REFINING YOUR SEARCH
You probably all know how to surf the Internet for information, so I won't go through a lesson here. Surfing is a great way to find a wealth of information on any subject. But there are some drawbacks to search engines and meta-search engines like www.google.com or www.dogpile.com. The drawbacks are:
You tend to get too much information.
You tend to get lots of junk mixed in with the good stuff.
First Search
If you're surfing the Internet for resources on a subject, then you are most likely coming up with a huge list of websites. As an example, if you look up "F. Scott Fitzgerald" on google, you come up with 12,500,000 possible sites! That number is most likely made up of a lot of bad or irrelevant sites, with some very choice sites mixed in like needles in a stack of hay.
Refined Search
If you narrow your search to "F. Scott Fitzgerald" AND "Great Gatsby" you chop the number to 826,000. That's a little better. So, it pays to narrow your search.
Still More Refined Search
You might narrow it even further by looking for information about a particular character, so type in "F. Scott Fitzgerald" AND "Great Gatsby" AND Daisy. You will then be directed to only 93,900 resources. That's better but still quite daunting.
SEARCH TIPS FOR SEARCH ENGINES
If you do important research via search engines like this, make sure you read the "search tips" found for your search engine of choice, for search techniques can differ from engine to engine. For instance, Google offers several search help pages to help you refine your search.
WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? AND WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE THEM?
Anyone can create a website and benefit from worldwide distribution, however insane, or subtly illogical, her/his ideas may be. So make sure you know how to Evaluating Information Found on the Internet. If you do, you're sure to find some stellar sources.
MODULE 1 ACTIVITIES
Go to www.google.com. Search for Hermann Hesse just so, without any quotation marks. How many hits are reported? (You can find this number in the "results" listing in the upper right corner of the page.
Now, put quotation marks around "Hermann Hesse" just like this. Without the q. marks, google lists all hits for Hermann and all hits for Hesse. Ugh! But with quotation marks, google will list only those sites mentioning both the first and last word together in the order specified. Cool trick, huh? How many hits are reported?
Now, search for "Hermann Hesse" AND Siddhartha just so. Google will now search for all sites mentioning the first and last name together as well as mentioning the novel. How many hits?
Check this site out http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=42.
Who wrote this essay? Write the listed name here.
What do we know about the writer of this essay?
Why is this website called echeat?
Now, avoid any such sites like this that list free or fast and easy pre-written papers or that don't clarify authorship. These paper mills are detrimental to your academic career and make very bad resources to boot. Just being associated with one can earn a paper a zero and can get a student expelled. Question: Who is the author of this essay? And why does this site list this essay as Free?
Follow these directions for this resource I found though the search above:
Go here: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1946/press.html >
Who wrote/gave the presentation speech for Hermann Hesse?
What is the Swedish Academy? Name three current members along with their years of election.
The following passage is taken from the presentation speech. Fill in the blanks: "Hesse's work combines so many influences from and St. Francis to Nietzsche and that one might suspect that he is primarily an eclectic experimenter with different philosophies. But this opinion would be quite wrong. His and are the foundations of his work and remain in control even in his treatment of the most extravagant ."
Now, find out about the source. Scroll all the way to the top and click NOBEL FOUNDATION.
Fill in the blanks: "A private institution established in based on the will of . The Foundation manages the assets made available through the will for the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Peace. It represents the Nobel Institutions externally and administers informational activities and arrangements surrounding the presentation of . The Foundation also administers the Nobel Symposium Program."
How does this source stack up against Evaluating Information Found on the Internet. Explain for each of the following categories:
Authorship
Publishing Body
Point of View or Bias
Referral to and/or knowledge of other literature
Accuracy or verifiability of details
Currency
Some experts and librarians and amateurs in virtually every field have already done the weeding through of information for you and have presented their findings in general subject directories. There are virtually thousands upon thousands of subject directories on the net. Here are three respected general subject directories you may find useful. Visit each one of them now to check out the layout. Try a sample search of your own to see how they work:
THREE RESPECTED GENERAL SUBJECT DIRECTORIES
Librarians' Index - www.lii.org
"The mission of Librarians' Index to the Internet is to provide a well-organized point of access for reliable, trustworthy, librarian-selected Internet resources, serving California, the nation, and the world." Their motto is "Information you can trust" (lii.org).
