Bolner ch 3.docx

INTRODUCTION It has been said that access to information has never been so easy! Digital technology makes it possible to create, store, and retrieve information quickly and effectively from a computer or mobile device such as a tablet or smart phone. However, for the novice, the retrieval process ca...

INTRODUCTION It has been said that access to information has never been so easy! Digital technology makes it possible to create, store, and retrieve information quickly and effectively from a computer or mobile device such as a tablet or smart phone. However, for the novice, the retrieval process can be daunting. Information in digital format includes library catalogs, indexes and abstracts, full-text books, and journal articles. While available locally or remotely from the Internet there is very little uniformity even among electronic sources that serve the same purpose, such as e-book databases. Online catalogs, too, vary in the way searches are formulated and in the way that information is presented. The Internet offers a variety of search engines to help users locate information. The search commands in one e-source might be completely different from those in another; the interface (way that the information appears on the screen) in one e-source may look altogether different from that of another similar e-source, depending on the producer or the vendor. However, it is possible to acquire some basic search skills that will enable you to do research efficiently and effectively, regardless of the e-source type. This chapter will acquaint you with the "why's" and "how's" of searching various digital sources in electronic format. It is expected that the searching skills discussed here will be a springboard to use the myriad of available digital information sources that will be introduced in subsequent chapters. INFORMATION IN DIGITAL E-FORMAT Information in e-format refers to digital information that is created or stored electronically—either on a hard drive, a remote server, flash drive, or a disk (CD-ROM, or DVD)—and accessed by a computer, tablet, or smart phone. The term online refers to information that is stored in a computer or remote server that is connected to the Internet and accessed locally or remotely. Information in e-format is available on a wide variety of subjects in all disciplines—science, social sciences, and humanities. These digital materials are collected and presented in databases. Understanding the structure of databases and search techniques is the key to achieving optimal results in any search for information stored in electronic format. See Tables 3.1 and 3.2 for advantages and limitations of information in e-format. 59 3.1 Advantages of Information in Electronic Format Saves time. It takes minutes or even seconds to search an entire database or several databases covering multiple years. To search the same indexes in paper copy might take hours or even longer, as each volume of the index would have to be searched separately. 0 More effective than searching a printed source. The searcher can link words and terms in a way that can never be done manually. Compare, for example, searching for a book in a card catalog. The search is limited to searching by the author's name, the title of the book, or the standardized subject heading. In an index to periodicals in paper format the access points are usually by author, title, and standardized subject heading. Information in electronic databases can be searched by keying in almost any element in the record, and "mixing and matching" keywords and terms. 0 More flexible than searching printed Indexes and abstracts. It is possible to search for words regardless of where they appear in the record. This is called free-text searching or keyword searching. 0 Possible to truncate or shorten terms. All the variations of a term can be located. Provides access to much more information than is available in the library. Online databases included in EBSC0host, LexisNexis Academic, or InfoTrac provide access to thousands of journals. The Internet provides access to the catalogs of libraries throughout the world. 0 Information Is usually more up-to-date. In an online catalog, records can be entered for materials as soon as they are ordered. Databases are updated frequently, sometimes daily. For example, in LexisNexis Academic (a full-text database that includes thousands of legal, business, and news sources), information is available almost as soon as it is produced. 0 Possible to print material. It is convenient and easy to print digital information retrieved as a result of a search in an electronic format. 0 Not always necessary to come to the library to find Information. Searching and retrieving information can be done from computers, as well as mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones, both inside and beyond the library—from offices, dormitories, and homes. 3.2 Limitations of Information in Electronic Format 0 Sometimes the "logic" in electronic searching does not work. For example, a search for articles on apricots in a database retrieved articles on the fruit as well as on a computer named "Apricot." This kind of result is called a "false drop." (See p. 63 under Full-Text Searching) 0 Some databases do not include older information. In many databases, the information does not go beyond the last fifteen to twenty years. For example, you could use a database for current studies showing the effects of advertising on consumer preferences, but to find articles about consumer preference in the 1950s, you may need to consult a printed index from that period. Information In electronic sources lacks standardization. The screens of an online catalog of one library may not look at all like those of another library. This is because the software that runs the online system is different. Some libraries use SIRSI software; others use DRA (Data Research Associates), Innovative Interfaces, or some other system from a commercial vendor. A number of academic libraries have developed their own systems; online databases also vary greatly in their features and the way they are searched. Not all of a library's electronic sources are available outside the library. Access to some digital resources may be available only within the library, although most subscription databases are available remotely with password protection. DATABASES A database is a collection of data that is organized so that its contents can easily be searched, accessed, and edited. Databases are created and maintained by special software (known as a database management system) that stores and organizes data and provides a search mechanism for its retrieval. Types of Databases Databases include online catalogs, information on the Internet, bibliographic indexes and abstracts, and the full text of works such as books, periodical articles, plays, poems, essays, reports, and transcripts; format may include text, images, audio, or video. 