Finding Articles Chisa Uyeki Library 150: Week 3 October 6, 2006

Getting Started  In Class Exercise II Following directions Reference book from Reference Collection! Stop words Redo check minuses

Today’s Class:  Database Searching Scholarly vs. Popular What is a database?  Types of databases Choosing a database Article citations Using ILLiad to request articles  Evaluating results  Questions (anytime)

Broaden Your Search  Use OR with synonyms, alternative terms  teenagers OR adolescents to include related terms  cigarette* OR smoking OR tobacco  Use a more general term (go from coffee to beverage)  Search by Keyword  Use truncation

Narrow Your Search  AND retrieves only items where the two concepts overlap  Example: smoking AND teenagers  Use Advanced Search to limit by place (United States, California, etc.) format (printed materials, scholarly articles, etc.) time period (last 5 years) language (English) Person or group of people (girls, Asian Americans)

Sophisticated Searching Techniques  Keep a record  Consider alternative perspectives  Discipline-based resources  And, Or, Not, & Truncation  Subject terms  Citation searching/chasing  Diversify types of materials  Refine & revise search terms

Scholarly or Popular How do you know if its scholarly? Magazines = entertainment, current events Journals = research and analysis Check the databases for information Bibliographies or reference lists Author (scholar? Professor? Analyst?) Affiliation and publisher? Scholarly association? University press? Abstracts Title can be a good hint.

Finding articles by subject  The Catalog shows journal, magazines & newspaper we can access it Does Not show the articles in them.  To find articles, use a database to: Electronically search for relevant articles Note: the dbases cover more journals than the Library carries

What is a database? A collection of information organized for easy access and searchable by specific fields like author and title.

Selecting the right Database Commonalities Searching  Fields  limiting Display Results  Print   Download Differences Subjects Time period covered Items indexed Searching capabilities Citations, abstracts, or full-text

Evaluating your Results Critical evaluation:  Who created it? (authority)  For whom? (audience)  When was it created? (currency)  What does it include? (scope & treatment)  How does it relate to other works?  Does it help answer your question? Adapted from Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe’s “Evaluation of Information”

Exercise 1.How do you get to this database? 2.What types of materials can you find with this database? (e.g., journal articles, books, book reviews, web pages?) 3.What subject(s) or discipline(s) does this database cover? 4.Can you browse journals contained in the database? 5.Are there basic search, advanced search and expert search? 6.Is this database searching by phrase or word by word? How can you tell? 7. Can you use Boolean Operators? Which ones? 8. Can you limit your search by material type?

Groups  Academic Search Premier #1: Michelle, Miriam, Maria #2: Noe, Jessica, Melissa  ABI Inform Global #only: Luz, Lamar, Yelena  Social Science Abstracts #1: Lekeith, Jessica, Esmeralda #2: Karen, Deisy, Gabby

Exercise part 2 9. What field does this database search automatically? What are other search fields 10. Can you limit your search by certain journals or limit your search by journals of certain subject? 11. Can you choose how your articles are displayed? 12. How the article is displayed ( in HTML, Word or PDF format)? 13. Can you get full text articles in this database? If not, how can you get the full-text article you need? 14. Can you , save or print your search results? 15. Is there a help page? 16. Are there any unique features you would use?

Assignment 1  Find 1 scholarly journal article and 1 popular magazine/or newspaper article on your topic.  Full APA citations for both articles  print out first page  Compare and contrast the two articles in the following areas: Authorship Intended audience Language used Bibliography Publication schedule Purpose or use of article

Grading Criteria  Worth 25 points  Points awarded based on the following: Accuracy of citations Thoughtfulness, clarity and specificity of answers Adherence to categories and guidelines Overall considerations of grammar and spelling