early college aca presentation
DESCRIPTION
Introduction to library resources given to high school freshmen over two class periods on November 15 and 17, 2011.TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Library
Jennie Davis
South Campus Librarian
Topics Covered
o Different Kinds of Resources
• Books
• Articles
• Internet Information
o How to discover and locate those resources using
• Library Catalog
• Online Databases
• Search Engines
o How to use the information you find
o How to avoid plagiarism
Many Sources of Information
3 Main Types
o Books
o Articles
o Internet Information
Reference Books
o Can’t check out from the library.
o Includes general encyclopedias, subject
encyclopedias, atlases, dictionaries,
almanacs, etc.
o Include chunks of information on lots of
different subjects.
o Good for learning about a new topic.
Circulating Books
o Books that you can check out from the
library.
o Novels, plays, short stories, non-fiction.
o Lots of information about a particular subject.
o Can be broad or narrow.
Using Books for Research
Advantages Disadvantageso Lots of information on one
subject.
o Excellent for analysis or in-
depth examination of a
subject.
o Great for historical
information or to see how
something was viewed in the recent or distant past.
o Usually published more than a year after they are written.
o Not useful for very recent
information (within the last
few days or months).
o Limited use for information
that changes rapidly.
Articles
o Come from newspapers, magazines, journals,
and other periodicals.
Periodicals are materials
that are published at
regular intervals (daily,
weekly, yearly, etc.) or
otherwise periodically.
Newspaperso Published daily or weekly, focusing on current
news.
o Cover international and national news, but
often best source for regional and local news.
o Most articles are short and give only the most
essential facts.
o But feature articles can be very in-depth.
o Editorial sections are good sources of opinions.
Magazineso Usually published weekly or monthly, some bi-
weekly or bi-monthly.
o Popular, newsworthy, informational, or
entertaining subjects.
o Usually short and to the point, with some
longer feature articles.
o Usually picture-heavy.
o Written for the general public.
Journalso Published anywhere from weekly to yearly.
o Focus on a particular subject area.
o Written by experts on a subject to be read by
other people in the field.
o Use very technical language.
o Very text-heavy, sometimes with charts,
statistics or diagrams, but few pictures.
o Cover narrow subjects in-depth.
What is a peer-reviewed or scholarly journal?
A journal is considered scholarly or “peer-
reviewed” when articles that are submitted for
publication in a journal are reviewed by other
scholars in the same subject area (peers of the
article’s writers).
Using Articles for Research
Advantages Disadvantageso Much more up-to date than
books.
o Much more targeted information than what is found in a book.
o Great for finding opinion and commentary on current events and hot-button issues.
o Journals best for specific, current information on very narrow topics.
o Can’t cover as much
information as books (but
more than newspapers).
o Still is a lag time between writing and publication.
o Not as much information in
one place.
Internet Informationo Can be published instantaneously, yet some
pages are years old.
o Subjects can cover everything you can think of (and some that you can’t).
o Generally picture-heavy and not much text.
o Often not very in-depth, though it depends on the page.
o No one has to verify or edit information before it is published to the Internet.
Using the Internet for Research
Advantages Disadvantageso Most up-to-date.
Publication can be
immediate.
o Ease of access.
o Great way to find voices or
topics not often included in
traditional publications.
o Government information is reliable and plentiful.
o Anyone can put anything on the Internet.
o Difficult to judge whether
information given is correct
or useable.
o Difficult to verify identity of
webpage author.
o Sheer amount of Internet
information makes it hard to find what you are looking for.
Book, Article, or Webpage?
History and culture of several Native American
tribes
Book
Sports scores and stats from today’s football game
Webpage
Collection of short stories and poems by American
authors from the 18th and 19th
centuries
Book
Expert analysis of last week’s mid-term elections
Article
Study by several medical doctors about whether a new treatment for osteoporosis is
effective
Article
Basic information about the Renaissance and how it
began
Book
What you need to do to obtain your driver’s license in
the state of North Carolina
Webpage
How to find books
Use the Library’s online catalog.
http://lrc.vgcc.edu/home
Boolean Searching
o OR- Use between keywords to get MORE results
o AND- Use between keywords to get FEWER results
o Parentheses- Use with AND and OR to group search
terms to get targeted results.
