MODULE: OLBPENGL01A- Study & Thinking Skills in English

CHAPTER 3: Library Research

A.) DEFINE THE LIBRARY RESEARCH PROCESSES.

B.) ENUMERATE THE GENERAL REFERENCES AVAILABLE AT HAND.
C.) IDENTIFY WAYS TO USE SEARCH ENGINES TO FIND INFORMATION ON THE
INTERNET

Library research is an integral component of research projects in most

academic settings. Researchers are charged with the responsibility to
carefully examine relevant information in order to determine
usefulness, reliability, and authority in regard to the research projects
in which they are involved.
Students should begin this process at the start of a semester, or as
early in the semester as possible when there exists an expectation for
research projects to be completed regardless of whether the project
is for a college course, academic conference, or publication.
The Dewey Decimal system is a classification system used by
libraries to arrange books via subject. Each book is issued a shelf
mark number, usually found on the spine of the book, and arranged
in numerical order.
The first three digits refer to broad subject area, and are shelved in numerical order e.g., 945 is shelved
before 946.

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After the three digits there is a decimal point and numbers after the decimal point show the sub-
section of the subject area. Again, they are shelved in numerical order e.g., 945.805 is shelved before
945.81.

After the numbers there are three letters which refer to the author or editor of the book and are in
alphabetical order e.g., 945.805 TAB is shelved before 945.805 TRB.

Note: Journals (also called periodicals) always start PER, followed by three numbers and then the
first three letters of the journal series e.g., PER720 ARC. Medical journals follow the same ordering,
but start MED PER.

Library of Congress Classification, byname Lc Classification, system of library organization developed

during the reorganization of the U.S. Library of Congress. It consists of separate, mutually exclusive,
special classifications, often having no connection save the accidental one of alphabetical notation.
Unlike the Dewey Decimal Classification, this system was based on an actual collection of some
million books and incorporated the best features of existing systems with individual subject schemes
or schedules devised by subject specialists. The arrangement, based on the order devised by the
American librarian Charles Cutter in Expansive Classification (1891–93), roughly follows groupings of
social sciences, humanities, and natural and physical sciences. It divides the field of knowledge into
20 large classes and an additional class for general works. Each main class has a synopsis that also
serves as a guide. The resulting order is from the general to the specific and from the theoretical to
the practical.

A -- GENERAL WORKS - WP version - Word version

B -- PHILOSOPHY. PSYCHOLOGY. RELIGION - WP version - Word version
C -- AUXILIARY SCIENCES OF HISTORY - WP version - Word version
D -- WORLD HISTORY AND HISTORY OF EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, AUSTRALIA,
NEW ZEALAND, ETC. - WP version - Word version
E -- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS - WP version - Word version
F -- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS - WP version - Word version
G -- GEOGRAPHY. ANTHROPOLOGY. RECREATION - WP version - Word version
H -- SOCIAL SCIENCES - WP version - Word version
J -- POLITICAL SCIENCE - WP version - Word version
K -- LAW - WP version - Word version
L -- EDUCATION - WP version - Word version
M -- MUSIC AND BOOKS ON MUSIC - WP version - Word version
N -- FINE ARTS - WP version - Word version
P -- LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE - WP version - Word version
Q -- SCIENCE - WP version - Word version
R -- MEDICINE - WP version - Word version
S -- AGRICULTURE - WP version - Word version

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T -- TECHNOLOGY - WP version - Word version
U -- MILITARY SCIENCE - WP version - Word version
V -- NAVAL SCIENCE - WP version - Word version
Z -- BIBLIOGRAPHY. LIBRARY SCIENCE. INFORMATION RESOURCES
(GENERAL) - WP version - Word version

CARD CATALOG

A library catalog (or library catalogue in British English) is a register of all bibliographic items found
in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations. A catalog for a
group of libraries is also called a union catalog. A bibliographic item can be any information entity
(e.g., books, computer files, graphics, realia, cartographic materials, etc.) that is considered library
material (e.g., a single novel in an anthology), or a group of library materials (e.g., a trilogy), or linked
from the catalog (e.g., a webpage) as far as it is relevant to the catalog and to the users (patrons) of
the library.

