Online Research on Zoology:A Library Workshop

Dr. Jun WangLibrarian & Coordinator of Bibliographic

Instruction and Information Literacy

Online Catalog Sample Searches Subject:

Parasitic Diseases Communicable diseases Zoonoses Zoology

Title: Animal Agents and Vectors of Human Disease

Author: McGowan, Christopher

Keyword: Parasites and Infection

Online Catalog Search TipsAuthor Search:

Last name, first name;

Title Search:May omit leading articles or type the first few words in the title;

Subject Search:Avoid using a long phrase/sentence;

Keyword Search:Used when the subject is too narrow;Use important words;

Online Catalog: Commands“B”-- Back to previous

page;

“R”--Restart;

“Page down” (Next Screen) -- Go to the next page;

“Page up” (Prev. Screen) --Go back to the previous screen.

Limit Search Search by subject or title or author; When the preliminary search result is

displayed, press Return or Enter key and select LIMIT from the menu;

You may type any underlined letter from the limit search options to limit your search;

The options include Date (limit by year), Type of Materials, Language, and Location.

Limit to Audiovisual Material Select Limit Search from the pull-down menu under

Find; Select Type of Materials by typing T which is underlined; Make a selection of the type of audiovisual material you

want from the list; Press Return or Enter key to okay the selection; Items displayed afterwards are audiovisual materials.

Search Items from a Specific Location

Select Limit Search from the pull-down menu under Find;

Select Locations by typing L which is underlined; Make a selection from the location list; Press Return or Enter key to okay the selection; Items displayed afterwards are items from that location.

Search for Reserved Items Select Reserve Room from the Find menu; Search by either a course number or the

instructor’s name; Enter course name and number or, best

yet, instructor’s last name and first name

and press Return or Enter; Select an appropriate item by pressing

the line number to find the call number and bibliographic information.

Online Periodical Databases

• InfoTrac Searchbank Databases:– Expanded Academic ASAP (1980-);– Health Reference Center--Academic

(1995-);– Business Index ASAP (1996- );– SIRS Researcher(R) (1988- );– Gen’l Reference Ctr (Magazine

Index).

• NewsBank NewsFile.

General Trend• Web-based;

• Increasingly popular:– Frequent updates;– Full-text articles;– E-mail delivery;– Down-load capability;– Cross references/links;– Accessible from a remote, networked computer.

Expanded Academic Index• Indexes more than 2,000 scholarly, trade, and

general-interest publications;• Has more than 3,676,630 articles, including over

1,000 full-text titles;• Integrates core titles in every major academic

discipline;• Includes publications with national news coverage

and commentary;• Coverage: past 3 years (backfiles for certain

publications extends as far back as 1980;• Updated daily.

Health Reference Center-Academic• Contains more than 235,787 full-text articles,

abstracts or references from a variety of health periodicals:– 40 nursing and allied health journals;– excerpts from health-related reference books;– consumer-oriented and professional health

periodicals;– pamphlets issued by leading health organizations.

• Coverage: past 4 years;• Updated daily.

General Reference Center

• Includes a variety of scholarly and general-interest periodicals, newspaper articles, encyclopedias, and other reference material;

• Covers such subjects as politics and current events, consumer electronics, arts and entertainment, automobiles, recreation and leisure, crime, personal finances, and food;

• Coverage: past 3 years (with backfiles extending as far back as 1980);

• Updated daily.

Research Strategies!

* Develop your research question;

* Identify important keywords;

* List keywords and their synonyms;

* Use Boolean search operators to nest the search terms together.

Online Searching Strategy Form

Thesis Statement:____________________________________

___________________________________________________

List Main concepts from the thesis statement:Concept A Concept B Concept C____________ ______________ ____________

Identify synonyms for each concept:

____________ ______________ ____________ or or or ____________ and ______________ and ____________ or or or____________ ______________ ____________

Search Tips• Subject Search:

– Type a brief subject search term;

– Select a subdivision term by clicking on Narrow;

– Click on View text to read the full-text article on screen;

– Asterisk at the end of a citation indicates that Delta has a hard copy of the periodical;

• Keyword Search:– Use important words;

– May use * as a truncation key;

– May use “and” to combine search terms to narrow the search and “or” between words to broaden your search.

Using the Internet As a Research Tool

Web Site Addresses (URL) & Tell-Tale Suffix

• To get to a particular Web site, you will need a Web site address or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) which begins with “http://”;

• Tell-tale suffixes:– edu (educational institution)

– gov (governmental agencies)

– com (commercial companies)

– org (organizations)

– mil (military)

– us (United States) -uk (United Kingdom)

Connect to a Library Catalog

• Many college and university libraries have made their library online catalogs available for the public to use;

• Use your common sense to go directly to an academic Web site;

• Use keywords to find the Web site of a college/university.

World Wide Web Search

• Subject Search – Yahoo Subject Search Directory

• Science->Animals->parasitology• Science->Biology->Parasitology--

>Web Directories– LookSmart Subject Search

Directory:• Library-->Sciences-->Animals--

>Parasitology

World Wide Web Search

• Directly connect to a site (When you know

the URL or Web address):– http://www-museum.unl.edu/asp http://www-

museum.unl.edu/asp

– http://lamarck.unl.edu/research/parasitology

– http://www.anu.edu.au/bambi/ASP/welcome.html

– http://www.umds.ac.uk/bsp

– http://bornova.ege.edu.tr/~mkorkmaz/linkmk3.htm

Your Turn to Search & ExploreYour Turn to Search & Explore

Good Luck!