Online Information Research

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Online Information Research

• Thinking about Research Paths

Presented byJames Buczynski, M.L.I.S.Seneca_at_Yor
k Librarian
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1. Know exactly what you are looking
for.2. Know where to look.
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1. Define a Topic

Building modular documentation
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2. Write aResearch Question - Summarize your
topic

• What methodologies , guidelines or standards are
  available for developing re-usable information?

Now you have a tool to evaluate each source you
find.
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3. Choose Keywords - Identify the concept(s)
4. ChooseAlternate Keywords
Modular documentation Re-usable
information Multi-purpose publishing Single
sourcing
Guidelines Best practices Check
lists Skills Strategy Strategies Tactics
Methodology Methodologies How-to Document
markup XML
Standards SCORM sharable content object reference
model IEEE 1484.11.2
Content management CMS
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• Google
• Search
• Every word in every
• document.
• Index made by machine
• Full Access Content
• Websites
• Current newspapers
• A few journals
• A few books
• Videos, Audio
• MS Office Files
• Images

• Library
• Search
• Author, Title, Subject (books)
• Every word (article dbs)
• Index made by humans
• Full Access Content
• 20 000 Electronic books
• 96 000 Print books
• 30 000 Online magazines,
• journals and newspapers.
• 800 print magazines, journals
• and newspapers.
• 8100 Audio-Visual Materials

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Sources Search Tools

• Books
• Magazines
• Journals
• Newspapers
• Films
• Sound recordings
• WWW

• Library Retail Catalogues
• Databases, Indexes
• Library, Rental and
• Retail Catalogues
• Google, etc

Shallow retrieval only (Author, title, subject,
etc)
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Digital Libraries have

• What exists
• Citation indexes with or without abstracts
• For download
• Datasets (ex. Statistics Canada)
• Directories (ex. Corporate Profiler)
• Articles Online journals, magazines, newspapers,
  proceedings
• Reports, white papers, pamphlets, brochures
• Theses and dissertations
• Standards (Ex. National Fire Codes)
• eBooks
• Maps (Current historical)
• Images, multimedia objects, graphics

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Online Information Bundling
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• Content Aggregators
• (Article Search Engine)
• 3 month to one year embargos on new content
• Title lists vary quarterly
• Many short and dead runs
• Coverage is often selective, i.e. specific
  articles are often missing. Tasini / Robertson
  cases
• Most Seneca library content is accessed this way.
• Ex. Academic Search Premier, Research Library,
  Lexis-Nexis, Canadian NewsStand

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• eBook Services
• Collections
• NetLibrary (10,000 titles)
• ITPro (Books24X7) (5000 titles)
• Safari Tech Books Online (2000 titles)
• National Academic Press Digital Library
• Oxford Reference Online
• Single book works
• Grove Dictionary of Art
• AccessScience (McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of
  science and Technology)
• Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences

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Exercise

• Locate information, using Senecas Digital
  Library, exploring
• Technical Communication
• Locate newspaper articles
• Locate popular magazine and academic journal
  articles.
• Email the articles to yourself.

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Non-Library Web Resources- Anybody can Post
Anything- Content can be free, or fee based
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Anybody can Post Anything
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Which one?
Free Web
http//thekingcenter.com/
http//martinlutherking.org
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Anybody can Post Anything
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Evaluating Information from the Internet is just
like Detective Work

• What do you need to track down?
• Authority (author, institute / organization,
  publication information)
• Objectivity (purpose of the site)
• Currency / Accuracy / Completeness

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Finding Information on the Web

• Type in a URL
• http//www.strategis.ic.gc.ca
• Web Search Engine
• Directory

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Search Engines (machine searches for web sites)

• Single Database
• Google.com (Scholar, Maps, Blogs,
• Image, Video, News, etc.)
• Alexa.com (built-in whois)
• Kartoo.com (pictures of hits)
• Scirus.com (best for Sci/Tech)
• Altavista Canada
• http//ca.altavista.com/
• http//www.live.com/ (Microsoft)
• http//www.teoma.com/ (small but good)
• http//firstgov.gov (U.S. Government)
• http//www.canada.gc.ca (Canada)
• Picsearch.com (images)
• Singingfish.com (audio video)
• Archive.org (55 billion pages)

• Multi-database
• Vivisimo.com
• ixquick.com
• Metacrawler.com
• Dogpile.com
• Familyfriendlysearch.com
• Blogs
• Blogsearch.google.com
• Technorati.com
• Search.blogger.com
• Podcasts
• podcasts.yahoo.com
• http//www.podscope.com/ (spoken word)

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Directories (People select web sites)

• Browsable Lists of Web Sites
• Seneca Libraries Subject Guides
• http//dmoz.org/ or Google Directory
• Search Engine Directories
• Searchenginecolossus.com (language by country)
• Podcast Directories Blog Directories
• Podcast.net Photoblogs.org
• Indiepodder.org gtabloggers.com
• Podcastalley.com http//www.blogscanada.ca/direct
  ory/

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Sharing and Communicating What I Found
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Select the article and go to the Citation page
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Some URLs can be hundreds of characters long. Use
a shrink service like Tinyurl.com to make smaller
links to share by email, etc.
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The Infomark indicates that this page is
persistent
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Example Britannica
Full-Text Articles and Citations
Each citation includesthe persistent link
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To create the persistent link, add this Digital
Object Identifier (DOI) without the doi to
the prefix http//dx.doi.org/
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Example netLibrary
eBooks
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Example netLibrary
eBooks
Use the Product ID to construct a persistent
link http//www.netlibrary.com/ebook_info.asp?pro
duct_idxxxxx
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Example Safari Tech
eBooks
Note Link will only work on campus, unless you
add http//lcweb.senecac.on.ca2048/login?url
to the front of it.
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I Dont Know if This Link is Persistent!

• Test the link!
• Create a sample link and either email it to
  yourself and paste it into a Web page
• Remember to check the following
• on-campus and remote (you may have to use the
  proxy prefix http//lcweb.senecac.on.ca2048/login
  ?url
• various Web browsers (IE, NN, Firefox, Opera)
• check over a period of time to make sure the link
  does not disintegrate within a day
• You are always welcome to contact library staff
  with questions!
• Or email LCOTechHelp_at_senecac.on.ca

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Summary

• Budget sufficient time for research.
• Digital library content is not available on free
  web search engines.
• Vocabulary search tools success!
• Keep notes of what paths keywords worked and
  those that did not work, to save time.
• We wary of freely available web content.

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And of Course...

• If you have any questions or
• need help finding information,
• please ask us as at the
• Reference Desk!
• Tel [phone]x3038