As we discovered in Week 2, an essential addition to any reputable research paper (and the third element of the 18 Things framework) is a well-written abstract. By capturing the essential qualities of a text in a concise and structured manner, the abstract can invaluably assist information-gatherers in their task.
How many journal articles can you gather, read, and consider in one hour? If you're like me, then probably just one or two (depending on prior familiarity with the subject.) Usefully, Emerald allows users to view full, structured abstracts for every document in their list of search results (just click the "Show all abstracts" link in the top-right corner.) I find this to be incredibly helpful, allowing me to process entire pages of articles swiftly by scanning through the basic ideas and arguments of each piece. Articles which lack a full abstract tend to be insubstantial, and not very useful. If an article is going to be of interest to my research topic (and therefore worth downloading) then I can usually find out in seconds by reading the abstract.
As far as I can tell, this feature is actually unique to Emerald. Google Scholar and ACM Digital Library only display the first ~50 words of the abstract or introduction on their search results page, whilst LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts) will only offer a 25-word snippet unless you click for the full 'Citation/Abstract' page (or open the 'Preview' pop-up window) for each result. Can we measure our information-gathering-efficiency according to the number of clicks and hyperlinks it takes to access the information we actually need?
Obviously you can't limit your search to Emerald; seasoned information-gatherers know to make use of a wide variety of different online resources for finding articles. There's a lot out there, so save yourself some time and make the most of what the author has helpfully provided. Have a quick read through the abstract and decide if the article is actually relevant to your study (before filling up your desktop with dozens of unread .PDFs.)
Showing posts with label search engines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label search engines. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Monday, 8 October 2012
The Information Universe: a trip to Edinburgh
My past experiences of casual information searching have often relied on making unconscious decisions; automatically turning to familiar, tried-and-tested web resources for reliable information. Earlier this year I planned a last-minute trip to Edinburgh and, to some extent, I already knew exactly where to find the information I would require for arranging the weekend.
The first step was to organise both accommodation and travel. I have always relied upon Trainline for finding and purchasing cheap train tickets, especially at the last minute. I also used Google Maps to calculate how long the journey would take by car, and how much it would approximately cost in petrol. It turned out that rail would be the cheapest (and fastest) option.
I used TripAdvisor to find a reasonably priced and conveniently located hotel for the weekend, then reserved the room using the hotel's own website (which I probably found through a simple Google search). We had some vague ideas for things to do in the city, but I also consulted WikiTravel for some additional suggestions. I then consulted Last.Fm, a 'scrobbling' music recommendation service, to see if any familiar bands were playing gigs whilst we were there.
My final online resource was Happy Cow, an online directory which I have used to find vegetarian and vegan restaurant suggestions on several occasions before. Although useful, the website suffers from its rather basic design and sometimes outdated information. Regardless of this, I was pleased to find many tempting veggie options in Edinburgh.
Perhaps the most valuable source of information that weekend turned out to be my copy of the Edinburgh Encounter Lonely Planet guide. Sometimes the traditional, physical guide book turns out to be the most reputable and trustworthy source of information when visiting a new place, perhaps moreso than any user contribution based website.
Ben
The first step was to organise both accommodation and travel. I have always relied upon Trainline for finding and purchasing cheap train tickets, especially at the last minute. I also used Google Maps to calculate how long the journey would take by car, and how much it would approximately cost in petrol. It turned out that rail would be the cheapest (and fastest) option.
I used TripAdvisor to find a reasonably priced and conveniently located hotel for the weekend, then reserved the room using the hotel's own website (which I probably found through a simple Google search). We had some vague ideas for things to do in the city, but I also consulted WikiTravel for some additional suggestions. I then consulted Last.Fm, a 'scrobbling' music recommendation service, to see if any familiar bands were playing gigs whilst we were there.
My final online resource was Happy Cow, an online directory which I have used to find vegetarian and vegan restaurant suggestions on several occasions before. Although useful, the website suffers from its rather basic design and sometimes outdated information. Regardless of this, I was pleased to find many tempting veggie options in Edinburgh.
Perhaps the most valuable source of information that weekend turned out to be my copy of the Edinburgh Encounter Lonely Planet guide. Sometimes the traditional, physical guide book turns out to be the most reputable and trustworthy source of information when visiting a new place, perhaps moreso than any user contribution based website.
Ben
Saturday, 6 October 2012
The Information Universe & me
Good day everyone!
I want to share a couple of examples of my experience with 'the information universe'
Firstly, when I was working as a Graduate Trainee in a library at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), students would naturally come to library staff for help with various research problems. Most commonly it was simply a case of showing the student(s) how to make best use of the library's physical and electronic resources. The campus where I worked taught healthcare subjects (nursing, phsyiotherapy etc) so it was also important to find the most up-to-date information possible. Let's say in this example I am showing how to research a Nursing question.
The first port of call would be the library's OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue). Using variations on the search terms, and then where necessary filtering results by site (e.g. searching only at our campus would be more likely to locate relevant books/journals) and by date (if we want only recent material).
