- Organize information from multiple sources

- Present information Evaluation

- Judge the product

- Judge the information-solving process

TASK DEFINITION

Define the problem E.g. A comparative study of

premature greying of hair in youths, then and now?

Information requirements Factors : Genes, Diet, Lifestyle Comparison : Male, Female,

Different races

INFORMATION-SEEKING STRATEGIES

Determining the range of resources

Evaluating the resources to determine priorities

Locating the resourcesUsing the resources

DETERMININGRESOURCES

Primary resources :autobiographies, manuscripts, memoirs, original maps, direct oral interviews

Secondary resources : newspaper articles, books, journals, reports

Print - Books - Journals- Magazines/Periodicals- Newspapers

- Pamphlets / Brochures Non-print

- CDRoms-Video / audio tapes- Online databases- Internet websites

- film / microfiche

DETERMINING RESOURCES

Primary material – available online www.loc.gov Demographic info www.census.gov Look for sites put together by experts, an

organisation, museum, university, government agency

www.cancer.org

DETERMINING RESOURCES

Sites set up by librarians, educators or researchers who have put together collections of good Web sites –

Librarians’ Index to the Internet www.lii.org Scholarly Internet Research Collections infomine.ucr.edu

DETERMINING RESOURCES

Academic information educational subject directory -

http://library.sau.edu Voice of the Shuttle (Humanities

Research) – http://vos.ucsb.edu/ Go to a specific site you know that deals

with your subject, browse and search for information.

DETERMINING RESOURCES

Use a search engine or directory to search a database of many different WWW pages

Lycos – http://www.lycos.com Webcrawler –

http://www.webcrawler.com Metacrawler – http://www.metacrawler.com

EVALUATING RESOURCES

Which do you want to use first? Which are more relevant /current /

accessible (=to reliable?)? Finding too much – 3 000 000 hits on a topic Most search tools sort the pages by

relevance, so if No.45 is not relevant, the rest after that is not likely to be relevant.

LOCATING RESOURCES

At home School Libraries Reference Libraries Academic Libraries –

specialised collections Museums National Archives World Wide Web

LOCATING RESOURCES

OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue)

- author, title, keyword search

- using Boolean operators,e.g.

and, or, (+), (-), “ ”

- Dewey Decimal

Classification (DDC – nos.)

- Library of Congress

Classification (LCC – A to Z)

* Library shelves – arranged from left to right, in ascending order

DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION

Fiction – First 3 letters of author’s surname

Non-fiction – 000 to 900s

- 000 to 100 : General Knowledge

- 100s : Philosophy

- 200s : Religion

- 300s : Social Studies

DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION

Non-fiction

- 400s : Language

- 500s : Natural Science

- 600s : Technology

- 700s : Art, Hobbies, Sports

- 800s : Literature, Geography

- 900s : Biography, History

USING RESOURCES : PARTS OF A BOOK Title page Copyright Date Dedication Table of Contents Preface Bibliography Glossary Lists Index Appendix

USING RESOURCES : BIBLIOGRAPHY

Black, Susan (1987). Bears, Bears, Bears. New York: Broadway Press.

Travers, Ruth (1987). The Incredible Polar Bear. Animal World, 26, 5-8.

USING RESOURCES : GLOSSARY

Bailey – the area enclosed by the walls of a castle

Barbican – outer defences of a castle Coat of mail – a tunic of metal links Dispersed – scattered Girdle – a belt Helm - helmet

USING RESOURCES : INDEX

Agincourt, battle of 40,44 Amusements 20-21,22,27 Anglo-Saxon chronicle 6 Banquet, 20 Black Prince 19,36,44 Caernarvon Castle 8,10 Dogs 18,20 21

USING INFORMATION

Engaging the information What will be of use to you? The tables, graphs, diagrams,

illustrations, text? Extracting the information Are you going to rewrite the

information, copy, refer to certain statements, use note-taking skills, quotation marks?

LOCATING RESOURCES: NON-PRINT

Internet search engines, e.g. Yahoo, Google

Online databases e.g. Dialog, ERIC- subject guide- keyword search: General subject – Modern history Singapore (too broad) Lim Bo Seng (too narrow)

Japanese Occupation in Singapore

LOCATING RESOURCES: NON-PRINT

Copyright issues – plagiarism, cite everything found, ease of gathering information causes people to forget they are taking someone’s else’s ideas.

