Off The Shelf

I keep getting calls asking for “the right” keywords for a topic, like I, the Wise and Powerful Librarian can grant the perfect phrases that will find the one article that matches your assignment perfectly.    While I am honored at the presumption, I feel like an extended series on different search strategies might be in order.

Keyword searching is only one strategy for searching the literature. 

Here are five others that I can think of:

• Controlled Vocabulary
• Bibliographic Mining
• Searching by Author
• Using Dissertations as Signposts
• Books and Methodology

Can you think of any others?  In the next few weeks I hope to say a little about each one. 

Stay tuned . . .

– Erika

Are you looking for a test or a measure to conduct your dissertation research? One Library database  you should check is the Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY), sometimes faculty or others may refer to this databases as Buros . This database has reviews which include the history, validity, reliability, publisher, cost and other information of many published instruments. However, I know it can be frustrating to learners that it does not let you view a copy of instrument.  Also there may not be a published instrument that measures your interest.

So what do you do at that point?

When this occurs I often direct learners to another Library database Dissertations & Theses Full text. In this database you could search for dissertations that used the instrument, most dissertations require a copy of the instrument is included in the appendix of the dissertation. You could also check the publishers Web site  they may have a copy of the instrument .

Also if you don’t find a published instrument in the MMY database, you may find an unpublished instrument in a dissertation. Unpublished instruments would require permission of the author of the dissertation (or the person who created the instrument) to use in your dissertation.

Any instrument you use or create is of course subject to the approval of your mentor and the Institutional Review Board Process.

Need some help finding a test or measure for your dissertation?  Call or email the Capella Librarians, we would be happy to help you use the resources mentioned above, or perhaps suggest other resources.

Robin

One of the best things about going to colloquia is hearing learners talk about researching.  I get to be a kind of “spy,” listening in as you talk about the tools you use and the problems you face when searching.  Only a portion of learners contact us with a reference question, so this is my one opportunity to find out what’s going on with the rest of you.

So far I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the variety of resources Capella’s doctoral learners are accessing.  Just a year ago I never heard learners mention WorldCat.  Learners also talked about looking at bibliographies (we librarians refer to it as bibliography mining), and a few have even mentioned searching for the resources that have cited the articles they already have (cited reference searching). 

Knowing about these and other advanced search techniques can greatly enhance the quality of the resources you use.  They can also speed up your search, making your research time more effective and efficient.

For more advanced search techniques, check out the library’s Resources for Doctoral Learners section of the Guides and Tutorials page.  We’ve posted several guides here that can move you beyond basic searching.

- Erin

Many of us love the accessibility of the digital book (or ebook, as we often call them).  No hunting the stacks or taking a trip to a far-away library.  Just a few keystrokes and there it is.

But then you’ve got to read them.  That’s where the digital book starts to break down.  They’re just not as pleasant as curling up with the real thing, it’s hard to have 6 digital books spread out on a desk in front of you, and who wants to spend more time in front of a screen? 

The University of Michigan has purchased an Espresso Book Machine that lets it quickly turn a digital book into a bound paper version.  Now those who prefer a physical copy can have the best of both worlds:  a digital copy makes the book available everywhere, and the book machine gets the user the type of book they want. 

At $10 and about 7 minutes, that’s a pretty good deal.  Right now it’s mostly used for out of print and out of copyright books, but perhaps the publishers of the future will “outsource” the printing to the end user, making most books available this way.

-Erin

Capella Librarians are leaving soon for the Atlanta Colloquium which begins this weekend.  If you are going you may want to plan on attending one one of the following sessions:

Finding Scholarly Articles & Books for Track 1 and Track 2 learners. Sunday at 1:45pm and Monday at 11:00am.

Advanced Searching & Finding Dissertations for Track 2 & 3 learners.  Sunday at 3:30pm and Tuesday at 1:45pm.

Need some help, but can’t fit one of the above sessions into your schedule?

Sign-up in Roswell for an appointment to meet one-on-one with a Librarian to get an overview of the Library, some search tips, or help “jump starting” your dissertation literature review.  Sign – up early!

If you are going to the Atlanta Colloquium, safe travels!

Robin

When the web first became a household word in the 1990s, dates weren’t all that important.  The web was so new that everything on it must be new, too.

Early in the 2000s dates weren’t all that important, either.  Old sites looked, well, old fashioned.  It was easy to pick out a website that had been around for a while – it had poor graphics, mostly text, and usually garish colors.  New sites, even ones by web novices, looked polished. 

