Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables vi
List of Exercises vii
About the Author ix
Acknowledgments x
Preface to the Second Edition xi
Chapter 1 Introduction to Basic Research Skills 1
Location of informal information sources (unpublished material) 5
Location of formal information sources (published material) 5
Location of information via "filters": Finding a needle in a haystack 6
How people look up information: From hunter-gatherer to sophisticated user 7
Search strategy roadmap 7
Types of questions 8
Characteristics of reference sources 9
Types of reference sources: factual, bibliographic 10
Time of sources 11
Format of sources 12
Same content-different media 13
Level of detail 13
Asking a good question or shaping a topic for your term paper 14
What you have learned 15
Think Guide #1: Topic Narrowing Exercise 17
Chapter 2 Finding Search Words 21
How do we access publications? 21
Getting started: How to be in a driver's seat throughout your research journey 25
Last word 28
Other ways of searching by subject 29
Classification system 30
The power of call numbers 31
What you have learned 31
Think Guide #2: Finding Search Words 33
Chapter 3 Search Strategies 37
Basic operators: AND 38
Basic operators: OR 40
Basic operators: NOT 41
Search strategy 42
Known-item search 42
Building block search 42
Modification: Broadening and narrowing down your search 43
Broadening your search strategy 43
Narrowing your search strategy 44
What you have learned 45
Think Guide #3: Search Strategies 47
Chapter 4 Fact Finding: Words, Concepts, Events, Places 49
Dictionaries and encyclopedias49
Dictionaries defined 50
Characteristics of dictionaries 51
Encyclopedias defined 52
Main types of encyclopedias 53
How to use encyclopedias 54
Other factual sources 54
Almanacs, yearbooks, handbooks, and directories defined 55
Locating geographic sources 56
What you have learned 58
Chapter 5 Fact Finding: People, Reviews, Criticism 59
Biographical sources 60
Characteristics of biographical sources 60
Organization of biographical sources 62
Living people 62
Deceased people 63
General remarks 65
Why would you look for a review? 65
Literary criticism 67
What you have learned 70
Chapter 6 Finding Works in Library Collections 71
What are library catalogs? 71
Main objectives of library catalogs 77
Search tips-How to avoid "zero results" 79
Beyond your local library catalog 81
Putting library objectives into practice: Examples form Melvyl<sup>r</sup> and beyond 81
What you have learned 81
Chapter 7 Searching & Evaluating Internet Sources 83
Introduction to the Internet: A brief look 84
How to think critically about Web contents 86
URLs of governmental information sources 88
URLs of education-related sources 90
Internet as a world wide digital collection 91
Search engines 92
Subject directories and meta-search engines 93
Invisible Web search tools 94
What you have learned 96
Think Guide #4: Evaluation of Web Sources 99
Chapter 8 Finding Magazine and Newspaper Articles 101
Introduction to online databases 102
Examples of searching from ProQuest 103
Examples from SIRS 107
Examples of searching from EBSCOhost 110
Examples from JSTOR 110
Examples from ARTstor 112
Indexes to collections of poems, short stories, and songs 112
Indexes to historical newspapers online 112
Putting it all together (especially important for instructors) 113
What you have learned 114
Think Guide #5: Thinking Critically about Articles 116
Chapter 9 Citing in Style and Summarizing 117
Why is citing important? 117
Bibliographic style manuals 120
Case 1 Question #1: how to cite a book? 122
Case 2 Question #2: how to cite an encyclopedia article (printed version) 123
Case 3 Question #3: how to cite an encyclopedia article (Web version) 123
Case 4 Question #4: how to cite a story in a collected work 123
Case 5 Question #5: how to cite an article 124
Case 6 Question #6: Footnotes, endnotes 125
Case 7 Cybercitation templates 126
How to write summaries 126
How to critically summarize (annotate) a book: an example 127
How to critically summarize (annotate) an article: an example 128
What you have learned 128
Think Guide #6: Honor Principle Discussed and Applied 130
Bibliography 131
Appendices 138
A Alignment Between Information Literacy and Technology Standards 138
B Goals and Means to Achieve Them 140
C College Libraries Are Not Just Larger School Libraries 145
D Getting Started with Primary Sources 148
E Science Projects in Context 153
F Collaborative Sample Project in Arts 157
G Sample Projects in Social Sciences 161
H1 The Dewey Decimal Classification 163
H2 Mapping Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) to Library of Congress Classification (LCC) 165
I Pre-Test: A Baseline for Information Literacy Skills 166
J Scoring Rubrics: Examples for Information Literacy Projects 167
K Post-Test: An Example for Take Home Final Quiz 169
L Online Databases: A Checklist for Evaluating Online Services 170
M Self-Reflection: Getting Insight into Students' Level of Awareness 176
N Summarizing Sources 178
O Cited Reference Printed Sources 180
P Evaluation of Sources 183
Index 185