0 A library's online catalog lists the library's books, periodical titles, and other materials, in print and electronic format. o The Internet is a network that connects computers and mobile devices of all types throughout the world, enabling users to communicate, find information, transfer data and program files, and access remote catalogs and databases. Information available through the Internet is made accessible through the World Wide Web. It allows users to read texts as well as to see images and hear sounds. 0 Bibliographic databases provide citations or references to materials such as periodical articles, books, government reports, statistics, patents, research reports, conference proceedings, and dissertations. Full-text databases include the complete text of many different sources such as books, newspapers, periodicals, legislation, court cases, encyclopedias, research reports, and letters. Aggregated databases are collections of different databases containing both bibliographic and fulltext records and covering many different subjects. EBSCOhost and InfoTrac are treated as aggregated databases. Some aggregators such as EBSCOhost allow users to search multiple databases at once (click on "Choose Databases" link to select databases). Databases may also be specialized or general: 0 Specialized subject databases, such as PsycINFO, contain materials related to a specific field of study. o General interdisciplinary databases, such as Academic Search Premier, contain materials from a wide variety of scholarly fields SEARCH BASICS To be able to search electronic information effectively you need to be aware of two basic concepts. 0 Some search engines, including online catalogs, search only certain parts of a database (such as author or title) while others search the entire contents (full-text searching). o Electronic records in a database are organized in a systematic way. The individual entries are called records. Each record is made up of different data elements, called fields, each of which is labeled. FIELD SEARCHING Field searching is a powerful tool that allows you to restrict your searches to particular fields. Field searching enables more precise searching since the fields serve as access points to the particular information you are seeking. Searches for authors search only the author fields; title searches limit the search to the title fields. For books by Hemingway Search in the author field For books about Hemingway Search in the subject fields For books by and about Hemingway Search all the fields Figure 3.1 Record from an online catalog showing marked fields. TYPICAL FIELDS IN A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL RECORD IN A PERIODICAL DATABASE ARE: ACCESSION NUMBER TITLE OF ARTICLE AUTHOR OF ARTICLE AUTHOR'S INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION JOURNAL TITLE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD SERIAL NUMBER (ISSN) LANGUAGE OF THE ARTICLE PUBLICATION YEAR SUBJECT DESCRIPTORS OR TERMS FULL-TEXT SEARCHING With full-text searching, you can search every word or phrase in a document as opposed to searching in specific fields. This can be very effective in the case of narrow topics that might not be covered elsewhere. For example, the full text of a newspaper article might provide valuable information on events and persons that might not be mentioned in a database that only has citations to the articles but not the full text. It is possible to search the full text of electronic books (e-books) to find terms and concepts that might never appear in a printed index. When searching you need to be wary of false drops, especially in full-text searching. False drops are search results which match your search terms, but have nothing to do with the information you are seeking. For example, the word "orange" will bring up records relating to Agent Orange, the cities named Orange, the color orange, and the fruit. Many words are spelled similarly but have different meanings; for example, "desert" means a barren land, but it also can mean to abandon. COMMANDS While the computer is a powerful information storage and retrieval tool, it is also a very exacting one. To retrieve information, you need to select the appropriate electronic source and then type in a search request or a command. A search engine then scans the source looking for an exact match of the search statement. Although some Internet search engines recognize natural language, many online catalogs and databases do not. In natural language searching, the query is written in the same way it is spoken. If the search query is "how do I find the standard of living among people of Appalachia during the Great Depression," the search is not likely to yield anything because the computer is searching for an exact match of that statement. Some search engines allow natural language searching, but even these search only for the keywords in the query. Most of the search engines in use today are designed in such a way as to permit searching on certain access points, to combine terms, and to limit terms. ACCESS POINTS The key to access in any electronic source is identifying the concepts and terms you wish to search and applying basic search skills to achieve the desired results. FOUR BASIC WAYS TO SEARCH AN ELECTRONIC SOURCE o by author name o by title of the work 0 by subject of the work 0 by words or keywords in the record An explanation of each of these four methods of electronic searches follows, with examples of