If you search for "F. Scott Fitzgerald" at lii.org, you get one source as opposed to 191,000 on google. But it's a good source that will lead you to others.
"INFOMINE is a virtual library of Internet resources relevant to faculty, students, and research staff at the university level. . . . INFOMINE is librarian built. Librarians from the University of California, Wake Forest University, California State University, the University of Detroit - Mercy, and other universities and colleges have contributed to building INFOMINE" (infomine.ucr.edu).
If you search for "F. Scott Fitzgerald" at Infomine, you get six expert selected resources.
Academic Info - www.academicinfo.net - Recommended Browsing
Mission: To "[i]mprove access to online educational resources by developing an easy to use subject directory covering each academic discipline" (academicinfo.net)
If you search for "Fitzgerald" here, you get nine sites.
For each directory, make sure to find and read the search tips--just as you would for a search engine--for techniques differ from directory to directory. For more on subject directories, see Recommended Subject Directories.
MODULE 2 ACTIVITIES
Follow the directions:
Go to www.lii.org >
Enter a search for Hermann Hesse >
Click Hermann Hesse Portal >
Click Step Inside >
Click Literature >
Click Bernhard Zeller-Essay. Now, through lii.org we have found a fantastic resource! This is an amazing site full of out of print texts by Hesse scholars to peruse! This is the kind of research that takes a little time and a little effort but that yields huge rewards.
QUESTION: What is the German title of Bernhard Zeller's book from which this essay was excerpted? Scroll up and down to find the answer. When was this book published? .
WHAT ARE EBOOKS?
Cerro Coso subscribes to netLibrary! This means that you can check out complete virtual books online and read them--without ever stepping foot in a library. This is a great service and can be quite advantageous to a researcher. The beauty is that books are never physically checked out! So numerous students around the country may be reading the exact same ebook at the exact same time. Definitely try this out.
MODULE 3 ACTIVITIES
Here are the steps to get you going:
Go to Cerro Coso's Learning Resource Center - http://www.cerrocoso.edu/lrc/. >
Scroll down to "Other" and click eBook Information, read the description, and create your own eBook account. Within 24 hours, the library will send you a username and password. (If you don't receive this info within the time frame specified, follow up with an email directly to Janet Wilson at jwilson@cerrocoso.edu. Include all of the same form information in your email.) Once you have that, come back here and go to the next step to search through the holdings! . . . >
Welcome back. Now, if you just want to search the eBooks alone without searching the rest of the Cerro Coso library, you can go directly to www.netlibrary.com. and log in using your newly acquired info. Once you're logged in, try the following search for practice . . . >
In "Basic Search" type in eastern wisdom as your subject and press "search." This should take you to many fantastic sources. >
In "Basic Search," type in Do-it-yourself Lobotomy and click View this eBook. >
Click the Search tab on the left and conduct a search for the word wisdom. This search should yield eleven pages where this particular term is mentioned. >
Under listing number 2, click View this Page. This should take you to page 106. I hope this has shown you the great benefit of using the search feature to scan an entire book for a specific word or topic. It's a very useful feature for reasearch! >
QUESTION: Fill in the following blanks to show that you made it to the actual resource:
"If conventional wisdom says , think . If conventional wisdom says , think ."
Now click "Home" in the upper left corner and conduct a basic search for the topic of Buddhism. This big search should yield over 1400 books!>
The third selections sounds interesting, so select The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition.
Click the "Search" tab to the left and conduct a search for the word Wisdom. This should yield about 35 hits for that word! >
Select number 1 which should take you to page 31 of the text and complete the following paragraph to show that you made it:
"The cultivation of wisdom lies at the heart of the Buddha’s and is the key to liberation. But this wisdom is not so much an intellectual understanding as the of the true . For example, the Buddha’s personal attendant, , was legendary for his knowledge of the Buddha’s teachings and his ability to recall them from memory. Yet he is traditionally held to be the of Sakyamuni’s disciples to attain ."
WHAT ARE THE ELECTONIC RESOURCES AT ON THE LRC WEBSITE?
Cerro Coso subscribes to numerous top notch databases for student use. It costs the college a lot of money to subscribe to these services! Thank you, Cerro Coso! Examples of databases that may be useful to you are
InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center
Literature Resource Center
Britannica Online
Be sure to make use of these while you are a student, for these databases are fantastic places to find research materials for your projects. Follow the directions below to learn how to use one of them.
