1. Finding Information in a Digital age

3. General Principles Skills used for finding information in the non-digital world are the same as those used for finding information in the digital world The skills which you all develop as users of libraries containing printed material will stand you in good stead The electronic medium involves a new technology, therefore it requires some different mechanical skill However, it does not require different intellectual skills If you are deficient in using "traditional" libraries, you will be deficient in using the web

4. General Principles The Web is not a source of information The Web is both a repository of digital information and a tool allowing access to traditional information The Web is not disorganized; it is organized by hardware, remote hosts or servers, to which you have access, and local hosts, the computers used by individuals, corporations, and governments to compile information to be placed on servers The contents of the Internet, including the Web, is organized by the individuals, corporations, and governments that compile the information The best portals only find a small fraction of the information about a particular topic on the Internet

5. Searching the World Wide Web Browsing the entire web using a portal, gateway, search engine, or directory is very inefficient albeit fascinating, like browsing in a library You should start by searching a restricted part of the web, perhaps one with which you are familiar and one in which you have a high degree of confidence of finding relevant and valuable material You might think about using the electronic versions of the texts you usually use for completing projects

6. Some General Readings Knowledge ManagementKnowledge Management (Gene Bellinger) Data MiningData Mining (Kurt Thearling) A Paradigm for Understanding the Internet Navigating the World Wide Web The History of Computers and the Internet Office of Information Technology Newsletter

7. Research in the Electronic World The World Wide Web contains two types of electronic information Reference information, which will direct you to material that may or may not be electronic Factual information, which may or may not be accurate, timely, or relevant to your research One way of accessing these materials is via a portal, such as GoogleGoogle A Major Research Tool For You? The World Wide Web Search the Web more efficiently

8. Google Google Guide; making searching easier Google Tutor’s Google Search Manual Googling to the max

9. Encyclopedias Wikipedia The Encyclopedia of Earth Earth Portal E-encyclopediaE-encyclopedia (Google) Encyclopedia Britannica MSN Encarta Infoplease Encyclopedia Smithsonian

10. Reference Information University of Minnesota Libraries Minnesota Historical Society Library Library of Congress Fresh Energy These sites also contain factual information How toHow to is a valuable link

12. University of Minnesota Libraries A.Sticks - texts - books, journals, and mapsSticks B. Clicks - electronic databases IndexesIndexes collections of databases, including journals, statistics, and images JStor LexisNexis Academic GPO Access E-journalsE-journals – the full text articles which may or may not also appear in print Government Information Quarterly Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers Annals of the Association of American Geographers Statistics LexisNexis Statistical

13. University of Minnesota Libraries E. Images Minnesota Digital Library Links to other librariesother libraries Law Library Government Document Library Business Reference Library John R. Borchert Map Library Forestry Library University Archives

14. University of Minnesota Libraries Resources Finding Books Finding Journal Articles Electronic Databases: Indexes Electronic Journals Finding Web Sites Finding Business Sources

15. An Alternative Strategy You can start at the home page of a particular institution or a particular organization but a far more efficient way of searching is to use a search engine specific to a group of institutions or organizations University of Michigan Documents Center Federal Government Minnesota Dakota County Minneapolis Nature ConservancyNature Conservancy (nonprofit) Xcel Energy

16. Be wary of sites created by individuals, even a group of individuals with no “controls” on the content Rod’s page

17. A good place to start might be the sources from which you get your usual information – the mind boggles Star Tribune Wall Street Journal Electronic versions of journals – Time, NewsweekTimeNewsweek Minnesota Public Radio NBC WCCO

18. Lexis-Nexis Legal publishing arm of Reed Elsevier plc, an Anglo-Dutch firmpublishing arm Includes Butterworths and Martindale-Hubbell Lexis-Nexis Academic Lexis-Nexis Congressional Lexis-Nexis Government Periodicals Lexis-Nexis Statistical

19. Electronic Journal Collection at UMN Blackwell's SynergyBlackwell's Synergy (Blackwell Publishing) Cambridge University Press Journals Ecological Society of America Environment and Planning Harper's Weekly Hein Online Ingenta Interscience Interscience (Wiley) JStor Kluwer Online National Journal Titles Nature Oxford University Press Science ScienceDirectNature Oxford University Press Science ScienceDirect including Academic Press (Elsevier) Scientific American Archives Society of American Foresters University of Chicago Press Scientific American Archives Society of American Foresters University of Chicago Press

20. Law Sites LLRX.com metalinks HeinOnline.HeinOnline. The Modern Link to Legal History

21. Evaluating Internet Resources Evaluating Web PagesEvaluating Web Pages (University of California, Berkeley) Evaluating Information Sources Evaluating Information Sources (University of Minnesota) Do not forget, virtually anyone can place material on the Webanyone One way to evaluate information found on the Web is to consider the source of the information Domain names then become an important characteristic One type of information is information that has already been published in a different medium Such information may have already gone through some sort of peer review Under this category come the journal articles that can be found in libraries and online These material are usually outdated and will not be updated

22. Questions to ask Who created the site? What organization? When was the site created? What was the last update? How well can you identify who wrote the site material? What credentials does the author of the site material offer you to justify his/her authority? Are references given? Are links given? How long and with what kind of continuity has the site been maintained? Does the material on the site take into account other perspectives?

23. Citing sources All references in the text should be made by using endnotes Electronically Published Information Source or author URL - the electronic location Date last updated Date visited Text Publications - choose a style and stick with it The Chicago Manual of Style Online Style Manuals and Citation Guides (University of Minnesota)Style Manuals and Citation Guides If the electronic information is a digital version of a written publication then give a reference to the written publication only give a reference to the url if it is stable

24. Web Research 1.You must cite the source of all the information you use from the Web 2.You must cite two dates, first, the date you visited a particular URL to get the information and second, the date the page was last updated 3.You may use the material on the Web but you may not merely download an entire page, or even a screen, from a particular URL and hand it in as part of your project 4.You must download the material to a word processing package and edit the material, getting rid of the extraneous material and italicizing the cited text There are several exceptions to this general rule A map can be handed in with data superfluous to the map removed – with scissors! A table can be handed in similarly edited. A complete paper that you wish to include in its entirety as an appendix can also be handed in. This last category should be used sparingly

25. Web Portals University of Minnesota Libraries LexisNexis Congressional LexisNexis Academic JStor Federal Government Portals FirstGov.gov GPOAccess FedLaw Legal Information InstituteLegal Information Institute (Cornell University) Minnesota North Star

26. Wilderness Research FirstGov.org FirstGov.org 21,667 43,535 GoogleGoogle 34,400,000 English pages University of Minnesota LibrariesUniversity of Minnesota Libraries 4687 records LexisNexis AcademicLexisNexis Academic 450 law review articles >1,000 JStorJStor 30,453 articles

27. Congressional Quarterly Products Public Affairs Collection Online CQ Weekly Online The CQ researcher Guide to Congress How Congress works Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court How to access the federal government on the Internet State and local government Congress and the nation