each. Although the commands might vary slightly, the techniques can be applied to online catalogs, online indexes and abstracts, and Internet search engines. Most online catalogs, databases, and search engines provide a template or pull-down menu for easy searching. AUTHOR SEARCH An author search is restricted to searching only the author field. It necessarily involves a known element—either an author's name or part of the author's name. Some electronic sources allow you to truncate or shorten the author's name if you do not know the complete first name or correct spelling. Example Type [author's last name or a portion of the last name] solzhenitayn or solzhen (for Solzhenitsyn) james hen (For more common names, include at least some of the first name.) oneill Eugene (Omit accent marks and all other punctuation in the author's name.) unesco (An organization as author, also called a corporate author.) TITLE SEARCH A title search is also a search for a known element—you know the title of a work or enough of the title to make it distinctive. To retrieve a title you must key in the title exactly as it appears in the title field, except that initial articles (a, an, the or foreign equivalents) are usually omitted. If the first part of a title is sufficiently distinctive, it is not necessary to type in the full title. You only need to put in the first three or four words. In some online catalogs it is not necessary to type in the entire last word. SUBJECT SEARCH Subject searching is often preferred over keyword searching because it gives a more precise search. A subject search refers to using standardized subject headings to search a record. The subject headings used in online catalogs and many other databases are established by the Library of Congress and are listed in a multivolume publication, the Library' of Congress List of Subject Headings (LCSH) (see Figure 3.2). It gives alternative terns (refers from a term that is not used to one that is used), related terms, and terms used to broaden or narrow a search. The National Library of Medicine establishes headings that are appropriate for use in the medical sciences. In many periodical databases, the subject headings, or descriptors as they are sometimes called, are listed in a thesaurus or an index. The mistake most people make with subject searching is that they think they can type in any word in the subject field and the search engine will pull up items on that subject. Although this does sometimes work, it is due more to chance than anything else. In subject searching, the terms must be keyed in exactly as they appear in the subject field(s). This may or may not be the terms you would use to describe the subject. So how do you know what subject heading to use for your topic? When searching the online catalog, you can look in the Library of Congress Subject Headings for standardized subject headings. In doing a search in a periodical database, you should consult the thesaurus or index to determine appropriate terminology to use. If you locate a record that is on target for your topic, you should check the record for additional subject headings. KEYWORD SEARCH Keyword searching is the term used to refer to searching by words or phrases in any of the fields in a record. Guidelines Use keyword searching when: you are unsure about the order or spelling of all words in the title; you don't know the author's name; you don't know the precise subject heading used; you want to link terms from different parts of a record such as an author's name with a word from a title; you want to combine terms to narrow a topic or to limit a topic. In a keyword search, the search engine looks at all the records and retrieves those that contain the word or phrase that you specify anywhere in the record. This is very important! If you type in the word "guns" in the online catalog, you are not only going to get books on guns, but also books written by Walter Guns, a book titled Guns or Butter about Lyndon Johnson, or any other item that has the word "guns" somewhere in its record. You can remedy this by specifying a particular field to search. A keyword search is usually the only search that allows you to: o truncate or shorten a search term; o use Boolean operators to combine search terms; 0 use advance searching such as limiting a search to specific fields; o qualify a search according to certain specifications; or 0 use positional operators to refine a search (see page 69). Keyword searching allows for flexibility in searching that you do not have with author, title, or subject searches. Truncating Search Terms In keyword searching it is possible to shorten (truncate) a term by using a character such as a question mark (?) or, in many online catalogs and databases, an asterisk (*). This allows you to retrieve singular or plural forms or different spellings of a word or name in a single search. Other terms for truncation are "wildcard" searching and "stemming." Avoid over-truncating search terms. Do not enter const? if you're searching for the term "constitution" as it will pull up too many terms. Boolean Searching An effective way to search for information in a database is to combine terms in a logical process using Boolean operators. The process, which originated with British mathematician George Boole in the nineteenth century, is based on the logical relationship among search terms. In Boolean searching terms are connected by a Boolean operator. The three Boolean operators are the words: o AND o OR NOT Some databases use symbols in place of words. O AND = + (plus sign) or & (ampersand) O OR = I (pipe sign) or / (slash) O NOT = — (minus) or (tilde) A few search engines, most notably Google and Yahoo, use a space between words to imply a Boolean AND. To find what works in your library's online catalog go to the "help screen" or to "search tips." (Figure 4.10 illustrates a sample search tips screen.) Boolean operators enable you to broaden or narrow your search or link terms. When using any online catalog or database you should verify whether or not Boolean operators are used. Figure 3.3 shows examples of Boolean operators. Figure 3.3 0 Example of Boolean operators. o AND searches for occurrences of all of the search terms