The subject I chose was biological warfare. I learned that there is a lot of worry in the world today about biological warfare and the possability of it being used against the US at some point. It is a very big worry for citizens around the US becasue of the mass destruction that it threatens to potentially unleash.
To begin my research i started with the first source on the list to make it easier to keep track of things. This source was the library catalog. After selecting the catalog i chose the section "words" and proceeded to type in "biological" AND "warfare." This produced a fair number of results that, with a quick scan through, were deemed adequate for the topic. I then chose the book "Biological warfare: Opposing Viewpoints," by William Dudley, figuring it would give me a good perspective for both sides of the issue. The book was produced in 2004, which is reasonably recent enough for a book with relevant information on a topic. The active link for the site is: http://libcat.csueastbay.edu/search?/Xbiological+and+warfare&SORT=D/Xbiological+and+warfare&SORT=D&SUBKEY=biological%20and%20warfare/1%2C94%2C94%2CB/frameset&FF=Xbiological+and+warfare&SORT=D&1%2C1%2C. After collecting the nevessary information and the call number to find the book I proceeded to Academic Search Premier.
To begin my search in Academic Search Premier i entered the same words that had proven successful before: "biological" AND "warfare." However, this search turned up a wide variety of results mostly not relating to my topic. I then revised my wording by placing both words on the same line, only to find that it made virtually no difference. After thinking for a while how i could narrow my search, i went back to each word on each line and then added AND "advancement." Luckily, this turned up with a much narrower results page and one of the first results proved to be useful. I chose "Technological advancements for the detection of and protection against biological and chemical warfare agents" which is an article by Lisa M. Eubanks,
Tobin J. Dickerson, and Kim D. Janda1 written in the chemical Society Reviews. I deemed this source credible based on the fact that it was from February of 2007, which is recent enough. The current link for this cource is: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24198200&site=ehost-live. After finishing with Academic i went back to the "A-Z list" and found my specific database.
For my disciplinary database i chose "Biological Abstracts," because i figured it would have information relating to biological warfare. Fortunately i was right, but I ran into some of the same problems with unrelated results that surfaced in my previous search. I started by searching for "biological" AND "warfare" once more and received a similar result of many unrelated topics, one of them relating to a "flying squirrel!" I then decided that what worked before might work again, and tried adding "advancement" to the search terms. Unfortunately this was not nearly as successful as before and still popped up with many unrelated results. So i tried to think of another word i could replace advancements with and came up with the word "weaponry." This search was very profitable, coming up with a very limited number of results, but all of great relevance. From the results i chose "Terrorism from a public health perspective" which was published in 2002 and written by Gregory Evans, James crutcher, Brooke Shadel, Bruce Clements and Michael Bronze. I once again figured that the date would serve as a reasonable piece of criteria for the book, being unfarmiliar with the topic. The current link for the source is: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=boh&AN=BACD200300015268&site=ehost-live. I then proceeded to the broadest search which i saved for last so that i could use the specific information to narrow my search.
I headed over to the search engine Yahoo and typed in biological warfare. I was typing that in it came up with similar options and i noticed that one of them was "history of biological warfare." I decided to use this figuring it would give a different type of information to my mostly current forms of sources so far. The results for that were very vast as search engines usually are, but still contained many relevant links. I scrolled down a few and found one on "gulfwarvets.com." I figured having a firsthand account of the conception of these items would add a different side to all the sources with authors who probably had very limited first hand experience with them. After looking over the site I deemed it usable and gathered the necessary information. The link to the site is: http://gulfwarvets.com/biowar.htm.
To continue my research i would actually stick more to the databases just becasue they produced more relevant results. To my surprise the search engine was not the best way to find what i was looking for. While it provided my research with a different spin on what i had gathered so far it was far to general to find hard facts quickly on. The databases, after tweaking my search terms, was much more useful for finding facts and statistics. Two research questions i would use if i were to continue searching would be: how dangerous is biological warfare on a worldwide basis, and what countries are known to be studying biological warfare in some way? To try and find answers to these questions i would look towards the databases Science Direct, and Web of Science. Overall i found this random topic surprisingly easier than the one i chose to find relevant information on. This gives me the idea that i am being too specific with my search ideas and need to expand out on a topic, then use the results to narrow it down. I also suspect that I am more familiar with the procedure and avoided the delay of learning where to start and what to look for.