MODULE 4 ACTIVITIES
InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP
Go to Cerro Coso's Learning Resource Center - http://www.cerrocoso.edu/lrc/. >
Click Magazine, Journal, and Newspaper Articles. >
Enter your student i.d. number. If you don't know this, contact admissions and records or find it on some registration materials you've filed away somewhere. It is usually an eight digit number and it NOT, I repeat, NOT your Social Security number. >
Now peruse the databases at your disposal. Newsbank and Opposing Viewpoints, and Expanded Academic ASAP are particularly useful. >
Click on Expanded Academic ASAP. This is one of Infotrac's many useful databases. This database will give you access to thousands of journals, newspapers and magazines. Basically, it's a huge periodicals section at your fingertips. This is the resource I use all the time. >
Imagine that you are searching for ideas on the subjects of wisdom and learning. So type in the yellow search guide box the term Wisdom, but don't click "search yet. >
Under Limit the current search, go ahead and limit your search by clicking to articles with text. This will ensure that the listings you get for your search will include only full essays. If you don't take this step, then many abstracts of sources that InfoTrac doesn't have full access to will be posted along with full sources. This is alright if you wish to conduct deeper research and hunt down sources in other locations (hard work). Usually, unless I'm doing VERY deep research, I limit my search so that I get only the full sources readily available to me via InfoTrac. It's just easier that way. >
Click search. >
You should see tons of options. Click Narrow By Subdivision to narrow the field.
Now you can click any subdivision. For now, click analysis. You should see about twenty articles.
Click "How Wise People Cope with Crises and Obstacles in Life".
Now you're in a solid source! If you are going to print it, make sure to hit the "print" button to format for printing. This will save ink and paper excesses.
QUESTION: Fill in the blanks: Before the question of how wise people cope with crises and obstacles in life can be examined, one first has to define what wisdom is. Even after two and a half decades of contemporary wisdom research, however, a uniform definition of wisdom still does not exist. Some current wisdom definitions are derived from explicit (expert) theories of wisdom, whereas others are based on implicit (lay) theories of wisdom, and those definitions can be further distinguished according to the wisdom traditions of the West or the East and whether they refer to personal or general wisdom (Sternberg and Jordan 2005). For example, explicit theories define wisdom as in the of (life planning, management, and review) and in the conduct and meaning of life (Baltes and Smith 1990; Baltes and Staudinger 2000; Baltes et al. 1995; Dittmann-Kohli and Baltes 1990; Smith and Baltes 1990; Smith, Staudinger, and Baltes 1994);
SEARCHING FOR LOCAL HOLDINGS AND DISTANCE LEARNER CHECK-OUT PROCEDURES
Do you long for the real deal? An actual book in your hands? If you have a library nearby, then go for it. Or, if the Cerro Coso library is holding a book that sounds perfect for your project, go ahead and check it out! The library has in place a distance learner check out policy that makes it possible for you to receive college books through the mail. Keep in mind that return postage will be up to you. If you're interested, here's what you do:
MODULE 5 ACTIVITIES
Go to Cerro Coso's Learning Resource Center - http://www.cerrocoso.edu/lrc/. >
Click Books and conduct a General Keyword search for Wisdom. You should see about 88 titles in the library's holdings. >
Scroll down just a bit and click on the title The wisdom of China and India / edited by Lin Yutang. This one looks like an interesting source for an interpretive paper. If you find a book that sounds interesting, then write down its information. >
QUESTION: The complete eleven to fifteen digit call number and year of this book is what? ( ... ) >
When you are interested in a book like this, write down all of its information. Then >
Go back to the Learning Resource Center main page and click on Distance Learners. Follow the directions for requesting the book for mailing. Then wait expectantly the next few days as the book travels via US Postal Service to your door! (You don't have to order a book now unless you really want to!)
QUESTION: From the Learning Resource Center homepage, click Distance Learners and then Book Request Form. Fill in the following blanks to show you made it to the page.
"The following form is to be used for ( ... ) for a book located in the book collection of the Cerro Coso Library. Please check the ( ... ) as to the availability of the materials before requesting them. Click on the Library Catalog link located on this page or through the Library's opening web page. Book requests are not accepted for ( ... ) nor for books from ( ... ) libraries.