There are three types of card catalogue. Classified catalogue, author catalogue, and title catalogue;

Classified catalogue

Use the classified catalogue when you do not know the author or the title of a book, or when you want
to search about a specific subject thoroughly. The classified catalogue is organized in classification
number order (Books of the same class number are filed in accession order). This class number order
is basically corresponded to the shelving order.

Author catalogue

Use the author catalogue when you know the author (or editor) of a book.

Title catalogue

Use the title catalogue when you know the title of a book.

INTERNET RESEARCH

Internet search engines are powerful tools for delivering easily accessible sources of information in
the research process.

Using the Internet As a Research Source

As you gather research for your speech, you’ll want to have a variety of sources from which to
compile supporting evidence and facts. With the advent of digital archiving, social media, and open-
source education, it’s easier than ever before to find information on the Internet.

Why Use the Internet?

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The Internet is pervasive, easily accessible, and continually updated. It only makes sense to
capitalize on this ever-evolving technology as a resource for your speech research.

In addition to convenience and accessibility, the Internet allows you to access resources to which you
may not have the physical means to get previously. You might not be able to just hop on a plane to
Paris and see DaVinci’s La Jaconde (more commonly known as the Mona Lisa), but thanks to the
Internet, you can now browse the hundreds of works at Le Louvre right from the convenience of your
laptop.

The Internet is also an excellent way to familiarize or orient yourself with an unfamiliar speech topic.
While you might not be able to cite every informational source you find, using the Internet in your
research process is a fast way to get yourself familiar with the basics of your speech topic, thesis, or
key supporting points and arguments.

The Art Of the Search Query

When getting started with most Internet research, the first thing you’ll do is open up your Internet
browser and open to a search engine. While Google may dominate the search engine market,
recognize that Bing, Yahoo!, Ask, and AOL Search round out the top five most popular search
engines in the United States. Other popular search engines include Wolfram Alpha and
Instagrok.com. Using different search engines may yield different results, so don’t limit yourself to just
one search engine. Additionally, some search engines excel at certain types of information and
searches more than others.

Internet information, particularly of a certain quality or standard, can be organized in other ways
besides word choice and prominence (as attended by global search engines). Some information may
also require further search skills to retrieve. A familiarity with midpoints like directories, ―invisible‖
databases and an attentiveness to further types of organization may reveal the key to finding missing
information. A thesaurus, for example, may prove critical to connecting information organized under
the business term ―staff loyalty‖ to information addressing the preferred nursing term ―personnel
loyalty‖ (MeSH entry for Medline by the [US] National Library of Medicine).

While each search engine may have specific search query shorthand, almost all major search
engines function by using Boolean logic and Boolean search operators. Boolean logic symbolically
represents relationships between entities and uses three key search operators. These operators help
you form your search query:

✓ AND: The AND operator connects two or more terms to retrieve information that matches all of
those terms. If, for example, you were searching for information about the freedom of speech
in the United States, you might search for ―freedom AND United States. ―
✓ OR: The OR operator searches for information that includes at least one of the M keywords
included in your query. If you were researching on court cases about freedom of speech, you
might search for ―freedom of speech OR amendment. ―
✓ NOT: The NOT operator excludes any keywords following the operator and retrieves the
appropriate information excluding those terms. If you wanted to find out more about free
speech in schools but not anything related to Supreme Court cases, you might search for
―freedom of speech NOT Supreme Court. ―
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Types of Material on the Internet

The Internet can provide you with a wealth and variety of resources for your research process.

Virtual Library: The Internet is like an endless virtual library where thousands of new sources of
information are added every second of the day.