Bibliogragpic Information (also given in essay)
Library Catalog:
Biological Warfare: Opposing Viewpoints-
http://libcat.csueastbay.edu/search?/Xbiological+and+warfare&SORT=D/Xbiological+and+warfare&SORT=D&SUBKEY=biological%20and%20warfare/1%2C94%2C94%2CB/frameset&FF=Xbiological+and+warfare&SORT=D&1%2C1%2C
Academic Search Premier:
Technological advancements for the detection of and protection against biological and chemical warfare agents-
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24198200&site=ehost-live
Specific Database: Biological Abstracts:
Terrorism from a public health perspective-
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=boh&AN=BACD200300015268&site=ehost-live
World Wide Web: Yahoo:
Gulf War Vets.com-
http://gulfwarvets.com/biowar.htm
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Self Assessment Essay
This course in information literacy has taught me many things so far this year. For the topic of "recognize and articulate an information need," i am much more cabable of doing this than before. I used to get kind of lost when it came to needing information and especially articulating it. I am also very adept at formulating research questions now thanks to the slew of assignments and in class exercises used for practice. I used to just start blankly and try to think of a question. Now, i start with a broad catagory and narrow it until i am satisfied with my research question. The part i still struggle with is picking a topic with no guidance but that just takes practice. Another key step that i am starting to get good at is applying the appropriate search strategies once i have my topic or whatever else i may be searching for. I used to try and search for phrases and sentences without much luck, but have since been using keywords with better results as well as databases instead of search engines all the time. In doing so i have become more farmiliar with how and when to refine my search. I used to just keep scrolling pages when i couldn't find what i wanted, but i have learned to change my keywords or the way I search if it's not successful. I still struggle with databases because of the options for wording and phrasing. Of all the topics i feel that I have come the farthest with my use of the library tools. I never even knew they were there until we reviewed them in class. They have proven to be helpful many times since discovering them. I probably noticed the least change in being able to describe my techniques for research. The main change is what i'm describing not how i am able to describe it. My judgement of ethics for sources has also been broadened widely with taking the course. I have realized many more things besides just date or author that must be considered when using a source.
There are many examples of my progress in the subjects of the course objective list. It is most evident in the viewing of my blog and the progress i have made in the few months i have been editing it. When i started i just used yahoo and google to search for things. By the end i was incorporating many of the things I have learned into one well rounded complete search. I was able to use the databases successfully and cite my results fairly well. Another example of my success is evident in my progress of the topic. I started out very narrow with limited results and by the end i knew what search terms to use and i was getting much more useful results. I also came a long way with my searching for books and titles. I honestly didn't know about the feature before so my progress is both easy and hard to show.
My biggest success was learning how to compile information from multiple sources. Prior ro the class i was limited to the internet and it's search engines for information. I have now learned how to look in databases and search for in print books, and then even jow to go out and find them. My biggest struggle still remains to be the databases but it is subsiding with each use. It is slow going simply because i find the search engines more fitting most of the time for my day to day searches. The class has overall proven to be very informative and helpful in a subject that it turns out i knew a lot less about than i thought. I especially found the books that were brought in and the discussions of how each one might be used for different types of research helpful.
There are many examples of my progress in the subjects of the course objective list. It is most evident in the viewing of my blog and the progress i have made in the few months i have been editing it. When i started i just used yahoo and google to search for things. By the end i was incorporating many of the things I have learned into one well rounded complete search. I was able to use the databases successfully and cite my results fairly well. Another example of my success is evident in my progress of the topic. I started out very narrow with limited results and by the end i knew what search terms to use and i was getting much more useful results. I also came a long way with my searching for books and titles. I honestly didn't know about the feature before so my progress is both easy and hard to show.
My biggest success was learning how to compile information from multiple sources. Prior ro the class i was limited to the internet and it's search engines for information. I have now learned how to look in databases and search for in print books, and then even jow to go out and find them. My biggest struggle still remains to be the databases but it is subsiding with each use. It is slow going simply because i find the search engines more fitting most of the time for my day to day searches. The class has overall proven to be very informative and helpful in a subject that it turns out i knew a lot less about than i thought. I especially found the books that were brought in and the discussions of how each one might be used for different types of research helpful.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
November 19th Blog
1. Today in class we discussed the difference between MLA and APA citations. We practiced with an example of a cut out citation and formatted it both ways. We then used our own information from our research to practice making citations.
2. One difference between MLA and APA formatting is that is that MLA has the date at the end and APA has the date near the beginning. Another difference is that MLA underlines the title of the book while APA doesn't underline the title and actually only capitalizes the first word of the title.
