Using the Library and the Internet
© 2014 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. College Writing Skills with Readings, 9/e
Chapter Twenty-One
Using the Library and the Internet
College Writing Skills with Readings, 9/e
John Langan
© 2014 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Using the Library and the Internet
For most research topics, you
need to master two basic tasks:
1) finding books on your topic, and 2) finding articles on your topic.
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Using the Library and the Internet
Two main avenues for finding books and articles are
1) the library and 2) the Internet.
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The Library
The heart of any library consists of the following: • the main desk • the book stacks, and • the catalog of holdings.
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The Library
• The main desk is usually located in a central spot.
• In addition to checking out books there, you can usually also find information on the layout and services of the library.
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The Library
Books, bound periodicals, and
some other materials are kept in the library’s stacks.
Some stacks are closed to students; in
these cases, you need to fill out a form to
request material.
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The Library
The catalog of holdings is a list of all the materials available
in the library.
Formerly made up of cards in a set of drawers, catalogs today are usually computerized.
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The Library
You can use the catalog to look up a book in one of three ways:
1) by author, 2) by title, or 3) by subject.
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The Library
Here is a sample catalog entry: Author: Hersch, Patricia.
Title: A tribe apart : a journey into the heart of
American adolescence
Edition: 1st ed.
Description: 391 p. ; 25 cm.
Published: New York : Fawcett Columbine, 1998.
LC Subjects: Teenagers --United States.
Location: GIBBSBORO
Call Number: HQ796 .H43 1998
Circulation Data: Overdue as of 05/31/2000
© 2014 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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The Library
If you are researching a topic, you should do a subject search, which can provide • a list of books on a given topic, • related topics, and • more limited topics, if you need help narrowing yours.
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The Library To locate periodical articles on your topic, you need to search periodicals indexes such as the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature.
Most of these are now available in a digital database.
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Here is a sample entry in a periodicals index:
Diet
Cancer and Diet G. Cowley. il Newsweek
60-66 N 30 ‘98
subject title
author
periodical
page numbers “illustrated” date
The Library
© 2014 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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As with a book search, if you are researching a topic, you
should use the indexes to do a subject search first.
The Library
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You can also use the periodicals indexes to look up a specific article by author or by title.
The Library
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Once you have located the
book(s) and periodical(s) you need, you can proceed to the stacks (or request the materials).
The Library
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The Internet
The Internet is a giant network that connects computers at tens of
thousands of institutions around the
world.
If you have an Internet connection, you have vast amounts of information literally at your
fingertips.
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The Internet
Your libraries -- school and/or public -- might well be online, in which case their catalogs and possibly digital databases (including periodicals indexes) might be available online.
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The Internet
If not, many large research libraries, public and private, offer limited
access to their catalogs and
databases. Try these: •www.columbia.edu (Columbia University) •www.loc.gov (Library of Congress) •www.nypl.org (New York Public Library)
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The Internet
Major online booksellers such as Amazon.com are easy to search and offer information on a vast
number of books, both in- and
out-of-print.
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The Internet
Just as in the case of library catalogs
and indexes, the Internet also allows you to research a topic by subject.
Search engines, which organize websites by
categories, can be invaluable in such searches. Try Google.com or Yahoo.com.
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The Internet
Search engines (Google, Yahoo and many others) will find websites that relate to your topic.
The key to useful searches is the search terms you use. Use “quotation marks” and +plus- and -minus-signs to limit the number of “hits” your search yields.
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The Internet
For example, if you want to know
something about someone named “Robert Lee” (not the U.S. General),
you might type in +Robert Lee -“Robert E. Lee”
This would eliminate many of the sites that
discuss the General.
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Unlike traditional publishing, the Internet has virtually no safeguards in place to keep dishonest and/or incompetent people from publishing their
work.
WARNING: You must take extra care to EVALUATE websites you intend to use for research.
The Internet