research presentation for teens (1)
Post on 09-Jul-2015
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Introduction to
ResearchLaura Wright
Nicolette Warisse Sosulski
The Search
You are going to be looking for information all
over. The web has a lot of great information
and has revolutionized the task of the
academic project. But beware…
http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
So what would you check
• Who is authoring the site? Do they have authority in the area
• What are they saying? What other sources say the same thing? Does anybody else say the same thing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_bombing_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China_embassy_in_Belgrade
• Where is it affiliated—university, agency, etc.?
• When was the website last updated
• Why would the author say what (s)he does
Librarian Tricks of the Trade
Boolean Limits: And Or Not
People wholike Dogs
People wholike Cats
People wholike both
People who do not like either(Hamster People, Ferret People,Bird People, Critter Haters, etc.)
Librarian Tricks of the Trade
Boolean Limits:
AND:
Just the Orange—Both have to be true
People wholike Dogs
People wholike Cats
People wholike both
People who do not like either
Librarian Tricks of the Trade
Boolean Limits:
OR:
Pink, Orange, Yellow—Either or both true
Remember: OR yields MORE!
People wholike Dogs
People wholike Cats
People wholike both
People who do not like either
Librarian Tricks of the Trade
Boolean Limits:
NOT:
Just Pink, or Just Yellow
People wholike Dogs but
not Cats
People wholike Cats but
not Dogs
NOT is underused but extremely usefulFor example when one is looking up articles on the Defense industry in March,
one can use Defense NOT Basketball
Librarian Tricks of the Trade
Truncation and Wildcards
To Truncate: to Shorten
CIA Operations OR CIA Operatives
Can be shortened to common root combination
of letters
CIA Operat*
Librarian Tricks of the Trade
Truncation and Wildcards
Wildcards
Just like in poker but in searching
usually replaced by an asterisk *
So once truncated, if you add the wildcard
Operat* will find Operative(s), Operation(s),
Operate(s)
Librarian Tricks of the TradeQuotation Marks
Used to narrow search so that only what is in between the marks only in that order is retrieved
Lions and Tigers and Bears
Retrieved 8,860,000 on June 28, 2010 at 9:21 a.m.
“Lions and Tigers and Bears:Retrieved 142,000 on June 28, 2010 at 9:21 a.m.
Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs. --Pearl Strachan
Words That Find You Stuff
It is all about the words you use—on Google, in
the index in the back of the book, in the
Yellow Pages, and in those collections of
articles called Databases that your teachers
and I want you to start using.
Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs. --Pearl Strachan
Words That Find You Stuff
IMPACT
Finds answers to questions like
• Why was this important?
• What was the significance (also itself a good word)?
• What were the results of this?
• What did this cause to happen?
Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs. --Pearl Strachan
Words That Find You Stuff
DEMOGRAPHICS
Finds answers to questions like
• What are people there like
• What languages do they speak in
• How many people were from this place versus
that one
Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs. --Pearl Strachan
Words That Find You Stuff
STATISTICS
Finds answers to questions like
• How many people– Lived
– Died
– Were infected
– Eat McDonalds
• How many times– Babe Ruth struck out
– It rained in January in Seattle
Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs. --Pearl Strachan
Words That Find You Stuff
TIMELINE
Finds answers to questions like
• Give me examples of something during this decade/century
• Give me steps to how this developed, e.g the computer
• I need 5 significant events
• I need 4 major battles
• I need 8 influential works of art
Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs. --Pearl Strachan
Words That Find You Stuff
HISTORY
• Finds answers to questions like
• Who was the first?
• What were times like back then?
• How did this start?
• What was the original_____?
That's right. When I was your age, television was called books!
Peter Falk (Grandpa)
Books:
• You may still need to go for books for
• Quotes
• In-depth analysis of a particular historical
event, including battle maps
• Factoids about somebody’s life (what were
they like as a kid)
• Literary analysis
Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.“
--Mark Twain
• Datasets (like the census)
When you have to find out how many people of
a certain age or ethnicity are in a particular
geographic region, or how many people
responded to a question with the answer A.
Sources that your teachers will get geeked about
• White PapersA white paper (or "whitepaper") is an authoritative report or guide that often addresses issues and how to solve them. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions. They are often used in politics, business, and technical fields. In commercial use, the term has also come to refer to documents used by businesses as a marketing or sales tool.
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_paper
Sources that your teachers will get geeked about
• Conference Papers—Academic and or
professional, and so useful, but not peer
reviewed unless they appear in a peer
reviewed journal. Often the first offshoot of a
new area of research.
Sources that your teachers will get geeked about
• Government Informational Web Pages—this can be where the studies funded by your taxes first appear, as well as cool charts and graphs. In almost all cases the URL of the web page they appear on should end in .gov. Excellent examples are the Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov ), the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov ), the National Institutes of Health (www.nih.gov ), and the Center for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov ).Hint: when searching for things on these sites, try both searching using the site search function or searching in Google with NIH or CDC in the search string, for example.
Sources that your teachers will get geeked about
• Journal Articles (found in print journals or databases)
The be-all, end-all articles for many assignments are the articles from peer reviewed journals, also called refereed journals. What that means is that articles cannot appear in these journals unless a panel or group of people knowledgeable in that field agree that the research contained is valid, authoritative, and contributes to the field of knowledge.
Sources that your teachers will get geeked about
• Journal Articles can also be trade or professional journals—non-academic but aimed at professionals in the field—business journals, technical and trade journals, etc. These are authoritative, specialized, but not what your teacher is talking about when (s)he says “peer-reviewed.”
Sources that your teachers will get geeked about
• Journal Articles can also come from general news sources. In this case they are a good index of what may be being discussed or talked about, or may function as a primary source, but they are not what you are looking for for “academic”, “peer reviewed” or “authoritative.”
So where do you get those journal articles?
• Databases: Online Collections of articles that
you can either access from home with your id,
with a MeL library card, or in a library. This
is what you will be using heavily.
So where do you get those journal articles?
Go to www.portagelibrary.info
and select the catalog
Click on Article Search
Arrive at the screen where you can either select
a database or search for journals in the library
e-collection
So your teacher gave you a weird, hard, or IB topic and the PDL has nothing…
Waldo Library at Western Michigan University
So your teacher gave you a weird, hard, or IB topic and the PDL has nothing…
Google Scholar www.scholar.google.com has
only academic sources and patents. You get
the citation for the article that you want, and
then look back to the library web page’s
journal listing.
And some hints about the catalog…
Always Use Click Here for More Options
When crafting your search, stay away from Subject as a first try. It is too library classification specific. Use General keyword instead, which will look everywhere in the book record
And some hints about the catalog…
Find JUST ONE good book
on your subject and you
might be golden, because
you can then use the subject
heading that the library has
stuck the books under. Then
you can find more.
OMG! Those Citations
Citing properly can drive you to distraction. Here are some places that will help you properly format, whether you are using U Chicago, APA, MLA, or some other style:
• The Purdue Online Writing Lab: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ Look to the right for the formatting and style guides
• Diana Hacker http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/
• Knight Cite http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/• SIRS and other databases on your library web pages
also have citation guides.
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