Catalog Searching
Take several minutes to search the catalog
and find a book you are interested in.
Make sure the book is at South Campus and is
checked in.
On the provided worksheet, write down the
title, author and call number in the designated
boxes.
How to read a
Library of Congress Call Number
RC 564 .M298 2001
RC564
.M298
2001
How to read a
Library of Congress Call Number
RC
564
.M298
2001
Alphabetical Order
Numerical Order
Alphabetical THEN
Decimal Order
Numerical Order
Variations
OH
442.2
.C56
1998
HF
5548.4
.M525
S3823
2007
REF
PN
6081 .W366
2000
Where do I go?
OH 442.2 .C56 1998
OC
6025
.J98
1999
OH
62.3
.G3
2000
OH
441
.L2390
1975
OH442.12
.C50
2010
OH4263
.S21
1982
A B C D E F
Where do I go?
RC 564 .M298 2001
R
1952
.C4
1994
RC
275.2
.N54
2005
RC
56
.M38
1975
RC564
.M64
2010
TC2484
.S21
2005
A B C D E F
Homework
o Bring worksheet to the college library.
o Search the shelves for the call number of
your book.
o Bring worksheet and book to desk .
o Librarian is available to help.
Finding Articles
o Can find some articles by browsing
through physical copies in library or
elsewhere.
o More efficient way is to use an online
database.
What is a database?o Collection of information from many
different sources.
o Can include articles from thousands of newspapers, magazines and journals.
o Often have full text and can go back into the 1990’s and earlier.
A database is not…
o Freely available on the Internet.
o Unedited or unregulated.
o Always full text.
o Just for research papers.
Using the Internet for Research
The internet is a great place to get information, but
can be problematic.
o Finding the RIGHT information in the sea of
Internet clutter can be a major challenge.
o Being a BETTER SEARCHER can help you find
information more efficiently.
o Making sure you have RELIABLE information is
critical.
Evaluating Internet Information
What to look for
o Authority o WHO wrote it?
o Are they qualified?
o Can you verify their identity?
o Is there a sponsor?
o Accuracyo Is it correct?
o Is the information reliable?
o Are there factual errors? Typos?
o Objectivityo Is it fact or opinion?
o Is there a noticeable bias?
o Is the page designed to sway opinion or trying to sell you something?
Evaluating Internet Information
What to look for
o Currencyo When was the page created?
o When was it last updated?
o Are links up-to-date?
o Has information changed since the page was written?
o Coverageo What topics are covered?
o Is the information valuable?
o Is there information that you can’t get from another source?
o How in-depth is the information?
Evaluating Internet Information
o Verify information by confirming what you find with another source, find the same info in an article or book.
o If the owner of a web site is well-known and trusted (CNN,
American Diabetes Association, US State Department) the
page can probably be trusted .
o Check the identity of website authors you don’t know by
doing a news search.
The key to using Internet Information (or ANY information) is to
examine it carefully and use critical thinking to evaluate it.
Example
What’s next?Bring it all together!
What is Plagiarism?
Taking someone else’s work
and claiming it as your own
OR
Using someone else’s words
or ideas without giving them
proper credit.
How do you avoid plagiarism?
o If you use exact text from another person’s work,
put quotation marks around it.
o Summarize longer selections by putting the main
ideas or points in your own words.
o Paraphrase another person’s idea or statement by
putting it completely in your own words.
o And ALWAYS cite your sources.
What is a citation?Details about a source of information that you got from
somewhere else and are using in your own work.
Certain Information is typically required, including
o Author name(s)
o Title of the information source
o Title of the longer work the information source is in (if applicable)
o Publication information (publisher, place, year)
o Editor name (if applicable)
o Location of exact source (page numbers, web URL, vol. number,
etc.)
What is a Bibliography or
Works Cited?o A list of all sources you use for a paper or other kind
of project.
o Must be presented in such a way that someone else
can use the Works Cited and find the same
resources that you used.
o Usually found at the back of a paper.
o Writers use internal citations and footnotes in the
body of a paper to note which sources are used
where and refer readers to the full information in the
Works Cited.
Recapo Different kinds of sources
o How you discover and find those sources
o How you use the sources
o What plagiarism is and how to avoid it
http://jeopardylabs.com/play/library-jeopardy144