Day 7: Google and JSTOR

Vague Search Terms Misspelled Words Poor Techniques for Examining the

Website

“Teens Struggle to Find Accurate, Useful Information Online.” Health and Medicine Week (Nov. 10, 2003): 15-17.

University of Michigan research study found thatteenagers do poorly when researching on the internet. Top three reasons:

Junior Research 2006

ACTIVELY read the webpage interfaces for the rules of notice

Constantly refine your search vocabulary Understand the criteria of quality for evaluating sources

To be successful in these goals you must be able to:

Day 7

General Internet: Google

JSTOR

To fill gaps in your research by searching for specific information

To search the two sources listed and understand their rules of notice

Sources Goals

Day 7 Activities

I. Evaluating Websites

II. Searching for quality websites: Google Advanced Search

III. JSTOR: scholarly database with Google-type interface

IV. EasyBib: Entering websites and journals

Rule of Notice: Website url

Examine the url to help judge the quality of a site.

Below are examples of personal page indicators:

geocities tripod angelfire users

people ~ .net .cjb

friendpages students members freewebs

Rule of Notice: Indicators of website credibility/authority

• Click on the link below and examine the document in relation to the Day 4 handout, “Criteria for Determining Quality.” What organization sponsors this site? See the list of sources at the end of this document; how would you characterize these sources? Who is the intended audience for this document?

http://www.jhu.edu/ips/abell/pdf/brash.pdf

Personal pages are generally not as credible or substantive as .gov .mil and .edu domains

Rule of Notice: Indicators of website credibility/authority

• Click on this link and backtrack the url (remove everything after the last slash) to get information about the author:

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/kahan/Curfews%20Free%20Juveniles.html

• “Google” your author’s name—enclose in quotations—to discover other things he has written and organizations with which he is affiliated

Investigate the author’s credentials

Rule of Notice: “About Us”

• Backtrack to this organization’s home page and click “About Us” to determine possible bias:

http://www.aclu-wa.org/detail.cfm?id=161

• Tip: Print the “About Us” page and incorporate this information into your annotated bibliography where you evaluate the source

.org (organizations) sites can have accurate—though sometimes biased—information.

Vocabulary

Domain—category or type of web page (e.g., .gov, .com) which often indicates something about the page’s originator

Rule of Notice: Google Advanced Search

Use Google Advanced Search to obtain higher quality websites. Use specific vocabulary for your search terms as you should be at the point where you are looking for particular information:

Rule of Notice: Compare Google and ProQuest interfaces

Both allow you to search various fields and to limit using “Advanced Search”

Both provide fulltext (though not all of ProQuest is fulltext)

Google does not have subject headings Google does not have abstracts Google results list is in relevance order with no

alternative method to sort

Rule of Notice: Basic Search JSTOR

Go to the GBN magazines and newspapers page http://gbn.glenbrook.k12.il.us/imc/magnews.htm and click on JSTOR

Note the “Quick Tips” at the bottom of this “Basic Search” page; this indicates you will be searching the entire record…similar to basic Google search

JSTOR is a 100% fulltext database whose articles are all scholarly

Rule of Notice: Advanced Search JSTOR

Note the ways you can cluster your search terms…similar to Google advanced search

Note the fields you can search…some similar to Google; others similar to ProQuest

Go to JSTOR “Advanced Search”

Summary: Rules of Notice

Website url Indicators of website credibility/authority “About Us” Basic Searching Advanced Searching

EasyBib

Websites from Google Journals from JSTOR

Consult EasyBib Tip Sheet to correctly cite