Locating and Evaluating Sources in the Library and on the Internet

Rebecca Ziegler, Henderson Library Janice R. Walker, Dept. of Writing and Linguistics Mark Richardson, Dept. of Writing and Linguistics Academic Resource Center Workshop March 8, 2001 April 3, 2001 Henderson Library

Finding Resources in the Henderson Library -- Rebecca Ziegler

• Where to Look:  A Guide to Getting Started
• Library of Congress Classification System

• Locating Articles in Periodicals
• GALILEO and other Online Databases
• Keyword Searching & Boolean Operators - Worksheet #1
• Truncation - Worksheet #2

(Note: All worksheets are in MS Word format; click "Open" in the dialog box to use the file or "Save" to save it to a disk.)
• Using the Henderson Library Catalog
• Finding periodicals in the Henderson Library

Finding & Evaluating Resources on the Internet - Janice R. Walker 

• Search Engines
• Choose the Right Search Engine
• Search Engines
• AltaVista
• Google
• Search Directories
• Yahoo!
• Other
• Ask Jeeves
• Limit and Refine Your Search
• Boolean Operators and Advance Searches

 

Term	Description
AND	Limits your search to only those documents that contain both terms, in any order. For example, death AND penalty
OR	Searches for all instances of either term in documents. For example, death OR penalty
NOT	Eliminates terms from your search so that documents containing the term will not be listed. For example, death AND penalty NOT animals
" "	Groups words together and searches for them as phrases in a document. For example, "death penalty"
[ ]	Nesting search terms allows for greater flexibility in combining operators. For example, ["death penalty" AND "supreme court"] NOT animals
+	A plus sign ("+") before each term ensures that each term will be searched for. For example, +death+penalty
-	The minus sign ("-") will exclude terms from the search. For example, +death-penalty
*	Asterisks ("*") allow for "wild card" searching, that is, searches that include all forms of a word or all types of a file. For example, to search for documents that contain the word "penalty" as well as the plural form, "penalties," use penalt*

• Evaluate What You Find - Worksheet #3
• Domain Names and URLs
 

Protocol	Domain	Directory	Sub-Directories	File	File Type
http://	www.cas.usf.edu	english	walker	mla	.html
http://	www.m-w.com
http://	www.columbia.edu	acis	documentation/ghttp	search-info	.html


 
• Sponsoring Organization

 

.edu	Educational Institution	.gov	Government Agency
.org	An organization, usually non-profit	.mil	Military Institution (i.e., Army, Navy, etc.)
.com	Commerical Institution (i.e., a business)	.net	A Network site


 
• Authority
1. Is the author or authoring organization identified?
2. Does the site give information about the author's education, employment, or experience?
3. Is there a way to contact the author?

 
• Timeliness
1. Is the date of publication or last modification given?
2. Is the information current?
3. Do the links and graphics work?

 
• Relevance
1. Does the information answer important questions you may have or raise new ones you hadn't thought about?
2. Does it present examples or provide statistics that would be useful in supporting your arguments?
3. Does the site present counter-arguments you will need to address?

 
• Author's Purpose (Bias)
1. Is the author's purpose apparent or explicit?
2. Can you detect any biases that may affect the author's choice to present or omit facts or ideas?
3. Does the author's choice of audience affect the presentation?


Things to watch out for:

Advocacy	If the organization or person who creates the Web site advocates a particular point of view, you may not find balanced information that might support the other point of view.
Advertising	If the site aims to convince you to buy something, it may not given unbiased information.
Humor or Satire	Many sites present tongue-in-cheek information.  Do not mistake this for straightforward fact!