in a single record. AND narrows the search since all of the words or terms joined by "and" must be present to be retrieved. Example 0 OR searches for records that contain any of the terms. OR broadens a search and is often used to connect synonyms such as "atomic OR nuclear" or "teen OR adolescent" o NOT searches for records that contain the first term but not the second term. Nested Searches Nesting is used with Boolean operators to specify the order of the search. With nesting, parentheses are placed around words to make a single search statement. Example (fraud or evasion) and income tax (Finds all records that have fraud and income tax and all those that have evasion and income tax.) An urn-nested search: fraud or evasion and income tax (Finds all the records that have fraud (with or without income tax) and all those that have evasion and income tax in the same record.) Proximity Searching Proximity searching allows you to refine a search by specifying where the search terms should be in relation to each other. This is done with the use of positional (or proximity) operators. Positional operators include: adj, foll, near, with. There are other operators depending on the particular database. The availability and use of positional operators vary from database to database. You should also be aware that positional operators are the default in some search engines. Default operators are the operators the system automatically places between search terms. These are transparent to the searcher. Not knowing the default operator can skew your search results. The following examples illustrate typical applications of positional operators. Keep in mind that these will not apply to all databases. 0 ADJ (adjacent) searches for terms that you want to occur next to one another. In some databases ADJ is the default operator, so there is no need to type it in. However, this is not always the case, so you need to be aware of the way positional operators are treated in the database you are searching. In many Internet search engines, the default connector is an implied AND between the words. These databases usually require quotation marks around the words that need to be next to each other. Some search engines have an option to check "this exact phrase" in an advanced search menu. 0 ADJ# finds telms in the order typed within a specified number of words of each other. NEAR specifies that terms must be near one another in the record. Usually the terms can appear in any order and in any field. Some databases use ten as the default; others let you specify the number. WITH specifies that terms are in proximity with each other. Terms can appear in any order. The With operator is usually used in online catalogs to search for records that contain the search terms, in any order, but in the same field. Example LIMITING A SEARCH If your search results in too many hits or if you know beforehand that you want to apply certain limitations to your search, you can refine your search by using the limiting options available in most databases. These limiting features vary by database but may include the following: 0 language 0 publication date (limit to items before, after, or on a certain date) publication type (review article, case study, book review, research report) 0 format (journal article, book, dissertation, music, map, image, computer file) 0 articles with text (in aggregated database) 0 peer-reviewed articles (in periodical databases) 0 domain (in Internet search engines) 0 file type (PDF, Microsoft Office formats—in Internet search engines) Most databases have features which allow you to search by keywords in specific fields. For example, if you recall that there is an article on the Sur-ma tribe in Africa that was published in National Geographic but you do not recall the date, you can narrow your search to the article title field and the source (or journal) fields to locate it. SEARCH TIPS While there appears to be little standardization among online catalogs, bibliographic and full-text databases, and Internet search engines, there are a great number of search features that are common in most: use of Boolean logic, truncation, and the ability to limit a search. Although databases differ in the way search terms are formulated, the information you learn here should help you understand how computers translate your search request in order to retrieve information. Below are a few tips to guide you into becoming a more proficient searcher. Tips C C C C C BE PRECISE If you are looking for information on a specific case involving the misdeeds by the chief executives of a particular corporation, do not search for "corporations"; rather search for the name of the company you are researching. Add Boolean operators and positional operators to refine your search. Limit the search to dates that include the time period involved in your research. USE THE HELP MENU (Often found under "Search Tips") Determine which search features and options are available and how to use them. Find out if Boolean operators are used and, if so, whether or not AND, OR, NOT are spelled out, implied, or indicated by symbols. AVOID THE USE OF STOPWORDS IN YOUR SEARCH STATEMENT Some words and abbreviations (called stopwords) appear so frequently in records that a keyword search system does not search for them. Some common stopwords are: a, an, and, by, for, from, in, not, of, or, same, the, to, and with. Avoid the use of all stopwords when constructing your keyword search statement. AND, NOT, OR, WITH, and SAME may be used only as Boolean or positional operators in a search. USE THE ADVANCED SEARCH FEATURETO FORMULATE YOUR SEARCHES Most search engines and databases offer both basic and advanced search options. You can refine your search by using the advanced option which provides field searching and limiting capabilities. AVOID SPELLING ERRORS The search engine searches for terms exactly as you type them. If you misspell a word, the computer will look for a match of the misspelled word. Thus you will not get any hits unless the word is also misspelled in the database. Major exceptions are the Google search engine and EBSC0host database, which tty to interpret what you mean and offer alternative search words.