Gary Handman

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Doing Research Online A Crash Course
Gary Handman ghandman_at_library.berkeley.edu 643-856
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The point of all this...

• Describes organization of library information
• Introduce selected online sources for finding
  books and journal articles.
• 3. Introduce a group of basic moves and features
  common to many online catalogs and indexes.

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The Information Universe
What Does It Contain?
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The (Library) Information Universe

• Books
• Journals (Magazines) Newspapers
• Government docs
• Maps
• Media (video, sound recording, etc.)
• Computer files (e.g. CD-ROMS)
• Online Resources Dissertations
• Manuscripts
• Ephemera

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The Information Universe
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The Information Universe
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The Information Universe
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Library Catalogs

• Inventory of what the Library owns
• Books
• Journals (BUT NOT whats inside of them!!!!!!)

• Media
• Manuscripts, documents, mapsetc. etc. etc. etc.)
  

• Search by
• Author
• Title
• Subject (keywords)

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The Information Universe Books
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The Information Universe Finding Articles

• Article Databases (Indexes/Abstracts)
• Databases produced by different commercial
  publishers often look/act differently from one
  another.
• Regularly updated
• Allow subject/author searching in a group of
  journals in a particular discipline or topical
  area.
• Some indexes also offer abstracts AND/OR FULLLLL
  TEXXXXT!

I know! Ill do my paper on Marilyn Manson!
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Choosing an Articles database (index)

• Look at the listings of article databases
  available via the library www.lib.berkeley.edu
  includes listings by SUBJECT, NAME, etc.
• General Databases are often good places to start
  (particularly for newsy/topical issues)

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All databases are not created equal (or by the
same company)
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(No Transcript)
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All databases are not created equal (or by the
same company)
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The Information Universe (Now)
Online is Cool

• But Remember Not everything is online!!!!!
• Article Databases Generally only go back 10-20
  yrs online (some exceptions e.g. Historical
  Newspapers)
• Not every journal is indexed (but most major ones
  are)
• Fairly small (but rapidly growing) subset of the
  books and journal universe is currently available
  in full-text

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The Information Universe

• Remember Also
• Not every topic has lots written about it,
  either in books or journal lit.
• --Research on very current topics
• --Research on radically specific topics
• --Research on topics off the beaten academic
  track or off the current pop culture radar

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How to Begin? Before you click THINK

• Formulate a concise, concrete statement of the
  research problem
• Formulate your search in terms of
• keywords and key phrases

The impact of television advertising and
television violence on school performance and
pre-adolesecent social interaction.
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How to Begin? Before you click THINK

• Think of synonyms for key words/phrases

The impact of television advertising and
television violence on school performance and
pre-adolesecent social interaction.

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The Information Universe

• What to do if nothing is turning up
• Tweak your topic Broaden it / select a
  different angle
• Rethink your search strategy (new keywords, new
  concepts, etc.)
• Bail out completely and choose another topic

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A few cautionary words about research on the Net
Google Rocks!
The Net
LibraryLand
Google Scholar? www.scholar.google.com Maybe
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Common Search Features --Save list of good
stuff --Mail Articles/Citations to yourself



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Connecting from off-campus
PROXY Server!
www.lib.berkeley.edu HELP Connecting from Off
Campus
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being driven over the edge by your
research? Call me Gary Handman 643-8566 ghandman_at_
library.berkeley.edu