Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
In this video we'll explore research strategies. It will focus in two parts.
The first
on techniques you can use to utilize our library databases.
Second, on how to search the open web effectively.
Let's get started.
Our library databases have some interesting quirks
that do take a little bit of strategic thinking to work with.
Here we are on the library home page.
Right here in in the center we have our main search gateway.
In this area you'll be able to access almost all of what the library has to
offer you.
In our last video we took a look at our library catalogues
and specifically Worldcat Local. Remember our library catalogue will tell you what
books we have, what videos, what cds, what subscriptions we have
but our library databases are a little different
they are here to provide
the actual electronic documents that you're looking for
including ebooks and streaming video
and, of course, full-text articles.
To find out the most up-to-date information on your topic, it's usually
best to jump into the databases
to find out what's most recently published.
To start searching our databases, head over here to articles.
We provide a quick search box into EBSCO Full Text; our biggest, fattest database.
This particular database covers almost all topics
and has articles that are popular and scholarly.
But we do have over a hundred different databases each one of them indexing
different subjects
and providing links to different materials.
You can see all of our databases here.
But if you want a break down of our databases by subject
you can jump over here to "Databases by Subject"
to find those lists.
As mentioned earlier, databases can be extremely literal in how they interpret
what you type into the search box.
As a quick demonstration, I'm going to do a quick search for a basic question,
"Do cigarettes cause cancer?"
Now this database has access to millions of articles how many of them do you think
are on this topic?
You notice that the database only found one article! I'm sure their are actually
a lot more on cigarettes and cancer.
The problem is that we have too many words in our search box.
So one of the first things you need to do as you begin to research is to
identify your key concepts
and use them as keywords when you're searching. Let's look at an example.
Our research question today is
"In the United States, do genetically modified crops have a negative impact
on the environment?
Explain."
The main, key, number one concept that we are really looking into is
genetically modified crops.
Those are the keywords we need to search
but I don't want to know everything about genetically modified crops.
I specifically want to know
the impact they have on the environment.
And not just any particular
group of genetically modified crops
but specifically those in the United States.
These are the key concepts and keywords that really encapsulated what I'm
searching for.
The rest of these words in the question are really just extra and will hinder
you and the databases particularly as you search.
Now that I have my key concepts let's actually get started searching in a
database.
Today we're going to explore EBSCO Full Text.
I'll get started by searching for our main concept which is genetically
modified crops.
It's usually best to start off with your main topic
that is broad
and then narrow your search results as you go.
Here we are looking at our search results,
this area right here obviously is the search results.
Up here at the top we have our search boxes
and on the left we have our search options in which we can narrow down our
search. This may look a little like Worldcat Local which is set up very
similarly.
One of the first things I want to do as I explore the database is start to play
with my language a little.
Now, I typed in "genetically modified crops" but what if the author's using
different terms?
I want to check through our search results to see if the authors are using
any other terms that I might add to our search box up here.
We do see genetically modified crops is used
and we can go through the different titles to see if there are any other
variations.
We also wanted to take a look at an articles subjects,
as you see listed here, and the abstract.
Remember the abstract is a simple summary of what is inside the articles
and the subjects are the key terms that pinpoint what this article is
specifically about.
We notice here that genetic engineering
in regards to crops
is also another way
we could say
genetically modified crops.
I'm going to add that to our search statement.
Because our databases are so literal you want to make sure that you build your
keywords using certain command language.
You have two basic commands for your search.
The first one I'm going to show you is "or".
I'm separating genetically modified crops
and genetically-engineered crops
with the word "or".
This is our basic
first command.
So what I'm telling the database in this box
is to find for me any article that has genetically modified crops in it
or genetically-engineered crops.
Remember these are two similar concepts that I am joining together with the word
"or"
This will broaden my search to include any items that don't
fall under genetically
modified crops
but do under genetically-engineered crops.
You'll see we now have about seven hundred more articles that are still
relevant to our search.
Remember we do have certain other concepts that we need to add.
Specifically,
how genetically modified or genetically-engineered crops
affect the environment.
To add a new concept you want to use our second command word which is "and".
The database already sets it up for you so right here in our second search box
I'm going to add "environmental impact"
as our second concept.
So you'll notice up here at the top
we have a similar concept just different variations separated with the word "or"
and our second concept
added to the search with the word "and".
This will narrow our search down more specifically for those items that
talk about genetically modified crops
and assess their environmental impact.
You notice that our search is down to a much more manageable sixty-two results.
Now I want to look at our results to see if they are more
or less relevant to our search.
Number one here
we have
"Proposed Definition of Environmental Damage Illustrated by the Cases of
Genetically Modified Crops
and Invasive Species".
Our database tells you right here the type of source that you're actually
looking at.
This is an academic journal,
as is this one.
But this particular article is a review. Slightly different than your standard
academic study.
Now remember we do have a third concept
and it's important to explore the different facets that we have here on
the left to play with our search.
Including, in this particular database,
an option to look at geography. Now,I could click here and narrow our search down even
further just to the items that come from the United States. At this point I don't
want to do that just yet.
I do have the option, though, to look at specific subjects.
I can narrow the search down even more by adding a particular concept with one
of these subjects.
I can also narrow the search down by publication date if I want something
more recent.
I want to actually start exploring the items we now have access to.
Number one looked like a pretty good article. You'll notice right here we have
access directly to the full text of this item.
I click here to get access.
Here's this particular article in full text.
