In todays lecture, the Lecturer talked about Online Libraries & Databases. She discussed the convenience of online databases, compared to actual Libraries. Online Libraries are a lot more convenient as the journals are up to date, it is easy for making notes as you can copy and paste and you can access them at anytime of the day or night. I found out that more than half of the content on the web is hidden and not accessible through search engines such as Google. Types of Online Libraries include:
•Online Text Repositories
•Online Journals
•Electronic Books
•Musical
•Artworks
To reference an online library you have to use APA format.
Online Databases are similar to Online Libraries, but they are more accessible to the public, as they can be retrieved through search engines. The disadvantages of online databases is that most of them require a subscription, they are difficult to navigate and there is lots of advertising.
TUTORIAL
In this weeks tutorial, we had to research the topic 'economic impact of global warming on business' in the ECU Library's Online Database. When researching this topic I found an article titled 'Report weighs global-warming effects on N.H. economy'. This article is about the effects that global warming has on the town of New Hampshire. It explains that soon there will be less and less tourists coming to visit their town, because of global warming. There is a 50 percent reduction in skiers, as the season is starting later and snow is now coming down as rain.
http://0-proquest.umi.com.library.ecu.edu.au/pqdweb?index=13&did=1319237771&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1207190634&clientId=7582
10 useful functions/search tips from ECU Library:
1. Use the plus (+) and minus (-) signs in front of words to show specifically what you are looking for. Example - Football - soccer. This shows that you want to search everything 'football' but not 'soccer'.
2. Use double quotation marks " " to make sure that the search is conducted exactly how you typed it in.
3. Put the most important keyword first.
4. Type in lower case, if you type in uppercase your search results will all come back with an exact match (they will all be in uppercase)
5. Use truncation (or stemming) and wildcards (e.g., *) . The search engine will then look for variation in spelling. Example - colo*r returns color (American spelling) and colour (British spelling)
6.Combine phrases with keywords, using the double quotes and the plus (+) and/or minus (-) signs
7. When searching within a document for the location of your keyword(s), use the "find" command on that page
8. Know the default (basic) settings your search engine uses (OR or AND). This will have an effect on how you configure your search statement because, if you don't use any signs (+, -, " "), the engine will default to its own settings
9. Know whether or not the search engine you are using maintains a stop word list
10. In Boolean searches, always enclose OR statements in parentheses
When visiting the website http://www.medlineplus.gov/, I researched the mental condition 'Schizophrenia' because I wasn't quite sure on what the condition was exactly. I found out that it is a lifelong brain disorder, and people that have it hear voices and see things that arent really there.
Article 1 - Finding what you want on the web
This article by Bill Thompson talks about the alternative ways of searching for topics rather than always using search engines such as Google. He states the fact that he now uses search tools such as web indexes, directories and gateways to non-web resources.
Article 2 - This page gave me some search tips. This will help me a lot in my researching as I will get different results by using these tips.
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