Now that everyone’s been producing professional-looking websites for a few years, it’s hard to tell what’s recent from what’s ancient.  And many sites have failed to properly date their material.

That may not seem like a big deal, but it can cause real problems when timely information is everything.  Just recently United Airlines stock spiraled downwards after Google picked up an old newspaper story and slapped a recent date to it.  You can hear the play by play from a public radio report as Google found an old story, changed the date, and everyone else took Google’s word for it.

Many have blamed the original newspaper story for not having a date on it, but it appears Google is redating articles even when they have a date!  This isn’t necessarily malicious, but it does show just how easy it is for things to get messed up in an automated world.

So, what can the average web user do to stop being taken in?

1. Stay informed about current events and the world.  If you know that United Airlines filed for bankruptcy a few years ago, you might question its happening again so soon.  General knowledge helps you identify things that seem fishy.
2. Be a little skeptical about everything you see online.  The internet is full of jokesters, scammers, automated processes and orphaned content.  Any of these can result in misleading information. 
3. Research, fact check, and confirm.  We’ve posted about helpful sites like Snopes before, but not all misleading internet information rises to the level of an urban legend.  Many are just banal mistakes (or lies) that can make you look stupid, but rarely touch more than a few dozen people.

So, what would you do if you saw the following on the internet?  Believe it, or check it out?  And would you know where to go to find the answer?

• A hundred years ago, only 20% of Americans were literate. 
• The United States has never been invaded by another country.
• There’s current evidence of enough oil in Alaska to power all U.S. homes and cars for 100 years.

So, there’s the challenge.  What does your “gut” tell you, and how do you confirm it? 

- Erin

September 17 was made Constitution Day in 2004, creating a day for everyone to learn about the U.S. Constitution. 

In celebration, I’m going to present a few government resources (digital, but still very wordy) that may be useful for research.

First, the Government Printing Office is responsible for making available government information from all three branches.  For much of its history information was only in print form and you had to go to a depository (typically a large government, university, or public library) to access it.  Now you can find much of the government’s publications online.  One example is the U.S. Constitution along with legal commentary. 

In an earlier post I wrote about THOMAS, which provides access to the workings of Congress.  Here is the text of the Senate Resolution for Constitution Day.

As you well know, the Constitution outlines our three branches of government, which have leafed out into a seemingly endless amount of agencies, offices, statistics and publications.  There are several tools available to help you search for what you need to find:

• Google U.S. Government
• USASearch.gov
• Fedstats (only statistics)

Whenever you search for government information, it’s best to start by thinking about which portion of government might have that information. 

• Is it state, local, or federal information?
• What agency might be responsible?
• Is that something the government might NOT collect?

It’s important to remember that just because you want to know something, it doesn’t mean that the government has spent the time and money to collect, evaluate, and publish the information.  And sometimes the legislative branch officially stops the government from collecting specific kinds of information. 

Other times the government would prefer that you not know something.  They’ll only give it out if you specifically ask for it.  Many government agencies will outline their policies regarding the Freedom of Information Act.  You can also look at your state’s FOIA or sunshine laws for state government information restrictions and requirements. 

- Erin

A recent article from the BBC News stated: “The internet needs a way to help people separate rumour from real science…” I have a strong doubt we will ever achieve an ideal, factual Internet, so in the meantime we’ll need to continue to use critical thought and evaluative skills to ensure the information we come across on the Internet and through forwarded emails is accurate.

Because the Internet allows anyone with a computer to create content and spread information, it would be difficult if not impossible to regulate it to separate fact from fiction. In this post I recommend some nonpartisan resources that will help you separate fact from fiction this election year.

Because this is a presidential election year, you’re probably finding your email inbox inundated with forwarded emails from concerned friends and relatives regarding the political candidates. A report from factcheck.org cites multiple instances of popular email forwards being mostly or totally bogus. While this certainly applies to the political candidates, there are multiple examples of rumors spread just by forwarding an email without first checking the facts.

Did you hear the one about the U.K. (University of Kentucky depending on the version) cutting the Holocaust out of their curriculum due to it being offensive to Muslims? Bogus! The report from factcheck.org says, “A simple Google search reveals the falsity of the rumor, yet the e-mail continues to be passed along by the overly credulous.”

Or how about the one that claims to be an essay by Jay Leno, and more recent versions cite David Letterman, urging people to focus on the positive. Bogus! It was actually written by columnist Craig R. Smith for WorldNetDaily in 2006. But the originator of the false email probably knew people were less likely to pass on something written by Mr. Smith, so they attributed a celebrity as author. It worked! It’s still in circulation today and will be until people stop forwarding false information.