You do have the option to print or email to yourself or see a citation for
this item in
most of the standard formats including MLA, APA and so on.
Let's go back to our results.
Now as we research we're going to need more than one resource to actually compare
and contrast what people are saying.
I can go through the results, look at titles and subjects
but, for example, what if I come across something that looks good but we don't
have?
You'll notice here with number seven we have a title that looks pretty good
but you'll notice this yellow "get it" button.
This button is indicating that we don't have the full text of this article
in this one database.
To get access to the full text of this article you'll want to check to see if we
have it in another one of our databases. Click here to do so.
Now on this page you'll notice we have the option to see full text available
in this other database.
I can click here to see it.
Now, this is the full text of the article I was just hunting for.
If I scroll through I can see the full article
or i can click here for this option to see a full PDF version of the item.
If we didn't have this article electronically this area at the top
would be missing.
All you would see is a link to our catalog to see if we have a subscription
to this item in print
and an option to request this particular article from another library.
Remember you can use interlibrary loan to get any items that we don't have
for free.
Let's go back to our results.
Now remember, if you are doing a search and you actually can't seem to
find anything on your topic,
before you think about changing your topic,
I would suggest coming to the library
and chatting with us.
Under "Get Help"
you can find out all the different ways that you can get in contact with a
library employee who can help you with your research.
You can always call us, visit us, or send us a chat.
Now this is just the basics of database searching but remember you do have
other alternatives. Specifically searching the open web for articles and scholarly
sources.
We'll next take a look at one of the easiest sources to use online.
Most of you are used to using Google to search the open web for websites, images,
videos,
and a wealth of other resources.
But there are a number of scholarly academic articles that are freely
available on the web.
We're now going to explore an easy tool that you can use
to search for them.
Here we are on Google Scholar.
This is Google's search engine that you can use to help search for academic,
scholarly materials including library materials.
First, head to scholar.google.com
to access the search engine.
Next, when you're at home you want to make sure that you set up your scholar
preferences to include library material.
You can head over here to scholar preferences to get started.
You'll notice on this page we have a section here for library links.
Simply search for Morehead.
You notice here we have Morehead State University- Full Text.
You wanna make sure that this box is checked.
You also have the option to include Worldcat items remember Worldcat is our
library catalogue.
Simply search for Worldcat.
You wanna make sure this option "Open Worldcat Library Search" is checked.
And then save your preferences.
I'm going to do a basic search
for our topic.
I've typed in "genetically modified crops
and environmental impact".
Remember, this is very similar to what we typed in into the databases.
To get started with our search
here we have the results of our simple search for "genetically modified crops
and environmental impact".
I'm not as worried so much about playing with the language here with Google
because Google is a little bit easier on our part to search
but
we now have to go through a heavier evaluation process.
Google does not tell us very much information about out the items we're
looking at
which is in contrast to our library databases.
Remember our databases will tell you what type of item you're looking at, who the
authors are and will provide all of the citation information
for each individual result.
Google Scholar, on the other hand, we'll actually have to hunt for.
Looking at our results we have here at the top
"GM Crops: The Global Economic and Environmental Impact. The First Nine
Years, 1996-2004."
We can come over here to this link to find the full text.
Before I jump into the contents of the article I want to look at the context of
the article.
This particular article is published on the "AgBio Forum" specifically in the
"Journal of Agrobiotechnology Management and Economics."
I have additional information about the authors specifically that they come from
"PG Economics Limited" in the UK.
If I wanted to know more about the authors I could easily do a quick
Google search to find out if they have any credentials or expertise in this
field.
It's also good to check up on the authors and the whole website
to find out who might be sponsoring this information
and are they getting any economic benefit to this article being out there
and existing in the world.
When you're looking at a website, not only do you look at the top and the
bottom of the website to find out more information about who and what might
be sponsoring the website,
you also wanna make sure you go to their "About Us" pages. Here we have a welcome
page and information about their editorial board. It's always good to find out who
might be involved and where their sponsorship is coming from.
Another thing to look at when you're evaluating the website and determining if
it's a scholarly source or not
is to look at the URL.
You can see here at the top this comes from "agbioforum.org"
This domain name ".org" is in reference to some sort of nonprofit
organization
which tells us a little bit about what AgBioForum is.
You can use this type of clue to help to determine if the website is coming from
the government,
from an educational institution,
or from a commercial enterprise.
Let's go back to our results.
Now, I can continue to go through our results to see what we actually have here.
Sometimes you'll get a PDF document like this one.
If you do end up using the source be sure to check the website that it comes
on and usually that means clicking over here on the title to find out which
website is housing this PDF.
Also some of your links will say just "Full Text" as you notice here.
If you click on this option you'll see that we are actually connected to
library material.
Here we have the option to view this article in full text through one of the
library databases. This particular link would not exist if we earlier hadn't set
up our search preferences.
So this is how you can do a simple search in Google Scholar.
We don't have a lot of options in which we can play with our search apart from
playing with the words at the top.
We don't have many ways that we can narrow things down as you would in a
database using subjects and so on.
Now, back on the library home page, I do wanna point out one last source.
As you are starting to research and compile your sources,
be aware that every time you use them whether you are quoting directly or
paraphrasing an idea or an argument presented in the source
you will need to cite them.
Over here on the libraries home page we do have our Citing Sources Guide
that you can use
to find out when and what to cite.
Remember, if you have any questions please let us know.