Reliability - type of site : gov (government) mil (military)

org (non-profit organisation) com (commercial) edu (education)

Accuracy - typographical or grammatical errors - dead links

LOCATING RESOURCES: NON-PRINT

Lack of feedback facility may indicate lack of accuracy in the content and a lack of maintenance

Currency of information – when was it last updated?

Quality – counter may just indicate popularity rather than quality

Links to other pieces of research or sites of interest

LOCATING RESOURCES: NON-PRINT

Ease of Access : free or fee-based

Time management Netiquette Bias

SYNTHESIZING INFORMATION

Combine ideas gathered and blend them together

Organize information – topics, subheadings, chapters.

PRESENTING INFORMATION

Print Non-print (Powerpoint,

Webpage) Physical Product

EVALUATION

Judge the product Judge the information-

solving process

RESOURCES@KONG CHIAN LIBRARY Print resources – Books Comics Periodicals (Current & Past) Newspapers Past Examination Papers Past Humanities Research Papers Red-spot readings / books History journals

RESOURCES@KONG CHIAN LIBRARY

Non-print resources – Music CDS CDRoms VCDs DVDs Teaching Kits / Charts / Maps Board games Online databases - access via Library website / HCI

Wikispaces

LIST OF ONLINE DATABASES Straits Times Interactive Newslink Journal of Chemical Education Journal of Biological Education American Biology Teacher Education in Chemistry The Physics Teacher Physics Education Scientific American Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

LIST OF ONLINE DATABASES Journal of Contemporary China China Quarterly International Affairs Critical Quarterly World and I Opposing Viewpoint Online Resource Active History Current History Online Ecologist

OTHER RESOURCE CENTRES

Projects Competition webpage (Studies – HCI homepage)

Jingxian Library (college section)National Library and its branches

(register as Digital Library member)Institutional libraries (online tutorial

for information skills)World Wide Web

CITING INTERNET RESOURCES

Webpages that offer information about citing Internet resources.

Purdue Online Writing Lab – owl.english.purdue.edu Writing centre at Colorado State

University webpage – www.writing.colostate.edu/index.cfm

CITING INTERNET RESOURCES

URLs (World Wide Web) Author. (Year). Title of work. [Form]. Available: full web address. (Date of access).  

 Example: Ministry of Education, Singapore (1998). National Education. [On-Line]. Available: http://www.moe.edu.sg/neu/. (October 29, 1998).

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT How does infringement arise?

Doing any of the following acts, Copying author’s works, Issuing copies of the work to the public, Performing, showing or playing the work in public Adapting the work Copyright infringement can also arise by those

who authorize another to commit an infringing act.

Without Permission of the Author

BASIC COPYRIGHT PRINCIPLES •Who owns copyright? Author or Publisher of work.

What is the length of protection? Life time of author and 70 years thereafter, Or End of year when work was published.

Sound recording & Film –70 years Broadcast & Cable Programs –50 years Published Editions – 25 years Performances – 70 years

COPYRIGHT & PLAGIARISM

What is PLAGIARISM? Copying and pasting text from online media,

such as encyclopedias is plagiarism. Copying and pasting text from any website is

plagiarism. Transcribing text from any printed material,

such as books, magazines, encyclopedias or

newspapers, is plagiarism.

COPYRIGHT & PLAGIARISM

What is PLAGIARISM? Simply modifying text from any of the above

sources is plagiarism. Replacing a few select words using a

Thesaurus does not constitute original work. Using photographs, video or audio without

permission or acknowledgment is plagiarism.

COPYRIGHT & PLAGIARISM

What is PLAGIARISM? Using another student's work and claiming it as

your own, even with permission, is academically unethical and is treated as plagiarism. This is known as "collusion“. (secret agreement between two to perform a dishonest act).

Acquiring work from commercial sources is academically unethical and is treated as plagiarism.

COPYRIGHT & PLAGIARISM

You may use such a photographic, video or audio source with your multimedia presentation that you create, or in your paper assignment

as long as you do not profit from it or use it for any purpose other than the original assignment.

You MUST include the source in your reference.

How to avoid plagiarism and synthesize information into something that is your own work…

thesis statement, generate theory

citations bibliography reassertion of thesis

statement offer opinion

THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION!