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Mrs. Sims (formerly Ms. Hardison) |
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Don’t get trapped on the web… Spend more time on your project and less time gathering information Here are some tips to save time when looking for information… Do Not Waste Your Time! You should know which are the best doors to unlock. Think of the Internet like a huge house. Some rooms or closets will have exactly what you need. Some rooms will only have dust and spider webs. You will want to first get some background knowledge before trying to judge if the information on the web is credible (true) and the best quality available. Often, it is not. 1) Build background Knowledge: read a lot before taking notes and before you truly decide on your topic. In your reading you'll probably find something that you didn't know and that may help you narrow your topic. You may change your topic altogether. If you’re having trouble getting started or if you're all alone and don't have help you might try one of these BigSix Research Guides.But, if you are anxious to jump on the web and do not have time to go to the library for help start with a free-source like the Skim and scan a few sites to the big idea of what people are saying about your topic. I call this "trying on" your topic. Make sure you have the correct keywords, try synonyms, change your topic a little, or find a cool detail that you might follow to narrow your topic. This keyword worksheet might help you out.When you are ready to get started on gathering quality information to use in your project you should use quality resources. Try books, experts and subscription databases first. Decide where you want to look in order to save time. Ask Mrs. Hardison-Sims what the special word "SQUANDOR" stands for or look at the bottom of this page for a sneak peek. Tell your teacher you’d like Mrs. Hardison-Sims to come in and teach your class how to save time gathering credible and relevant information. All information is not the same! If you are 8th grade or above you may want to print out this ADVANCED GUIDE to searching.FREE DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN GOOD--THERE'S A GOOD REASON IT'S FREE You know those closet doors on TV that when you unlock them everything falls out on the floor? Well, that closet door is like a search engine homepage where you type in a word and you get a huge list of web pages. If you were to click on every web page summary, it would just be too much stuff to sift through unless you plan on gathering information for about a year and a half. It is not organized and you have no way of really knowing if the information is correct or not. Your teacher probably wants you to finish your work before then. Searching for the best information by only using Internet search engines is like looking for a needle in a haystack. It is better to visit your school library web page and begin your at home search to the resources they have selected. KEYWORDS UNLOCK THE DOOR TO RELEVANT INFORMATION If you are looking for information in an encyclopedia, index, database or on the web try unlocking the door to information by using keywords. Decide what information you are trying to locate and sum it up in one word. Then, add more words that describe it. For instance. Your question is, "What do baby sparrows eat?" Your keyword is sparrow. The words you might add could be baby AND food OR eat. In the search box you might type: sparrow AND baby AND food OR eat If you look at an encyclopedia or a book index, of course, your main idea, subject or keyword would be just one word. In our example above, the main key word would be sparrow. ASK A LIBRARIAN Librarians hold a Masters degree in information science. Ask your librarian for the best resources for your assignment, project or task. If your specially trained librarian has already helped other students with the same assignment he/she might be able to show you exactly what you need. Normally, the people at the circulation desk are assistants and although they are helpful, they are not always specially trained in information retrieval. Be sure to ask for a certificated librarian. USE SUBSCRIPTION DATABASES Database is a collection of information on the computer. The information can be anything. The information is collected then it is entered into the computer. It is then organized so it can be easily found using a keyword or search term. Your e-mail address book is a database of names, addresses, e-mails and phone numbers. Your personal information at school is organized in the computer. That is a student information database. When you call 411 the telephone numbers are entered into a database so the operator can quickly retrieve the number you need. Yahooligans has recommended web pages that they enter then organize into a database called a directory. A computerized database is very helpful because a lot of information can be stored in a small space and you can search the database by doing a keyword search. If you had a stack of newspapers in your garage it would take up a lot of space and it would be hard to find the article that you wanted because you’d have to look through every paper to find your keyword. Lots of time, ouch! Databases can have a specific focus (Gale's Biography Resource Center) or can be very general (Proquest's eLibrary). Databases can be a collection of information on health, encyclopedia information, newspaper and magazine articles, maps, addresses, etc. Every database