MODULE Study and Thinking Skills

CHAPTER 3: Library Research

Objectives:

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.

000 Computer science, information and general work

100 Philosophy and psychology
200 Religion
300 Social sciences
400 Language
500 Science
600 Technology
700 Art and recreation

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800 Literature
900 History and geography

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

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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
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.

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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?

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.

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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
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. ―

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 is
through scholarly journals and databases. These academic, peer reviewed collections
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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 your Internet research, providing you with first-hand
accounts, video tutorials and diaries, and citizen journalism.

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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.

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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.

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 the
basics? 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.

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 .net: Primarily used by internet service providers. Depending on what 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.

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

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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 specific
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

For More Knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bV_sI8XQdI

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Reference:
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

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