The Internet is like an endless virtual library where thousands of new sources of information are
added every second of the day. That being said, there are many different types of information to be
found across the vast expanse of the Internet.

Scholarly Journals and Databases

The most common source of reliable, credible information you will find on the Internet i s through
scholarly journals and databases. These academic, peer reviewed collections provide you with
extensive reports, case studies, articles and research studies to help bolster your research process.
Most online scholarly journals are categorized by certain subjects, professions, and fields of study
and allow you to seek out the most targeted information possible. Many online journals and
databases will only let you preview an article abstract or summary, requiring a paid per-article or
subscription fee to view the complete article. However, many college and university libraries have
arrangements such that you don’t have to pay to view articles. Check with your library to see if they
can get you a copy of complete articles that you can’t access online. Popular online scholarly
databases include:

✓ Academic Search Premier

✓ EBSCO Host
✓ Entrez-PubMed
✓ JSTOR
✓ Lexus Nexus Academic Search
✓ Project MUSE
✓ ProQuest

Online Encyclopedias
Several major encyclopedia publishers have online versions of their materials. Some charge an
access fee to view full entries. In 2001, Wikipedia sought to change this by creating an open-source
encyclopedia edited and curated by the Internet. With over 23 million articles, entries in Wikipedia are
collaboratively written by volunteers around the globe. Because of this, the quality of writing may not
make it the most reliable or accurate source of information. However, if you’re just looking to get a
handle on basic ideas about your speech topic, Wikipedia is a great first source to check out. Also,
make sure to click through and investigate a Wikipedia’s article’s references list to find other,
more quality and reliable, sources of information on the same subject.

Video

With over 48 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, YouTube has compiled more
videos across every two-week span (8 years of video per day) than total number of years that motion
pictures have existed (117 years in 2012). Video can provide you a rich, visual depth to
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your Internet research, providing you with first-hand accounts, video tutorials and diaries, and citizen
journalism.

Online Books

Online tools such as Project Gutenberg and Google Books now allow you to access full books from
the comfort of your Internet browser. Project Gutenberg is an open -source collective of full texts now
in the public domain. Google Books offers both full texts and partial previews on millions of books.
Because both of these resources index the content of each full text, they are searchable to find the
exact content and information you need.

The Impact of Social Media

While many would dismiss the credibility and reliability of information garnered from social media
sources, both Twitter and Facebook can provide intrinsic value to your Internet search. Most
mainstream journalism outlets can no longer keep up social media’s immediacy of information
sharing, making some into a form of citizen journalism that provides real-time, first-person accounts of
world events.

Evaluating Material from the Internet

Given the widespread authorship of the Internet, carefully evaluate all Internet sources for credibility,
reliability, bias, and accuracy.

Evaluating Internet Material

The biggest advantage of using the Internet as a research tool is the ease with which you can find
information. The biggest disadvantage, then, is parsing through the bevy of information to find
credible, reliable, accurate information. The burden of filtering truth from fiction in your Internet
searches lies solely with you as the researcher.

What is Search Engine Bias?

The first thing to understand about using the Internet as a source of information is that search
engines are biased gateways to the information you seek. This bias may be driven by proprietary
search algorithms dictated by corporate sponsors, ad revenue, and even politics, thus affecting the
type of search results your queries will display. Understand that just because you’re searching for
something on a popular search engine, it doesn’t mean you’re getting the full spectrum of available
information about your search query.

Essential Questions to Ask When Evaluating Internet Material

When searching for reliable information on the Internet, there are several questions you should ask
yourself with each source of information you find. This may seem tedious, but you don’t want your
thesis to be undone by someone questioning the credibility of your research, or worse, you as a
speaker.

