Organization of Information

Or Avoiding the Info Avalanche

History

• Information used to be easier to keep track of• Books take up physical space, can be easily

moved around, and don’t disappear when the electricity goes out

• Systems of organizing information were developed by people who were used to dealing with print

• Even the people who invented the Internet!

Libraries

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Libraries

• Academic libraries use the Library of Congress Classification System (LC, for short)

• Different formats/information types are in different sections: books, periodicals, reference, government documents, media/reserves

• Books have LC Call Numbers, which function as the home address of the book.

Online Library Content

• Online library content is a (relatively) new phenomenon – libraries have been around for thousands of year & the Internet is only about 30!

• Only certain kinds of information is available online: journal articles were the first, and then video, audio, and books

• A lot of academic information is still only available in print

• There are many theories about how to best organize online library content for ease of use

Publishers

• Libraries subscribe to content packages (commonly called “databases”) provided by publishing companies

• CSUEB subscribes to over 100 of them! • Each publisher has their own platform (or

interface) which makes it difficult for libraries to provide seamless access to information

• Publishers (unlike web designers) are also working on a “born in print” model

Search Engines

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Search Engines

• Libraries organize information by putting it in categories and attaching subject headings (the original hashtags!)

• Search engines don’t even try to organize information – they focus on using algorithms to automatically sift through millions of results

• Since search engines are working with “born digital” content (web pages), they have the freedom to develop interfaces that are intuitive to the online environment

Pretty

Less pretty

Keywords

• Because of the ways information is (and is not) organized, knowing how to search effectively is key

• Google will accept anything as a search term• Library resources are much less forgiving: they

require keywords• Keywords are words and phrases (including names

and dates) that are directly related to your topic• Keywords come from your research question

Keywords & Research Questions

• If my research question is:How can we improve traffic safety on the Spoon superhighway and reduce fatalities caused by space tourists from Earth?

• My keywords might be– Traffic safety– Reduce– Fatalities– Tourists

Synonyms & Related Terms

• When you’re thinking of keywords, also consider synonyms or related terms

• Synonyms are words that mean the same thing

• Related terms are words that are closely tied to your keywords

• Remember that databases are DUMB! They need you to tell them what to look for.

Review

• Libraries have been around for 1000s of years; the Internet is about 30 years old

• Academic libraries organize books using LC call numbers

• Online library content is relatively new and some scholarly content is only published in print

• Articles are available in databases provided by publishing companies

Review

• Search engines rely on algorithms; library content is organized by subject headings

• To do effective library research, use keywords• Include synonyms and related terms to make

sure your list of keywords is comprehensive• Your search results are only as good as your

searches