is different. Some companies and online groups share their databases with Internet users for free: Encarta online encyclopedia from MSN or Wikipedia.com. Internet databases that do not charge people to access their records sometimes have advertising on their pages and therefore are sometimes thought of as less authoritative or less believable. Many internet or webpage companies often makes money from renting the space on their site to people or companies that want to sell something by advertising their products. Some companies charge money to read documents (information) in their databases. Databases that are not free to are normally called subscription databases. Just like subscription magazines that are sent to your home, or ones that you buy in the store, the information is not free. Subscription databases charge money because their users will pay for their information. A subscription database is almost always better quality than the information that is free on the Internet. If the information is not better and easier to use than the information on the free Internet then the company would go out of business because nobody would pay to use it. The company has to work hard to find and organize higher quality information and then make it easy to use so that their readers will pay to read it. An example of a subscription database is KidsInfoBits. It costs money to use KidsInfoBits because it collects and organizes articles from many different magazines. Luckily many subscription databases are paid for by your school or Public Library. Lewis Subscription Databases Public Library Subscription DatabasesKIDInfoBits Subscription Database KidsInfoBits is a newspaper and magazine article database for kids. It has articles from Scholastic, Time for Kids, Sports Illustrated for Kids and more. It is not free on the Internet to just anybody who wants to use it. KidsInfoBits pays for the articles from those magazines then libraries and school pay to use the database instead of buying all the old magazines and sifting through them to find what we need. It is easier to search on the computer than flipping through magazines that have been saved in the garage or on shelves or trying to remember where the articles are. You can only use KidsInfoBits service by paying a subscription fee. That way, the company can provide a high quality service without pop-up ads and obnoxious banners. Students in San Diego can access this service for free because the San Diego Public Library pays the subscription fee for all of its members. If you have a blue library card for the San Diego Public Library simply go to the web page http://sdplweb.sannet.gov. They will ask you to type your Public Library card number and the last four digits of your phone number. Go to KidsInfoBits and do a keyword search. Lewis Middle School also subscribes to KidsInfoBits. WEB EVALUATION If you're using the free web, don't be a sucker!!! Don't fall for ads that are too good to be true, or information that is simply wrong. To be a smarter researcher test yourself on this cool tutorial called QUICK.Remember, in most k-12 schools, if you are using a web site then you must fill out an Internet Evaluation page in order to use it in your project. Print-out the Quality Internet Information CheckList.Google.com searches for sites or web pages that contain your search term (keyword) in the title, description or text. In order to limit your hits to exactly what you want add descriptors. Use AND, OR and NOT between keywords and quotations around the words that you want to stay together like "roller coaster". So, you need to make sure that when you use only the keywords and descriptors in the search box. Nouns are best. For instance if you type in you whole question, "I want to know about dogs", then Google search function will look for the word "I" and the word "want" and the word "to", etc. You should only use the word dogs because that is exactly what you want. Nouns are better search terms than adjectives and verbs. CONCLUSION By using the best resources and descriptive keywords you can avoid being overwhelmed. Get the information you need and get out so you can spend most of your time reading and creating a project or finishing your assignment. Use keywords to search for information in the library catalog, book index, encyclopedia, or search box on the Internet subscription databases. Finding a relevant piece of information is more likely when you use the right resources, and unlock the correct doors. It is like finding the baseball that you really needed out of all the junk that falls from the closet. It is like the miner that knows exactly where to dig in order to find the perfect gold nugget. Get what you need and get out so you have time to do a good job on your project or assignment. Lewis Subscription Databases Public Library Subscription Databases For a successful search try these tipsS = Synonyms (try searching synonyms of your keyword, i.e. doggie = dog = puppy)QU = Quotes (try putting words in quotes, i.e. "San Diego Padres" or "Lewis Middle School")AND = AND (use the word AND to narrow your search, i.e. "San Diego" AND baseball) OR = OR (use the word AND to broaden your search, i.e. "San Diego" AND "amusement park" OR "attractions"
Don't SQUANDOR your time. Yes, it's a creative spelling, but it just might help save you time.
If you're stuck and need professional online help try 24/7 Reference or e-mail Mrs. Sims at jsims@sandi.net. |
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