2. One difference between MLA and APA formatting is that is that MLA has the date at the end and APA has the date near the beginning. Another difference is that MLA underlines the title of the book while APA doesn't underline the title and actually only capitalizes the first word of the title.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Review Essay: November 14, 2007
For my research i changed my topic because i don't believe my cluster topic, relating to helium and balloons, would be broad enough to use with any ease. My chosen topic is how the icebergs and melting ice caps affect global warming.
The first research tool i used was Academic Search Premier. I chose this because it seems to give a broad range of results and i used it to determine how specific i would have to get with my search terms. I ended up using "global warming" as my first search term and it was sufficiently accurate. The search term yielded a medium amount of search results and i found one in them that closely matched my topic. I used an article relating to global warming and the future. I evaluated the results with relevance in title and description. I didn't have to make any adjustments to my search due to my original criteria producing usable results.
My next search was on Science Direct database. I chose it because i figured it would generate relevant results for global warming being a science specific site. For this database i used the search terms "global, warming, ice," hoping to generate results not only involving global warming but also touching on the ice caps or icebergs. These terms however didn't yield any results at all. After seeing this i narrowed my search to just "global warming," and received many relevant results. From them i chose another article on global warming and the environment. I evaluated the results, and chose the one i did, based on once again relevance of title and description to my topic. I also based my choice on how recent they were written, which luckily didn't exclude too many.
After finishing up with the databases, i proceded to the library catalog to look for a print copy relating to my topic. I learned from my previous searches that using the term global warming worked pretty well so i proceeded to use that. The search produced adequate results and i narrowed them from there with relevance and date once again. I settled on a book titled "Global Warming: Opposing Viewpoints." This search didn't take too long seemingly due to my experience with the previous two.
For my fourth source i went on the search engine "Yahoo" on the world wide web. This was by far the easiest of my sources to search due to the ability to specifiy my topic to the fullest. I was able to use the term "global warming and the polar ice caps" and still got more results than the other databases with less specific terms. I chose an article on the NRDC website regarding the melting of the arctic ice. It was easy to evaluate my results based on relevance and the site i chose was actually the first one i clicked on to examine and it ended up fitting my topic very well.
My research sources included: Academic Search Premier, Science Direct, The library webpage and Yahoo. After refining my search terms i was able to find sufficient results in the first database or search engine for each. In Academic Search Premier, i found an article titled "Changes in year-round air temperature and annual energy consumption in office building areas by urban heat-island countermeasures and energy-saving measures," by a list of Japanese scientists. In Science Direct I found the article "A modeling approach to forecast the effect of long-term climate change on lake water quality," written by another group of Japanese scientists. In the library catalog I found a bok titled "Global Warming: Opposing Viewpoints," by Cynthia A. Bily. Finally on Yahoo.com I was linked to an article on NRDC titled "Global Warming Puts the Arctic on Thin Ice." I kept the title, and author when applicable for each source of information. I also kept links with exact web addresses for each of my sources and included them in bibliography.
I learned that there are many counter measures being tested to fight off the pending effects of global warming.
To continue my research i would honestly continue looking on Yahoo or similar search engines as they generated the most and easiest to navigate information. If i had to choose another database to look in i would look to "lexis-nexis" for further information. But given the choice i would continue on the World Wide Web. Two more questions to further my topic are: What is the world, and specifically the US, planning or doing to combat global warming; What is the current rate that the polar ice caps are melting at and how does it compare to 10,20 and 50 years ago?
Bibliography:
The World Wide Web: Global Warming Puts the Arctic on Thin Ice. http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/qthinice.asp
The Library Catalog: Global Warming: Opposing Viewpoints. http://libcat.csueastbay.edu/search?/Xglobal+and+warming+and+ice&SORT=D/Xglobal+and+warming+and+ice&SORT=D&SUBKEY=global%20and%20warming%20and%20ice/1%2C2%2C2%2CB/frameset&FF=Xglobal+and+warming+and+ice&SORT=D&1%2C1%2C
Science Direct: http://134.154.30.15:2058/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VBS-4PMJB5J-1&_user=521381&_coverDate=12%2F16%2F2007&_alid=648105352&_rdoc=7&_fmt=full&_orig=search&_cdi=5934&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=2468&_acct=C000059560&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=521381&md5=be6aef4122efc29ac740d77b5a302649
Academic Search Premier: http://134.154.30.15:2058/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V1T-4PK8B8T-4&_user=521381&_coverDate=01%2F31%2F2008&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000059560&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=521381&md5=ad2be8d9b9d53a0bc7ca73b6fe6a9dce
The first research tool i used was Academic Search Premier. I chose this because it seems to give a broad range of results and i used it to determine how specific i would have to get with my search terms. I ended up using "global warming" as my first search term and it was sufficiently accurate. The search term yielded a medium amount of search results and i found one in them that closely matched my topic. I used an article relating to global warming and the future. I evaluated the results with relevance in title and description. I didn't have to make any adjustments to my search due to my original criteria producing usable results.
