How can you find out… what you need to know? Mr. Martin J. Crabtree Mercer County Community College Library With help from Ms. Pamela Price

What do you need to know… to go out on a date?

What do you need to know… to go out on a date? Who are you going to ask out? –That’s your choice! What are you going to do?

Go to a movie? Go out to dinner? Go to a concert? Go to an amusement park? Go to a Broadway show?

OK, we’re gong to a concert Now, who are we going to see?

Do we want to see Mariah Carey? Perhaps…

Sorry she isn’t on tour Darn!

…or perhaps we could see Destiny’s Child Maybe…

I know let’s see 50 Cent & Eminem Yeah!!!

We know who we are going to see… Now what do we need to find out?

When will 50 Cent & Eminem be playing? Where will the concert take place? What do tickets cost? It would be nice to know who else is playing too

Where, when, and how much does it cost to see 50 Cent? Where – Tweeter Center, Camden, N.J. When – Saturday, August 6, 2005 at 7:30 PMWhen – Saturday, August 6, 2005 at 7:30 PM How much? - $80.50, $55.00 & $25.00 …and who else will be performing?

Also performing will be… Lil John & the East Side Boyz D12 G-Unit Obie Trice Stat Quo Great show! Now what do we need to find out?

How are we going to get there? If I'm driving how do I get there? I don't want to pay $10 to park my car so... Can I take public transportation to get there?Can I take public transportation to get there? So what does this have to do with college?

In college, just like going on a date, you must be able to find out what you need to know. Now let's watch a little TV...

So there is a lot of information out there. How can I find what I need? The library can help...

Today’s presentation is brought to you by… …and now back to the show.

The MCCC library and staff can help you find what you need to know. In college, the information you need to know comes in many forms –In print like books and magazines –Electronically in databases and on the internet Often you will need to use more that one kind of information in your college work.

Say you are taking BUS 101 (Introduction to Business) this Fall You are given an assignment to write a 3 page paper about some kind of industry What industry do you pick?

The Automobile Industry? Perhaps…

What industry do you pick? The Sports Industry? Maybe…

What industry do you pick? The Music Industry! Yeah! Now where can I find the info I need?

Where can I find the music industry information I need? In print: –Billboard Magazine, the music industry magazine –Books: The Media and Entertainment Industries (in the MCCC library) Electronically: From the ABI Inform database From the internet From the ABI Inform database From the internet You need to be especially careful when using Internet information. Why??

Don't be fooled, everything's not on the web and you're likely to miss a lot what is there It takes time and lots of $$$ to put thing up and maintain things on the web. Humans have been generating information for centuries, yet the web was "born" in 1990.

Don't be fooled, everything's not on the web and you're likely to miss a lot what is there You can search and see the articles from the New York Times from it's start in 1851 to now (for a fee). The best you can do on the web for some other newspapers (and you still have to pay for it!): –The Philadelphia Inquirer back to 1978 –The Trenton Times back to 1993 –The Trentonian back to 1998

OK, so everything's not there, how come I'm going to miss a lot of what is there? Search Engines (like yahoo and google) are good but they’re far from perfect –Search engine's have existed for about 10 years. –They are pretty good at finding the words you ask it to search for...if the web site is in the right computer format (HTML), not all are. –The things missed by a search engine is often called the Invisible Web. –The Invisible Web may be as much as 500 times larger than the web your search engine "sees". –Also search engines are not good at finding "non-word" things like audio/video clips or images.

Search Engines are good but...they're far from perfect Think about it... What words would you use in a search engine to find this exact picture (of a '53 Cadillac Eldorado) on the web?

Now for our commercial Now back to the show.

You need to be especially careful when using Internet information. Evaluating Internet Information – Quality varies greatly from site to site –Often you are the sole evaluator of the quality of information a site provides So what can I do?

5 Criteria for Evaluating Web Info ACCURACY - is it reliable, do they have their facts right? AUTHORITY - just who wrote it, is author qualified on subject? OBJECTIVITY - is the information biased, are they trying to "sell" you something? CURRENCY - is the information fresh and up do date? COVERAGE - does the info completely cover the topic, are they telling you the whole story?

Let’s look at an example Go to

The Last Page There is a lot of stuff you will need to know throughout your life Being able to find the right information you need is one of the most important skills you will need –for fun –for school –for work –for everything in your life