Library Navigation Exercise - Assignment Example

Part I: In the Library One good academic resource is all that you need to begin a thorough review of the research available in your field of study. From there, you simply follow the trail… Surveying the Reference Landscape The reference section of the library is one that students tend to avoid for as long as possible. It is tedious and so filled with information that it can be difficult to navigate through all the muck. But you need to know it. So I’m forcing you in. Your first stop should be the Research Help Desk on the first floor. STEP 2: The words you use for your search can make or break your project. To save yourself hours of fruitless searching under vague terms, seek the book titled Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). These large, red volumes are available on the bookshelves to the right of the Research Help Desk. The LCSH lists the standard headings used by most libraries to organize their collection of information. The LCSH is an easy way to find one or more subject search terms that will quickly yield useful sources on your subject. Consult the LCSH with your topic in mind and jot down several search terms that seem promising. Now that you’ve found subject terms that might help narrow your electronic search down, look on the supplemental “Library of Congress Classification System” handout (below) and find the general subject heading that most accurately reflects your topic. Note the call letters for that topic and go to the corresponding reference section of the library and take a look around (for example: if you are writing about the impact of music on the actions of human beings, you might look at “Music” and find that the call letters that best suit your topic are “ML”). When you seek out that section of the reference material, you will find a variety of possible reference material. Please note that you are going to have to look; if you can’t find a source specific to your topic, try to find a general one (such as an encyclopedia that covers your topic or some aspect of it). The twenty-one branches are: A – GENERAL WORKS B – PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION C – AUXILIARY SCIENCES OF HISTORY D – HISTORY: GENERAL & OUTSIDE THE AMERICAS E – HISTORY: UNITED STATES F – HISTORY: UNITED STATES LOCAL & AMERICAS G – GEOGRAPHY, ANTHROPOLOGY, RECREATION H – SOCIAL SCIENCE J – POLITICAL SCIENCE K – LAW L – EDUCATION M – MUSIC N – ART P – LANGUAGE & LITERATURE Q – SCIENCE R – MEDICINE S – AGRICULTURE T – TECHNOLOGY U – MILITARY SCIENCE V – NAVAL SCIENCE Z – LIBRARY SCIENCE & INFORMATION RESOURCES * If you aren’t sure what subject heading your topic belongs to, ask a librarian and see how you might best proceed. Finding Books Books certainly hold a lot of promise in yielding valuable information, though the publication process often makes that information less timely than journals and articles. Our library (like most college libraries) uses the Library of Congress catalog system to organize the bookshelves (as opposed to the Dewey Decimal System). This system, which relies on the use of both letters and numbers, is one you need to become familiar with. Each call number begins with one or two letters, signifying a category of knowledge, which is followed by a whole number between 1 and 99,999. A decimal and one or more Cutter numbers sometimes follow. The Library of Congress system is pretty complex, but it’s not hard to use. As you get deeper into your research for this class, you’ll begin to recognize call numbers that consistently yield useful books. It is often helpful to simply browse those shelves for other possibilities. *TIP: Remember that you can use Prospector to get your hands on a book that we don’t hold here. Now retrieve the book from the stacks. Grab a book off the shelves that looks promising. Then, write down the first sentence of the first full paragraph on page 10 (just for kicks. To keep you on your toes). Checking Bibliographies While you have a real book in your hands, look at the back for a bibliography or list of sources that contributed to the work. Often bibliographies can be mined for additional sources that might be useful to you. Look at the back of the book you found and scan the titles in order to write down at least one promising source you find. Part II: The Library Databases General Encyclopedias: Getting the Lay of the Land Using a general encyclopedia is a little like looking through a pair of binoculars from the wrong end. You get the long view of the subject. They are often too general, yet they are an excellent point of entry. Wikipedia is easy and simple, but not reliable. Instead, use the GVRL (Gale Virtual Reference Library) by clicking on “Database List” from the Auraria Library homepage and searching for GVRL. Do a Quick Search and write the following: Finding Magazines and Journal Articles We have also become well acquainted with the electronic databases that compile periodicals of all sorts. Please visit one of the multi-subject databases (try Academic OneFile Plus or Academic Search Premier Plus, but not Lexis Nexis quite yet) and do the following steps. Remember to use the Boolean operators (like AND, NOT) to help narrow your search. Newspaper Articles If your tentative exploratory topic is local, current or controversial, then newspapers can be useful sources. You’ll rarely get much in-depth information or analysis from newspapers, but they can often provide good quotes, anecdotes, and case studies as well as the most current printed information available on your topic. Newspapers are also sometimes considered primary sources because they provide firsthand accounts of things that have happened. Government Documents The United States government is the largest publisher in the world, and our library is indeed a depository for government documents (something like 40%). So anyway, the great thing about government documents is that they cover a broad range of subjects. The bad news is that you may go nuts trying to find what you’re looking for. As always, there are printed and electronic indexes to government documents. The most important index, the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications, is available in both forms. In addition to this (and many other possible sources), the Government Printing Office’s GPO Access offers a wide range of government documents at the click of a mouse. Once again, link to “Database List” through the Auraria Library and then search for the USAGov or GPO Access database. Part III: Searching the Internet—Responsibly STEP 10: Newsgroups. Newsgroups differ from Listservs in that the discussions and exchanges are collected for you to retrieve; they aren’t sent to you via e-mail. Both, though, are a type of discussion group. To find newsgroups on a specific subject, go to http://groups.google.com, a research tool sponsored by Google that surveys all Usenet newsgroups. STEP 11: Directories, unlike search engines, have information that has been arranged by human reasoning, based on topics such as: education, health, public issues, etc… These directories are meant for a research-minded audience. Here are some sites to visit for help in selecting an appropriate site to retrieve information. List one good lead for each directory listed below. STEP 12: Government sites can also prove unexpectedly useful. Government-maintained sites include legal texts, facts and statistics, or reference databases (Hacker, p.17). STEP 13: News sites. Many magazines, newspapers and networks offer up-to-date information via the Web. Readers can often access current stories for free, but often have to pay for archives. If you need back copies, use LexisNexis!!! By the end of this extensive research effort, I hope that you have places to go to help learn about your chosen topic and resources that will help you manipulate your topic into a research worthy argumentative proposition. Remember, if you finish this with one good academic resource, you’ll have a trail of information to follow. Read More