Next, if the student then wanted to find journal articles relevant to their subject, I could show them the subject-related databases subscribed to by MMU. One option would be to use 'search it', a service which searches multiple databases at once. This makes a good first choice for some queries, but the search options there are limited, so I could also show them the individual databases - such as ScienceDirect and Internurse. I would give a demonstration of how to use these, especially how to use the search functions effectively.
Secondly, as part of the Graduate Trainee programme at MMU, we had training in Presentation Skills which required us to prepare 2 practice presentations on any topics we liked. Now, I hate to give people incorrect information about anything, so one I had chosen my topic I researched it as best I to make sure everything was factually correct! In these cases though I had to use information freely available online - the subjects were a bit obscure for MMU libraries! I'll focus on just one of them here - a place known as 'Thornton Abbey' in Lincolnshire.
Some people may frown on this, but once I had chosen my subjects, my first action was to look them up in Wikipedia. This was just to get a good starting point for the subject! Next, I checked out the links given in Wikipedia - in this case, to English Heritage and to a local history blogger. Next, some more Google searching led me to other websites (such as the University of Sheffield's own site - turns out the archaeology department were carrying out a dig last year and this year - this was before I knew I wanted to apply to Sheffield myself!). Finally, I wanted to use some pictures in my presentation, and I had to make sure they were usable under copyright law. Wikimedia Commons and Flickr were useful for finding pictures usable under Creative Commons licenses.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to point out two fairly different aspects of the information universe! If you want to know more about the Abbey, here's the University of Sheffield Archaeology Department's website for it.
I want to share a couple of examples of my experience with 'the information universe'
Firstly, when I was working as a Graduate Trainee in a library at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), students would naturally come to library staff for help with various research problems. Most commonly it was simply a case of showing the student(s) how to make best use of the library's physical and electronic resources. The campus where I worked taught healthcare subjects (nursing, phsyiotherapy etc) so it was also important to find the most up-to-date information possible. Let's say in this example I am showing how to research a Nursing question.
The first port of call would be the library's OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue). Using variations on the search terms, and then where necessary filtering results by site (e.g. searching only at our campus would be more likely to locate relevant books/journals) and by date (if we want only recent material).
Next, if the student then wanted to find journal articles relevant to their subject, I could show them the subject-related databases subscribed to by MMU. One option would be to use 'search it', a service which searches multiple databases at once. This makes a good first choice for some queries, but the search options there are limited, so I could also show them the individual databases - such as ScienceDirect and Internurse. I would give a demonstration of how to use these, especially how to use the search functions effectively.
Secondly, as part of the Graduate Trainee programme at MMU, we had training in Presentation Skills which required us to prepare 2 practice presentations on any topics we liked. Now, I hate to give people incorrect information about anything, so one I had chosen my topic I researched it as best I to make sure everything was factually correct! In these cases though I had to use information freely available online - the subjects were a bit obscure for MMU libraries! I'll focus on just one of them here - a place known as 'Thornton Abbey' in Lincolnshire.
Some people may frown on this, but once I had chosen my subjects, my first action was to look them up in Wikipedia. This was just to get a good starting point for the subject! Next, I checked out the links given in Wikipedia - in this case, to English Heritage and to a local history blogger. Next, some more Google searching led me to other websites (such as the University of Sheffield's own site - turns out the archaeology department were carrying out a dig last year and this year - this was before I knew I wanted to apply to Sheffield myself!). Finally, I wanted to use some pictures in my presentation, and I had to make sure they were usable under copyright law. Wikimedia Commons and Flickr were useful for finding pictures usable under Creative Commons licenses.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to point out two fairly different aspects of the information universe! If you want to know more about the Abbey, here's the University of Sheffield Archaeology Department's website for it.
My Information Universe
The examples cited below are in preparation for Thing 5. They
discuss the different information resources I used and the underlying
decisions which informed my choices when making particular searches in the
past.
The first instance that comes to mind is when I had to
submit an International Economics term paper during my undergraduate
studies. It was a group work and our
task was to analyse the development challenges facing Africa, using Nigeria,
Kenya and South Africa as case-countries. The course tutor insisted that we built
our argument on resources gotten from Government Ministries in each respective country.
This made our task herculean, as we found it challenging to verify most of the
data we generated. However, we eventually decided to compare the data we got
from the ministry websites of each country with World Bank Development Reports
for each respective country, as this United Nations agency was common to all our
case-countries. Adopting this approach helped us finish our term paper with
minimal challenges.
The second instance that comes to mind and one which has
proven to be cost effective over the years is what informs my choice of air
travel. The past two years saw me do a lot of air traveling. In the beginning, spending
so much money on air tickets and airport-to-city commuting took its toll on my
wallet, until a colleague advised I used a travel search engine to compare
prices before making my decision. This search engine allows customers to compare
prices of flights and car rental, it works by posting prices of several travel
websites (for any specified route) simultaneously, thereby giving customers the
opportunity to select a choice that suits their wallet and time schedule.
Sometimes, it even has links to review sites where consumers can rate the
travel vendors on particular routes based on their individual travel experiences.
So, before you commit to traveling with your favourite airline, you might want to
check out travel search engines.
Michael Lewis
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)