Saturday, October 10, 2015 The Internet Vs. the Library How to Locate and Critically Assess Your Academic Research in the Digital Age

Friday, April 21, 2023 www.wiredprof.com 1

The Internet Vs. the Library

How to Locate and Critically Assess Your Academic Research in

the Digital AgeBy Darren Chiang-Schultheiss

Fullerton College English Department

[email protected]


Why Use Outside Sources?

Support for our claimsAuthoritative evidenceLends credibility to our ideas (ethos)Present counter argumentsTo criticize or evaluate


When to Use Electronic Sources

Electronic version is more easily accessible than the print versionRelevant print sources do not exist


Where to Look?

Indexes and databases (electronic and print)

Humanities Abstracts Project Muse PsycINFO JSTOR ARTstor GaleNet EBSCOhost eLibrary LEXIS-NEXIS (current affairs)

Library Card Catalogs Fullerton College:

http://library.fullcoll.edu Bibliographies (complete,

selective, annotated, and annual)

News Services C-Span www.c-span.org London Times

www.thetimes.co.uk/news/pages/Times

New York Times www.nytimes.com USA Today New www.usatoday.com

Periodical Websites Do an Internet search on the

periodical title Drawback: your exposure is limited to

searching only one periodical source at a time.

Advantage: you may find the print version on-line.


FC Subscription Databases

EBSCOHost

J-STOR

Project Muse

GaleNet Literary Database(Just click on “Authenticate”; no password needed)

National Newspapers Database

CQ Library


Where to Look?

Search Engines (portals) Google(www.google.com) AltaVista (www.altavista.com) Teoma (www.teoma.com) Excite (www.excite.com) HotBot (www.hotbot.com) Go (www.go.com) Webcrawler (www.webcrawler.com) AskGeeves (www.ask.com)


Where to Look?

Subject Catalogs: Yahoo (www.yahoo.com)

Meta-search Engines: Dogpile (www.dogpile.com)

Information Literacy Search Strategiesby Debbie Abilock

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html


How to Look?

Your goal is to narrow the number of “hits” relevant to your topic.

Be familiar with the search tips for each search engine.

Look for a help link that explains how the search engine works.




Basic Strategies for Search Engines

Check for proper spelling and typos!

Decide what the relevant search terms are.

Use phrases when possible rather than single words.

Phrases should be typed in quotation marks, e.g. "global warming" or "acid rain."

Is your search engine case sensitive? (Most are).

Does it allow for truncation or stemming?

Try Boolean searches.


Try Boolean Searching (and, or, not, +, -, parentheses)

Five Different Searches

alice walker

“alice walker”

“alice walker”+everyday use

“alice walker”+(interpretation or criticism)

+“alice walker”+(everyday use)-.com+.edu


Evaluating Internet Sources

Remember to use print and pixel resources, not just electronic information found on the WebEvaluate every source you use


Why Must I Evaluate Internet Sources?

Academic Publishing & Peer ReviewEditorsInternet PublishingYour Own Scholarly Credibility



Location: WHERE is the information stored? Consider the WWW domain extension in the URL.

This offers some clue as to the responsible party.– .edu = educational sites such as K12 schools, colleges, and universities

– .gov = local, state, and federal government institutions, including agencies

– .com & .tv = commercial, business entities

– .org = organizations and not-for-profit organizations

– .net = usually commercial and public network service providers

– .mil = military, US armed forces

– .int = international, sites located outside the US (most are identified by a two-letter country designation.)

Individuals often have a ~ in the URL, e.g. http://www.fbi.gov/~crazyharry/index.html


Evaluating the Sources

Authority: WHO is posting the information? Is there an author? Is the page signed? Is the author qualified? An expert? Credentials? Who is the sponsor?

Is the sponsor of the page reputable? How reputable? If the page includes neither a signature nor indicates a

sponsor, is there any other way to determine its origin? Look for a header or footer showing affiliation. Look at the URL. http://www.fbi.gov Look at the domain. .edu, .com, .ac. uk, .org, .net

Is there a link to information about the author or the sponsor?



Purpose: WHY is the information posted and what is its level of objectivity? What is the purpose of this document? What degree of bias is in the information? Is the author trying to:

persuade the reader? inform the reader? advocate some action? advertise or sell a product?



Currency: WHEN was the information posted? Is there a date given? If so, when was the last update? If given, does it mean:

Date information was first written? Date information was placed on Web? Date information was last revised?

How current are the links? Have some expired or moved?



Consider Coverage: What topics are covered? What does this page offer that is not

found elsewhere, especially in the print world?

What is its intrinsic value? How in-depth is the material? Should be of a substantial length (> 4

pages of printed text).


References

FC Library Home Page: (http://library.fullcoll.edu).Carbone, Nick. Writing Online: A Student’s Guide to the Internet and World Wide Web. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.Rodrigues, Dawn. The Research Paper and the World Wide Web. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997.Ruszkiewicz, John, et al. SF Writer. New York: Longman, 1999.

Darren Chiang-SchultheissFullerton College English [email protected]://www.wiredprof.com714-992-7305

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Saturday, October 10, 2015 The Internet Vs. the Library How to Locate and Critically Assess Your Academic Research in the Digital Age