English 201 - A. Medina
September 10, 2007

• Intro and welcome

• Reference books and journals on cart

• Rio Hondo College Library Web site - best place to start research

  • Use our catalog to find books

  • Use our online databases to find articles [off-campus access click here]
     

• Strategies for finding authoritative web sites

  • Use a subject directory that provides human-selected web sites

  • Search for the .edu domain in search engines

  • Follow up web sites that are cited in scholarly journal articles
     

• Strategies for evaluating web sites

  • See Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools from Cornell University Library
     

• What about Wikipedia?

  • Criticisms:

    • entries can be written by random people or fanatics who love their subjects and may not always be accurate or balanced;

    • anyone can edit and change entries at any time;

    • some entries may not be backed up by authoritative citations;

    • different versions of a page make it difficult to track for citation purposes.

  • Kudos:

    • democratic (you don’t have to have a PhD to write ‘authoritatively’ on your special subject or niche topic);

    • strives for an NPOV (neutral point of view);

    • self-regulating (vandalism is dealt with swiftly);

    • can provide useful Bibliographies on topics (may be selective).

   

• Other Tips

   

  ProQuest

  For articles in the form of commentaries, opinions, editorials, do an Advanced Search.

  a.       Fill out your topic word(s) next to the “Citation and Abstract” window.

  b.       Select “Document Type” and a drop-down window will appear -> click on “Commentary” or on “Editorial.”

  c.       Click on “Search.”

  For ongoing or long-term events, use focused search terms or specify a date range
   

  SIRS:

  Now offers “Research Guides” on selected topics. Good value but some sources can be a bit dated. Also look at the individual results that come up from your search.
   

  Web Sites: 

  In order to obtain better quality web sites on your topic, perform an Advanced Search on your search engine of choice.  Hint:  Specify the domain from which you want your results to come. For example, for topics marked with * (see chart), try this in Google:
   

  • HPV vaccine site:gov

  • HPV vaccine site:edu

  • China Tibet subject guides site:edu not art
     

  Use subject directories - not just search engines  (Why? Because the web sites are selected and evaluated by real persons [usually librarians] and not just generated automatically by a “most popular” algorithm!)

  • Librarians’ Internet Index

  • Infomine
     

  ** The Iraq War (2003- ) has spawned hundreds of thousands of web sites.  Instead of trying to track down each and every one that may be relevant to your topic, I/we suggest the following university library web site as a gateway to further information on your focused topic.
   

  • www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/iraqwar.html

  • For interesting graphics on the cost of the war, try http://costofwar.com; click on the links in this site for more information.
     

JSevilla-Marzona 02/07

Adapted by JCoe 09/07