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The ADAM Approach

The ADAM approach is an acronym to help you remember the four most important things to consider
when evaluating the quality of your materials found via the Internet:
✓ Age: How recent is the data or information presented in your source? When was the website
last updated? Use only the most current information you can find.
✓ Depth: Does your material go in depth with your subject or merely cover theMbasics?
Are the details from scholarly or academic sources? Look for sources that
go in depth rather than provide you with just an overview of your subject.
✓ Author: Who wrote your source? What are their credentials? What makes them
an authoritative expert on this subject? What biases might they have? Try to seek out impartial,
authoritative experts when you can.

Domain Credibility

Sometimes the clue to a website’s authenticity and credibility is within the actual website address
itself. The following top-level domains (TLD) can give you an idea of how reliable and accurate the
information may be:
✓ .com: The most popular TLD worldwide, originally used by commercial entities, now a de facto
standard on the Internet. Reliability and credibility not always guaranteed.
✓ .edu: Only schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions can use this TLD,
often indicating a reliable source of information.
✓ .gov: Only government organizations may use this TLD. Guaranteed to be both accurate and
credible.
✓ .org: Originally reserved for non -profit organizations (NPO) or non -government organizations
(NGO), this TLD can be used by commercial entities. In 2012, a.ngo,TLD has been added to the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as a domain extension.
✓ .net: Primarily used by internet service providers. Depending on wh at kind of
information you’re looking for, sites with a.net TLD may or may not provide you with any useful
information.

Social Media and Multimedia Sources

Audio, video, and multimedia materials that have been recorded, then broadcast, distributed, or
archived by a reputable party may also meet the necessary criteria to be considered reliable sources.
Like text sources, media sources must be produced by a reliable third party and be properly cited.
Additionally, an archived copy of the media must exist. It is convenient, but by no means necessary,
for the archived copy to be accessible via the Internet.

The rapid growth of social media and its ability to disseminate relevant information to multiple users
based on shared interests and relationships has increased its importance in the world of Internet
research. Wikipedia, one of the most popular wiki websites in the world, relies on scholarly material
and crowdsourcing to provide accurate, targeted, and comprehensive information to the masses.

When using social media sources, researchers should be aware of sites that have a poor reputation
for checking facts or for moderating content. Such sources also attract publishers expressing
extremist views, promoting products, or posting false and inaccurate information.
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GENERAL REFERENCES

The general reference collection comprises materials that serve one or more of the following
purposes:
✓ factual information (e.g., dictionaries, atlases, statistical yearbooks, biographical dictionaries)
✓ overview of a topic (e.g., handbooks, encyclopedias)
✓ guides to in-depth research on a topic (e.g., bibliographies, indices)

Subject-focused reference materials are collected across subject areas and are addressed in subject-
specific collection development statements. The general reference collection includes those materials
that are not subject-specific, are of general interest, or are broadly multidisciplinary.

Almanacs

One volume summary of current and historical facts and general knowledge.
Examples: World Almanac and Book of Facts, Guinness Book of Records

Atlases

Book of maps. There are many kinds of atlases — physical, political, statistical, historical.
Example: The Times Atlas of the World

Dictionaries

Alphabetical list of words and definitions. These can also focus on specif ic subjects.
Examples: Random House Webster's College Dictionary, The Dictionary of Celtic
Mythology

Encyclopedias
Contain more extensive articles than do dictionaries. There are general encyclopedias such as The
New Encyclopaedia Britannica and specialized encyclopedias, such as The McGraw-Hill
Encyclopedia of Science and Technology

Indexes

Print and electronic collections to periodical literature.

Example: Book Review Digest

Other types of reference sources include:

✓ bibliographies (lists of sources on specific topics)
✓ biographical sources (information on the lives of individuals)
✓ chronologies (dates and timelines for events)
✓ directories (address and phone number information

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https://sixthformstudyskills.ncl.ac.uk/libraries/overview-the-dewey-decimal-system/
https://www.britannica.com/science/Library-of-Congress-Classification
https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-communications/chapter/internet-
research/

https://qc-cuny.libguides.com/resources/reference