My next search was on Science Direct database. I chose it because i figured it would generate relevant results for global warming being a science specific site. For this database i used the search terms "global, warming, ice," hoping to generate results not only involving global warming but also touching on the ice caps or icebergs. These terms however didn't yield any results at all. After seeing this i narrowed my search to just "global warming," and received many relevant results. From them i chose another article on global warming and the environment. I evaluated the results, and chose the one i did, based on once again relevance of title and description to my topic. I also based my choice on how recent they were written, which luckily didn't exclude too many.
After finishing up with the databases, i proceded to the library catalog to look for a print copy relating to my topic. I learned from my previous searches that using the term global warming worked pretty well so i proceeded to use that. The search produced adequate results and i narrowed them from there with relevance and date once again. I settled on a book titled "Global Warming: Opposing Viewpoints." This search didn't take too long seemingly due to my experience with the previous two.
For my fourth source i went on the search engine "Yahoo" on the world wide web. This was by far the easiest of my sources to search due to the ability to specifiy my topic to the fullest. I was able to use the term "global warming and the polar ice caps" and still got more results than the other databases with less specific terms. I chose an article on the NRDC website regarding the melting of the arctic ice. It was easy to evaluate my results based on relevance and the site i chose was actually the first one i clicked on to examine and it ended up fitting my topic very well.
My research sources included: Academic Search Premier, Science Direct, The library webpage and Yahoo. After refining my search terms i was able to find sufficient results in the first database or search engine for each. In Academic Search Premier, i found an article titled "Changes in year-round air temperature and annual energy consumption in office building areas by urban heat-island countermeasures and energy-saving measures," by a list of Japanese scientists. In Science Direct I found the article "A modeling approach to forecast the effect of long-term climate change on lake water quality," written by another group of Japanese scientists. In the library catalog I found a bok titled "Global Warming: Opposing Viewpoints," by Cynthia A. Bily. Finally on Yahoo.com I was linked to an article on NRDC titled "Global Warming Puts the Arctic on Thin Ice." I kept the title, and author when applicable for each source of information. I also kept links with exact web addresses for each of my sources and included them in bibliography.
I learned that there are many counter measures being tested to fight off the pending effects of global warming.
To continue my research i would honestly continue looking on Yahoo or similar search engines as they generated the most and easiest to navigate information. If i had to choose another database to look in i would look to "lexis-nexis" for further information. But given the choice i would continue on the World Wide Web. Two more questions to further my topic are: What is the world, and specifically the US, planning or doing to combat global warming; What is the current rate that the polar ice caps are melting at and how does it compare to 10,20 and 50 years ago?
Bibliography:
The World Wide Web: Global Warming Puts the Arctic on Thin Ice. http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/qthinice.asp
The Library Catalog: Global Warming: Opposing Viewpoints. http://libcat.csueastbay.edu/search?/Xglobal+and+warming+and+ice&SORT=D/Xglobal+and+warming+and+ice&SORT=D&SUBKEY=global%20and%20warming%20and%20ice/1%2C2%2C2%2CB/frameset&FF=Xglobal+and+warming+and+ice&SORT=D&1%2C1%2C
Science Direct: http://134.154.30.15:2058/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VBS-4PMJB5J-1&_user=521381&_coverDate=12%2F16%2F2007&_alid=648105352&_rdoc=7&_fmt=full&_orig=search&_cdi=5934&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=2468&_acct=C000059560&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=521381&md5=be6aef4122efc29ac740d77b5a302649
Academic Search Premier: http://134.154.30.15:2058/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V1T-4PK8B8T-4&_user=521381&_coverDate=01%2F31%2F2008&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000059560&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=521381&md5=ad2be8d9b9d53a0bc7ca73b6fe6a9dce
Thursday, November 8, 2007
November 8 Blog
1. A. My source from the book stacks was: Helium, "Child of the Sun." it was written by Clifford Seibel. http://libcat.csueastbay.edu/search?/Xhelium+&SORT=DZ/Xhelium+&SORT=DZ&extended=1&SUBKEY=helium%20/1%2C35%2C35%2CE/frameset&FF=Xhelium+&SORT=DZ&12%2C12%2C
Call #: QC100 .U556 no.111
B. My source from the referance stacks was: "Conflicts over natural resources : a reference handbook." by Jacqueline Vaughn http://libcat.csueastbay.edu/search?/Xnatural+gas&l=&m=&b=reall&SORT=D&Da=&Db=&submit=Submit/Xnatural+gas&l=&m=&b=reall&SORT=D&Da=&Db=&SUBKEY=natural%20gas/1%2C4%2C4%2CE/frameset&FF=Xnatural+gas&l=&m=&b=reall&SORT=D&Da=&Db=&submit=Submit&1%2C1%2C
