information research skills - hwa chong...
TRANSCRIPT
INFORMATION RESEARCH SKILLS
INFORMATION RESEARCH SKILLS
2 FEBRUARY 2012
How to search for ideas
Brainstorming for ideas
Information research skills
Online resources
Copyright and plagiarism issues
INTRODUCTION
Good research – product of a well-focused question. Narrow the question until it is one that can be answered within the limited time of a course or a grant and with the resources available to the researcher.
Research – discipline of accumulation – each researcher adding to the increasing knowledge within field of study.
INTRODUCTION
Effective researcher – aware of own prejudices, assumptions, beliefs, vision of the world.
Research is learning and learning causes change.
INTRODUCTION
Joy of research – comes from discovery of information that surprises, challenges, questions, makes us reconsider, reflect, revise.
HOW TO SEARCH FOR IDEAS
Internal research – find out
what I already know about the topic.
what I have experienced.
what I remember.
External research – find out what others know.
HOW TO SEARCH FOR IDEAS
On the Internet – find people like experts, writers, students like you.
Political discussions, documents, great speeches, government agencies, books, magazines, newspapers, journals, great art, literature, scientific experiments, museums, virtual field trips.
Find people to interview, mentors, people to get ideas from, gather useful information, supporting data.
HOW TO SEARCH FOR IDEAS
Go to a public area – observe people’s conversations.
Go to garage sales etc. – listen to comments made by people purchasing the items.
Explore a topic through different genres of writing e.g. football – through novels, poems, movies, plays, essays, songs, newspapers, TV shows etc.
HOW TO SEARCH FOR IDEAS
Check out biographies of famous historical figures.
Listen to news broadcasts on the radio.
Track a story in the newspapers and magazines.
Browse through bibliographies.
Visit special collection libraries.
HOW TO BRAINSTORM FOR IDEAS
Email – brainstorm with friends, mentors, to find subjects to write about, find people who know something about your subject, interview those people.
LISTSERVS – electronic mailing list software application, a set of email addresses for a group. One email is sent to all in the group.
CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS
Interview – informal, formal
Prepare by finding out as much as you can about the person you are interviewing.
At least 4 or 5 principal questions.
Tape the conversation so that information is not misinterpreted, or left out. Face to face interview is best.
BRAINSTORMING FOR IDEAS
Be specific with requests for information.
Don’t write : I am doing this research into censorship of information on the Internet. What can you tell me?
Instead ask : Can anyone suggest good Web sites that discuss court cases that deal with censorship of information on the Internet?
BIG SIX SKILLS
Task Definition
- Define the problem
- Identify the information
requirements of the problem
Information-seeking strategies
- Determine the range of possible
sources
- Evaluate different possible sources to
determine priorities
BIG SIX SKILLS
Location and Access
- Locate sources
- Find information within sources
Use of Information
- Engage the information in a source
- Extract information from a source
BIG SIX SKILLS
Synthesis
- Organize information from multiple sources
- Present information
Evaluation
- Judge the product
- Judge the information-solving process
TASK DEFINITION
Define the problem
E.g. A comparative study of premature greying of hair in youths, then and now?
Information requirements
Factors : Genes, Diet, Lifestyle
Comparison : Male, Female, Different races
INFORMATION-SEEKING STRATEGIES
Determining the range of resources
Evaluating the resources to determine priorities
Locating the resources
Using the resources
DETERMINING RESOURCES
Primary resources :
autobiographies, manuscripts, memoirs, original maps, direct oral interviews
Secondary resources : newspaper articles, books, journals, reports
- Books
- Journals
- Magazines/Periodicals
- Newspapers
- Pamphlets / Brochures
Non-print
- CDRoms
-Video / audio tapes
- Online databases
- Internet websites
- film / microfiche
DETERMINING RESOURCES
Primary material – available online
www.loc.gov
Demographic info
www.census.gov
Look for sites put together by experts, an organisation, museum, university, government agency
www.cancer.org
DETERMINING RESOURCES
Sites set up by librarians, educators or researchers who have put together collections of good Web sites –
Librarians’ Index to the Internet
www.lii.org
Scholarly Internet Research Collections
infomine.ucr.edu
DETERMINING RESOURCES
Voice of the Shuttle (Humanities Research) – http://vos.ucsb.edu/
Go to a specific site you know that deals with your subject, browse and search for information.