Similar to the Jay Leno example is the widely circulated “commentary” by Andy Rooney. Andy Rooney has stated multiple times that it was not his work, but yet the email lives due to careless email forwarding.

But also take those campaign ads on television with a grain (or shaker full) of salt. Political campaigns are notorious for distorting facts. For example a recent McCain ad claiming Obama wants to teach “comprehensive sex education” to kindergarteners was debunked by the facts, showing how they had been distorted. FactCheck.

On the other side an Obama ad distorted information to paint a more negative picture of McCain’s education voting record. FactCheck.

So how do you protect yourself from passing on misinformation? And more importantly, how do you protect yourself from believing bad information? Arm yourself with some resources from nonpartisan organizations who do the fact checking for you:

• FactCheck.org
• PolitiFact.com

• Snopes.com
• Urban Legends from About.com

FactCheck.org created a special wire for the election season, which they claim is “Faster than the speed of Spin.” Check it out: FactCheck Wire.

Remember, the type of resource matters. Below are the most common sources people use for political information that will require various levels of skepticism and fact checking:

• Newspapers and popular magazines include articles that are quickly fact checked, but due to quick deadlines can include inaccuracies. Newspapers have a reputation to uphold, so they have more incentive to report the facts, but no media is perfect.
• Television ads are required to include an approval statement by the candidate, however there is no fact checking done by the network running the ad. Political campaigns distort facts because they know that most people will believe the ad and not take the time to check if what it claimed is true.
• Blogs are opinion pieces not reviewed by editors or fact checkers. Anyone can start a blog and there’s no rule requiring accurate information.
• Forwarded Emails are usually distortions of facts including false information. Ask yourself why you’re finding out the information from an email as opposed to the News – it’s not because someone knows something the media is ignoring, but because the media has probably already investigated it and found the claim false.

-Sommer

I’m always surprised when I get a call from a learner and the first thing they do is apologize for “bothering” me.  Nonsense - calls from learners are usually the best, most productive part of my day. They are and SHOULD be the focus of why the Library exists.

Most learners call the Library after they have spent a  long and frustrating time trying to find something.  I can help them find it right away and usually hear  – you can guess – “I should have called you sooner,”   Most of the time if you have been searching for 20 minutes and have not found what you need, call us or drop as an email and we will get you moving forward with your project.

For most classes quarter break is approaching and you may want to take this opportunity to give us a call and get an overview of the library, or ask questions in some specific area where you are having trouble. It’s not unusual for a call with a learner to last 20 minutes or more, so we will take the time you need to get your question answered.

Also if you are starting your literature review for your dissertation, you may want to call and discuss keyword and databases with a librarian.  We can help you by email, but it can be easier to get clarity on your question when we can talk “real-time”.

If it is difficult to call during the day, we have evening hours until 8pm central time on Mondays and Saturdays from 10-2pm.

Want to hear what a typical call between a learner and librarian sounds like. Click on this link from the Library Research Handbook.

Calling a Capella Librarian

Looking forward to your next call or email!

Robin

With Quarter 3 ending and a few weeks before Quarter 4 starts up, there’s a bit of time to spend on things other than assignments.  I know a lot of you have already filled up those free hours, doing things like cleaning house, catching up on sleep, or reintroducing yourself to your family.

If you can take an hour or two away from those worthy tasks, there are some library-related activities that can help prepare you for next quarter.

1. Get acquainted with an important journal in your field.  Journal Locator can help you find recent issues of major journals.  Take some time to scan through the tables of contents of recent issues and read an article or two.  This will keep you up-to-date on the field and help you pick topics to research the next time you have a paper to write.
2. Try out a new library resource.  It’s easy to stick to the same database every assignement when you’re pressed for time.  Spend ten minutes playing in a new database, so you’ll be ready to use it quickly and efficiently in the future.
3. Learn a new research skill.  Take a look at the library’s list of guides and tutorials.  We’ve created some advanced research guides for doctoral learners, so there may be new skills you can add to your arsenal.
4. Read recreationally.  Go to your public library.  Read a magazine.  Pick up a novel.  Reading for pleasure keeps your brain working while still relaxing and having fun. 

We’ll still be answering questions for anyone who’s still in courses during the rest of September.  If you’ve got some time off between now and the beginning of October, be sure you enjoy it!

- Erin