Call #: S944 .V38 2007
3. A. I went to the library page and tried a variety of key words to find a book that related to my topic.
B. I encountered many problems trying to find relevant books because my topic is unique. I had to try a wide range of key words that i thought of on previous blogs to find books that could help me.
C. I learned that key word choice and search location can be very important in finfding exactly what you want. You don't want to narrow the search too much but at the same time you want to weed out the useless information. This is especially helpful when the topic grows broader and the search terms can only do so much.
Call #: QC100 .U556 no.111
B. My source from the referance stacks was: "Conflicts over natural resources : a reference handbook." by Jacqueline Vaughn http://libcat.csueastbay.edu/search?/Xnatural+gas&l=&m=&b=reall&SORT=D&Da=&Db=&submit=Submit/Xnatural+gas&l=&m=&b=reall&SORT=D&Da=&Db=&SUBKEY=natural%20gas/1%2C4%2C4%2CE/frameset&FF=Xnatural+gas&l=&m=&b=reall&SORT=D&Da=&Db=&submit=Submit&1%2C1%2C
Call #: S944 .V38 2007
3. A. I went to the library page and tried a variety of key words to find a book that related to my topic.
B. I encountered many problems trying to find relevant books because my topic is unique. I had to try a wide range of key words that i thought of on previous blogs to find books that could help me.
C. I learned that key word choice and search location can be very important in finfding exactly what you want. You don't want to narrow the search too much but at the same time you want to weed out the useless information. This is especially helpful when the topic grows broader and the search terms can only do so much.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
November 5 Blog
1. Today in class we discussed how the library codes work and how to use them to find books. We then searched for books that related to our topic and were sent out into the library to find them. We also discussed the final and how it would be similar to the HW for November 14th.
2. "Words" can include content of the article where as "subject headings" refer to the title and headings of the article.
3. Words give more results because they are less specific for location but can often produce irrelevant results. Subject heading searches generally result in a lower number of results but they are usually more concentrated on the topic.
2. "Words" can include content of the article where as "subject headings" refer to the title and headings of the article.
3. Words give more results because they are less specific for location but can often produce irrelevant results. Subject heading searches generally result in a lower number of results but they are usually more concentrated on the topic.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
November 1st Blog
1. My new topic is: how many helium balloons does it take to make a person float? What happens as they rise in altitude?
2. Some recommended search words were "balloons" and "floating" as a combo. Another grouping was "balloons" and "man airborne." There are many other combinations that are possible but those were the best ones we came up with for generating results.
3. I found that using any other terms with balloons limits my results too much. To overcome this I began searching using only the term "balloons" and received much better results. My first article was regarding general information about balloons, and it was found on: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=26380079&site=ehost-live. It was from a scholarly periodical. My next source was information regarding hot air balloons and the history of flight using balloons: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24408212&site=ehost-live. To continue my search i would try other databases with similar or identical search terms. However i found Academic Search Premier to give the best data towards answering my question.
2. Some recommended search words were "balloons" and "floating" as a combo. Another grouping was "balloons" and "man airborne." There are many other combinations that are possible but those were the best ones we came up with for generating results.
3. I found that using any other terms with balloons limits my results too much. To overcome this I began searching using only the term "balloons" and received much better results. My first article was regarding general information about balloons, and it was found on: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=26380079&site=ehost-live. It was from a scholarly periodical. My next source was information regarding hot air balloons and the history of flight using balloons: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24408212&site=ehost-live. To continue my search i would try other databases with similar or identical search terms. However i found Academic Search Premier to give the best data towards answering my question.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)