DETERMINING RESOURCES
Use a search engine or directory to search a database of many different WWW pages
Lycos –
http://www.lycos.com
Webcrawler – http://www.webcrawler.com
Metacrawler –
http://www.metacrawler.com
EVALUATING RESOURCES
Which do you want to use first?
Which are more relevant /current / accessible (=to reliable?)?
Finding too much –
3 000 000 hits on a topic
Most search tools sort the pages by relevance, so if No.45 is not relevant, the rest after that is not likely to be relevant.
LOCATING RESOURCES
At home
School Libraries
Reference Libraries
Academic Libraries – specialised collections
Museums
National Archives
World Wide Web
LOCATING RESOURCES
OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue)
- author, title, keyword search
- using Boolean operators,e.g.
and, or, (+), (-), “ ”
- Dewey Decimal
Classification (DDC – nos.)
- Library of Congress
Classification (LCC – A to Z)
* Library shelves – arranged from left to right, in ascending order
DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION
Fiction – First 3 letters of author’s surname
Non-fiction – 000 to 900s
- 000 to 100 : General Knowledge
- 100s : Philosophy
- 200s : Religion
- 300s : Social Studies
DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION
Non-fiction
- 400s : Language
- 500s : Natural Science
- 600s : Technology
- 700s : Art, Hobbies, Sports
- 800s : Literature, Geography
- 900s : Biography, History
USING RESOURCES : PARTS OF A BOOK
Title page Copyright Date
Dedication
Table of Contents Preface
Bibliography Glossary
Lists
Index Appendix
USING RESOURCES : BIBLIOGRAPHY
Black, Susan (1987). Bears, Bears, Bears. New York: Broadway Press.
Travers, Ruth (1987). The Incredible Polar Bear. Animal World, 26, 5-8.
USING RESOURCES : GLOSSARY
Bailey – the area enclosed by the walls of a castle
Barbican – outer defences of a castle
Coat of mail – a tunic of metal links
Dispersed – scattered
Girdle – a belt
Helm - helmet
USING RESOURCES : INDEX
Agincourt, battle of 40,44
Amusements 20-21,22,27
Anglo-Saxon chronicle 6
Banquet, 20
Black Prince 19,36,44
Caernarvon Castle 8,10
Dogs 18,20 21
USING INFORMATION
Engaging the information
What will be of use to you?
The tables, graphs, diagrams, illustrations, text?
Extracting the information
Are you going to rewrite the information, copy, refer to certain statements, use note-taking skills, quotation marks?
LOCATING RESOURCES: NON-PRINT
Internet search engines, e.g. Yahoo, Google
Online databases e.g. Dialog, ERIC - subject guide
- keyword search:
General subject – Modern history
Singapore (too broad)
Lim Bo Seng (too narrow)
Japanese Occupation in Singapore
LOCATING RESOURCES: NON-PRINT
Copyright issues – plagiarism, cite everything found, ease of gathering information causes people to forget they are taking someone else’s ideas.
Reliability - type of site : gov (government) mil (military) org (non-profit organisation) com (commercial) edu (education) Accuracy - typographical or grammatical errors - dead links
LOCATING RESOURCES: NON-PRINT
Lack of feedback facility may indicate lack of accuracy in the content and a lack of maintenance
Currency of information – when was it last updated?
Quality – counter may just indicate popularity rather than quality
Links to other pieces of research or sites of interest
LOCATING RESOURCES: NON-PRINT
Ease of Access : free or fee-based
Time management
Netiquette
Bias
SYNTHESIZING INFORMATION
Combine ideas gathered and blend them together
Organize information – topics, subheadings, chapters.
