TABLE OF CONTENTS
Choosing a Topic: if you need help choosing a topic try to:
Now ask yourself, "What do I want to know about this topic? What words, subjects or phrases should I search to get more information from books, articles, web resources or other sources of information?".
- Browse through current issues of journals in your field.
- Look in an online encyclopedia such as the Britannica <http://www.eb.com:180> for an interesting subject, background information, graphs or illustrations.
- Search on ASA, our online catalog to find subjects related to your field.
Once you have selected words you can begin by doing a familiar author,
title or subjects search OR you can create a keyword search strategy using
a powerful feature available in our online resources called Boolean
Logic. Boolean Logic uses the terms AND, OR and NOT
to broaden or narrow your search and is available in most online databases,
catalogs and Internet search tools. Online resources often retrieve many
records so narrowing your results can be very useful. The way Boolean Logic
works is fairly simple,
AND retrieves results that contain BOTH search terms which narrows your search.Example: russia and economics
OR retrieves items that contain EITHER term in the record which broadens results.Example: women or females
NOT retrieves records that include the first term but EXCLUDE the SECOND TERM which narrows your search.Example: microwave not ovens
Once you have created a search strategy the next step is to decide
which information resources to
search to find books, articles or other information..
Many research resources available for your use at Lehigh can be accessed
from the Lehigh LibraryServices
homepage . The URL for this web page is: http://www.lehigh.edu/~inlib
This
page can also be located by choosing Library from the top menu bar
on Lehigh's main web page and then choosing Library Services. A
general research advisor guide is located on this page called InfoDome.
Check it out to find what research resources to use for the subject area
you are interested in.
The first choice on the LibraryServices
menu is our online catalog,ASA.
Here you will find listed books, print and electronic journals, web resources,
government documents, videos, CD-ROMS and various other resources in our
Library and available from around the world through Internet connections.
Each screen in ASA
contains brief examples of search strategies plus a help button to give
a more detailed explanation of the many special features available for
you to use. ASA
allows many types of searches, for example, to search to see if Lehigh
subscribes to a particular journal, type the journal title in the search
"well" then click on the Journal Title search button.
From the list of titles that result from your search, choose the title
that most closely matches your search and click on the title to see a more
detailed record. The example for the general interest journal Newsweek
shows the locations of the item, in this case the most recent issues are
located in both Linderman and Fairchild-Martindale Libraries on Reserve
at the circulation desks, and that the older issues are available on Microfilm
which is located at the Fairchild-Martindale Library. If a record is a
web site or an electronic journal, then clicking on the web address in
the record will open the resource.
To find citations for journal articles you should NOT look in
our online catalog. You will find journal article indexes for many different
subjects located on the Library Services
menu (http://www.lehigh.edu/~inlib) listed under
the menu choice Databases.
The example below is a general index called Academic
Index (InfoTrac) with articles on many subjects, some from scholarly
journals. Many of the articles cited in this index contain the full text
of the articles which you can then print out without having to search in
our collection for the journals. To locate articles older then the past
20 years you often should use the print subject or general indexes
located in the library reference areas. We have indexes for journals back
into the 19th century. Ask the helpdesk or a librarian to locate what you
need.
The following example of a search result from Academic
Index shows articles on the topic CNN. The information
under the citations, "view text", indicates that the full text of that
article is available for you to use. Articles that are not available full
text can be found by checking in our catalog, ASA,
to see if we subscribe to the journal that contains the article or they
can be requested through Inter
Library Loan (ILL), which is a service we offer which will get
books or copies of articles for you from other libraries. In a search with
a large number of results you can limit your search in this database
by adding additional terms, by limiting the range of article dates or by
choosing to view narrower subject subdivisions of your topic.
In addition to the resources available from the Lehigh Virtual Library
page you may wish to try searching your topic on the Internet with one
of the many search engines available such as Yahoo, Google, etc. When you
use search tools on the Internet the responsibility for selecting worthwhile
resources is up to you, not a librarian or your instructor or the
search engine! In fact search engines can vary widely in accuracy and usefulness.
If you want to know more about how search engines can be manipulated and
how they may manipulate YOU check out the links in the resource section
below. So, how DO we select and decide on the merit of information on the
Internet? We consider the following:
ACCURACY
• Is the site well researched and information
properly cited?
• Are facts and statistics documented?
AUTHORITY
• Can you identify the author/sponsor?
• Is contact information provided?
• What are the qualifications or credentials
of the author? What is the institutional affiliation?
• Is copyright clearly stated where applicable?
OBJECTIVITY
• Are the goals/aims of the authors clearly
stated?
• Are there biases in the document?
CURRENCY
• When was the site last updated? Are the
links up-to-date?
PUBLISHING BODY
• Who "publishes" or sponsors the site? Is
there a connection to a larger sponsoring web site? You can sometimes tell
something about the site from the URL (Uniform Resource
Locator) for the site by checking the letters to the left of the first
(/). The abbreviations you see stand for the following information:
.edu
refers to a U.S. college or university
.cc.(state).us
refers to a community college
.k12.(state).us refers to
a school that has grades k-12
.com
refers to a business or commercial enterprise
.org
refers to a non-profit organization or trade association
.mil
refers to a military site
.gov
refers to a government agency, official, or organization
.net
refers to a network administration organization
COVERAGE
• How does the information compare with other
sources available on the topic?
For more information about these resources and help in using the many other research tools available at Lehigh, ask for help at the library HelpDesk, call 8help, or contact a Librarian who specializes in the subject area you are interested in. The subject Librarians are:
Roseann Bowerman Social Sciences Librarian
83053 rb04
Bill Fincke
College of Business
83052 wjf0
Jean Johnson
College of Education
84889 jj04
Kathe Morrow
Humanities Librarian
83041 kem6
Sharon Seigler
Engineering
83068 sls7
Brian Simboli
Science & Mathematics
85003 brs4
Cowles, Susan. "Is it fools' gold or the real thing?" 5 Dec. 97. National Institute For Literacy. 10 Sept. 00 <http://novel.nifl.gov/susanc/foolsgld.htm>
McMullen, Susan. "Evaluating Information on the Internet." 1 Sept. 98. Roger Williams University Libraries. 10 Sept. 00 <http://library.rwu.edu/evaluat.html>
Tyburski, Genie. "Evaluating the quality of information on the Internet"
14 Sept. 01. Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, 22 Sept. 02 <http://www.virtualchase.com/quality/index.html>
Prepared by Kathe Morrow kem6 x83041
updated 09/22/02