AVI 101

Finding Information

Martin J. Crabtree

MCCC Library

September 16,2004

Agenda• The College’s Card Catalog• Electronic Searching

– Keywords & Boolean Searching

• Electronic Databases at Mercer– What’s a database?– Databases available through Mercer

Library– Accessing the databases

• Web Information– Searching– The Invisible Web– Evaluating what you find

Using The Card Catalog• The catalog is available

online. Used to find books, videos and other material both in the MCCC collection and the Mercer County Public (MCL) libraries.

• You can have materials from MCL brought to the college. Deliveries arrive Tuesday and Friday afternoons. (DVD’s not available from MCL)

• You will need to have your student ID card to borrow books or use the library’s computer lab

Finding Books

• Unlike school and public libraries, MCCC uses the Library of Congress (LC) system.

• The LC is an alphanumeric system, for example– HE9760-9900: Air transportation

[business focus] – TL500-780: aeronautics

[technology focus]• TL515-550: Aeronautics - History

The link to the catalog is on the library’s web pages.

Periodicals

• Periodicals include:– scholarly journals– newspapers– Magazines

• Periodicals represent the bulk of published scholarly information.• The library has a number of periodicals available in

print, on microfilm, and especially via electronic databases.

• The library staff can help determine if a specific

periodical is available from the library.

Aviation Periodicals at Mercer

• Aviation Week• Regional Airline World• Plane & Pilot• Professional Pilot• Private Pilot• Air Transport World• Airways• Aviation Monthly• Aviation Maintenance• The Aviation Consumer• Business & Commercial Aviation• Helicopters• FAA Aviation News

Aviation Tradescan Index

• Monthly index to articles in a number of aviation periodicals

• “History” is one of the subject areas listed in the index

Amelia Earhart ( 1897-1937)

First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic

Searching Electronic Databases

And The Web Too

Starting An Electronic SearchKeywords

• Keywords are used when searching electronic databases and web search engines

• First step - Generate a list of words (keywords) that describes or is commonly used when discussing your topic. For example:– Ozone– Layer– Depletion– Atmosphere– Hole

Starting An Electronic Search

Boolean Searching/Logic

• Boolean searching - Connecting keywords with the terms– and– not– or

• For example– eagles NOT football– (car or automobile) and exhaust

• More Terms = Fewer “Hits”

Searching More Than Just Keywords

Phrases & Truncations• To search for a phrase, use quotation

marks– “survival of the fittest”

• Truncations allow for searching related words all at once– The * is usually used. For example:

• “child*” would include: child, children, childhood, childproof, etc.

Electronic Databases at the Mercer Library

What are electronic databases?

• A collection of electronically searchable information (frequently, but not limited to, periodical articles) that is accessible via the internet

• Access to this information is by subscription only, paid by the library.

• It is accessible via the internet, but it is not truly web information.

Electronic DatabasesIn General

• Over 40 databases available• Not every article is available full text

though many are• Abstracts (summary) is often

available when full text is not

Electronic DatabasesIn General

• Accessible at any computer on the MCCC & JKC campus network

• Most are available off campus, need to request a password (forms available after this class).

• Can print/e-mail/download articles

Getting to the databases

• Use the library quick link at mccc.edu to get to the library’s homepage

• Go to the “Online Databases & Search Engines” link (in the left column) of any of the library’s web pages.

Databases with aviation information

• EBSCOhost - Academic Search Premier: Broad collection covering many subject areas. Not every article full text, some may need Acrobat Reader to view

• Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis) – News: Collection of newspaper information from around the US, nearly all full text

• ABI/Inform – Business information including the Wall Street Journal

• Biographies Plus - Biographical information of noted people in a wide range of fields.

• New York Times Historical Newspaper – Articles from 1851 – 2000

Searching the World Wide Web and Evaluating What You Find

Brought to you by…

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Searching the World Wide Web

How can I find what I want?

Some things to consider when searching the web

• Everything is NOT on the web and may never be

• No search engine covers the entire web

• The things a search engine misses (aka invisible web) is huge. Estimates put the size of the invisible web between 2 and 500 times bigger than the “visible” web.

Searching the World Wide Web

Search Strategy• Searching the Web is much like database

searching:– Put together a list of keywords – Use Boolean logic (and, not, or) to better define your

search– Use double quotes for phrases, truncations, etc.

• When searching the web, also:– Consider which search engines may best suit your

search needs. Different search engines yield different results.

– Use the search engine’s “advanced search” to select limiting parameters (language, date, domain, etc.)

Searching the World Wide Web Meta Sites

Meta search sites (like Ask Jeeves, Dogpile):– Allow you to search more than one search

engine at a time.– Can generate more “stuff” to sift through– Limited to only basic searches, can’t use

advanced search features– Some results can be from “paid for listing”

search engines

Sample Web Search• Topic – Wiley Post

• Try search in:– Google (note Google’s

“cached” feature)– AltaVista

Wiley Post in early pressure suit 1934

So why are search Engines missing so much?

• When using a search engine, you are searching a database that represents what is known to be on the web

• Spiders or crawlers roam the web from link to link generating this database

• Works extremely well for static, all text pages, in the HTML language

• The problem arises when pages are ever changing or not in HTML

So where is all of this stuff hiding?

• By far, a great amount is contained in databases (both paid and free)

• Other places include:– Non-text information such as photos or audio– PDF formatted documents– Very new web pages– Password only access information

Finding the invisible stuff

• The key is knowing when you need “invisible” information and then where to find it.

• Not every web search requires looking in the invisible web.

• Search engines work very well when looking for a narrow, focused topic.

• www.lii.org - searchable annotated directory of Internet resources

Evaluating Web Sites

Is this stuff any

good?

Now Back to Our “Sponsors”

&

Evaluating Web Sites

• Quality varies greatly from site to site

• YOU are the sole evaluator of the quality of information a site provides

United Airlines Stewardesses 1930

Five Evaluation Criteria1. Accuracy - is it reliable?2. Authority - is author qualified on

subject?3. Objectivity - is the information biased?4. Currency - is the information “new”

enough?5. Coverage - does the info completely

cover the topic?

Evaluating Web Sites• Search engines may put you out of context,

go the home page to help evaluate the site

• A web site page will include contact information such as phone numbers and street addresses (not just an e-mail address)

• Look for the “about us” page for more about who is responsible for the website and it’s contents

Site ExtensionsThe extension can help evaluate information• .gov - Governmental sites• .edu - Educational institution sites• .com - Commercial sites• .org - Not for profit organization sites• .mil - Military sites• Others are being creates that are less

clear cut, e.g.: .net or .co.uk

Other Considerations• Watch out for information that is

positioned to sell you something.• Altered web pages (either by

accident or maliciously)• Links to other web sites DOES NOT

necessarily mean that the site is credible. Evaluate each site separately.

The Bottom Line…

Buyer Beware• The web contains a vast amount of information…but

not everything

• Anyone can put information on the web, hence the quality of web information varies greatly

• YOU will often be the only person to decide if the quality of the info you find on the web is good

Now let’s visit a site…