PRESENTING INFORMATION
Non-print (Powerpoint, Webpage)
Physical Product
EVALUATION
Judge the product
Judge the information-solving process
RESOURCES@KONG CHIAN LIBRARY
Print resources –
Books
Comics
Periodicals (Current & Past)
Newspapers
Past Examination Papers
Past Humanities Research Papers
Red-spot readings / books
History journals
RESOURCES@KONG CHIAN LIBRARY
Non-print resources – Music CDS CDRoms VCDs DVDs Teaching Kits / Charts / Maps Board games Online databases - access via Library
website / HCI Wikispaces
LIST OF ONLINE DATABASES
Straits Times Interactive
Newslink
Journal of Chemical Education
Journal of Biological Education
American Biology Teacher
Education in Chemistry
The Physics Teacher
Physics Education
Scientific American
Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
LIST OF ONLINE DATABASES
Journal of Contemporary China
China Quarterly
International Affairs
Critical Quarterly
World and I
Active History
Current History
Online Ecologist
ACCESS THROUGH HCI WIKISPACES
http://library.wiki.hci.edu.sg/Online+Resources
OTHER RESOURCE CENTRES
Projects Competition webpage (Studies – HCI homepage)
Jingxian Library (college section)
National Library and its branches (register as Digital Library member)
Institutional libraries (online tutorial for information skills)
World Wide Web
www.pl.sg (NLB e-resources)
CITING INTERNET RESOURCES
Webpages that offer information about citing Internet resources.
Purdue Online Writing Lab –
http://owl.english.purdue.edu
Writing centre at Colorado State University webpage – http://writing.colostate.edu/index.cfm
CITING INTERNET RESOURCES
URLs (World Wide Web) Author. (Year). Title of work. [Form]. Available: full web address. (Date of access).
Example: Ministry of Education, Singapore (1998). National Education. [On-Line]. Available: http://www.moe.edu.sg/neu/. (October 29, 1998).
COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT (DIGITAL SHOPLIFTING)
How does infringement arise?
Doing any of the following acts,
Copying author’s works, Issuing copies of the work to the public,
Performing, showing or playing the work in public
Adapting the work Copyright infringement can also arise by those
who authorize another to commit an infringing act.
Without Permission of the Author
BASIC COPYRIGHT PRINCIPLES
Who owns copyright? Author or Publisher of work.
What is the length of protection? Life time of author and 70 years thereafter,
Or End of year when work was published.
Sound recording & Film –70 years
Broadcast & Cable Programs –50 years
Published Editions – 25 years
Performances – 70 years
COPYRIGHT & PLAGIARISM
What is PLAGIARISM?
Copying and pasting text from online media, such as encyclopedias is plagiarism.
Copying and pasting text from any website is plagiarism.
Transcribing text from any printed material, such as books, magazines, encyclopedias or
newspapers, is plagiarism.
COPYRIGHT & PLAGIARISM
What is PLAGIARISM?
Simply modifying text from any of the above sources is plagiarism.
Replacing a few select words using a Thesaurus does not constitute original work.
Using photographs, video or audio without permission or acknowledgment is plagiarism.
COPYRIGHT & PLAGIARISM
What is PLAGIARISM?
Using another student's work and claiming it as your own, even with permission, is academically unethical and is treated as plagiarism. This is known as "collusion“. (secret agreement between two to perform a dishonest act).
Acquiring work from commercial sources is academically unethical and is treated as plagiarism.
COPYRIGHT IN WORKS & MEDIA
More than one copyright work or subject matter can be found in a single medium.
For example :
A music DVD contains :
The music video (a cinematograph film)
The music (a sound recording)
The lyrics ( a musical work)
COPYRIGHT IN WORKS & MEDIA
A webpage on the Internet contains :
Some written articles (a literary work)
Music in the background (a musical work)
A Youtube video (a cinematograph film)
Some photographs (an artistic work)
COPYRIGHT & PLAGIARISM
You may use such a photographic, video or audio source with your multimedia presentation that you create, or in your paper assignment
as long as you do not profit from it or use it for any purpose other than the original assignment.
You MUST include the source in your
reference.
How to avoid plagiarism and synthesize information into something that is your own work…
thesis statement, generate theory
citations
bibliography
reassertion of thesis statement
offer opinion
CRIMINAL SANCTIONS FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT Offence
Manufacture for sale or hire of infringing copies
Sale, letting for hire or by way of trade, offer or expose for sale or hire of infringing copies
By way of trade, exhibit in public infringing copies
Possession or importation into Singapore infringing copies
Penalty
Fine not exceeding $10 000 for the article or for each article in respect of which the offence was committed or $100 000, whichever is the lower, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or both
THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION!