Lifelong Learning Research tips (Which we happen to be applying to a Biology research topic) Resources: Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources (http://www.ithacalibrary.com/sp/subjects/primary) Primary source A primary source is an original object or document -- the raw material or first-hand information. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, and art objects Secondary source A secondary source is something written about a primary source. Secondary sources include comments on, interpretations of, or discussions about the original material. You can think of secondary sources as second-hand information. If I tell you something, I am the primary source. If you tell someone else what I told you, you are the secondary source. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that discuss or evaluate someone else's original research. Different Types of Sources 1. A human 2. Encyclopedia 3. Book 4. Websites 5. Scholarly Articles
Using the Internet to Find Data How do search engines work? They look for unique words in your search string, omitting very popular words like the Using different search engines will get you different results; don t stick to just one. asthma urban risk factors Google Yahoo Everything on the Internet is True! or Why Is It Important to Evaluate? (http://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/issues/tips/trash_treasure/index.html) Volume of Resources The number of resources available via the Internet is immense. In the 1997 A Parents' Guide to the Internet, author Parry Aftab states "there are now 1.1 million separate websites, with millions more sub-pages within those websites" (there were only 130 sites in 1993). Anyone Can Publish on the Internet Organizations, companies, educational institutions, government agencies, communities, and individual people all serve as information providers for the electronic Internet community. We can and you can. This technology allows anyone to publish anything at anytime - and it's easy to do. No Approval Necessary Most of the information on the Internet is not reviewed or "filtered." In other words, unlike the most traditional information media (books, magazines, videos), no one has to approve the content before it is made public. Very seldom is there a reviewing process by peers or an authority, a checking by a publication or editor, or selection by a librarian during collection development. Anyone can say anything. Unfortunately, many people, especially students, often believe "if it's on the Internet, it must be true." What s in a Name? The internet address that appears at the top of the page is the locator for that information, it is the same as your street address; it tells me where the information is coming from. www.gertzlibrarianrocks.com Most common domain names What comes after the dot (.) tells you where the website is coming from.
Domain Meaning Example.edu created at a college or university www.indiana.edu.gov created by an official U.S. federal agency or office www.federalreserve.gov.org.com.net varies - in most cases the site was created by a nonprofit organization or an individual varies - in most cases the site was created by a for-profit organization varies greatly - often indicates that the site was created by a person, group, etc. that uses an Internet service provider www.npr.org www.amazon.com www.earthlink.net.mil created by the U.S. military www.usmc.mil.in.us created by state-supported institution of Indiana - the.us domain requires a state code as a second level domain www.monroe.lib.in.us Buyer Beware: Not All.org/.com /.net Websites Are Created Equal EX: google water danger One of the first websites that will pop up is http://www.dhmo.org/. This is a satirical website that is meant to poke fun at exaggerated, super-specific scientific studies that get referenced on the news a lot. How do you know if it s a reputable site? One thing you can do is enter the website address as a search term. If you google dhmo.org, (enter it in the search box not the address bar) you will find fake and hoax come up in your responses, a sure sign that a site is not what it seems. Finding What You Need on the Open Net: The words you use for your search terms will greatly affect what results you get back. Always try to think of synonyms for your topic, and be on the lookout in your results because you may see some terms pop up again and again. Search terms: underprivileged + whatever condition you have selected. urban + whatever condition you have selected. low income + whatever condition you have selected underserved + whatever condition you have selected
Google o I found that the search underserved population risk factors cancer found relevant results. Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) Los Angeles County Public Health Website (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/) o Health News o Statistics and Data Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov/) o Try searches such as :urban area National Institute of Health http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/nbk1788/ Time to swim in the deep end: The Database Los Angeles Public Library (http://www.lapl.org/) o collections and resources o research and homework help
MLA Citation Courtesy of Purdue University (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/02/) You will be using the Modern Language Association guidelines for how to cite your sources. There are many different ways to use MLA; for now stick to in-text citation. Example: Internet: o Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like CNN.com or Forbes.com as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com. Book: o Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263). Encyclopedia or Sources with no known author: o We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has "more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change..." ("Impact of Global Warming" 6).