Library Research Process

Seven Steps of the Library Research Process

Acknowledgement

My gratitude to Duke University Libraries. I have adapted some ideas from Duke University Libraries (Perkins and Lilly): Guide to Library Research and have written this guide to suit the Papua New Guinea Student.

GUIDE TO LIBRARY RESEARCH

This guide gives the seven steps students should follow in conducting their research in the university Library or from other information sources including the internet.The seven steps ensure that you make good quick decisions from the start while doing an orderly research. In addition it is also a good help in organizing your thoughts and writing.

The seven steps of the library research process  are:

1. Choosing a topic

2. Finding Background Information

3. Refining a topic

4. Selecting Resources

5. Searching for Information

6. Evaluating Resources

7. Citing Sources

Choosing a topic  

Topic for research

Some students may find choosing a topic is the hardest task to decide in doing research. Your instructor may assign a general or specific topic, or the choice may be up to you. Knowing where to look for ideas will help you find an interesting subject.

Ideas  

Your interests, books and articles you have been reading, and conversations you have had in class or with others are often good sources of ideas.Current journals may give you an idea of hot research topics. Look through some recent issues of journals or magazines in the current periodical collection in the Library or the Internet. If you are going to search the Internet without knowing any journal title, type in your browser “free journals or “open access journals”.  

Browsing for ideas

Browsing the shelves in the library is also a good way to get an idea of topics. A good knowledge of the basic Dewey Decimal Classification  (DDC) is handy. Ask the Library staff if you wish to consult the DDC.  Books in the Library are shelved together by topic. Once you have identified the call number of one book, you can browse for related books on the same shelve.

You may also just simply Google (if you are using Google) the subject by typing in a subject term and see what is the current discussion on a subject.

Information requirement

When analyzing your assignment,  also consider the type, quantity, and format of information you will need.

Answering the following questions will help you organize your research

• What kind of assignment do you have to complete? (e.g., 5 minute oral presentation, 10 page paper, 50 page paper)
• How much information do you need? Remember your deadline for handing your paper.
• Is currency important?
• What types of publications do you want to read? (newspaper articles, books, journal articles, diaries, trade publications, etc.)
• What formats do you need? (visual, audio, printed, electronic)
• Is point of view an issue? Do you need opinions?
• How much time do you have?

Identify keywords

After you have formulated your topic identify keywords.  State your topic as a question to help you identify keywords. What are the significant terms, concepts, and keywords that describe your topic? These terms will become the keywords for searching catalogues and databases for information about your subject.

Example:

Topic: "The influence of logging activities on deforestation and people in PNG"

Topic stated in question form: "How does logging activities influence deforestation and the population in PNG?"

Keywords:

• Logging
• Deforestation
• Papua New Guinea

Finding Background Information

A good way to begin your research is to locate and read short articles that will give you a broad overview of a topic. You can find these articles in a variety of reference materials. Also, these resources often provide bibliographies that will allow you to discover additional information on a subject.

Some of the sources to give a broad overview

• General Encyclopedias
• Specialized/Subject Specific Encyclopedias
• Specialized/Subject Specific Dictionaries
• Almanacs
• Handbooks
• Thesaurus
• Periodical Articles from Full-Text Databases
• Biographical Sources
• Other Sources from the Catalogue

General Encyclopedias

General Encyclopedias  are designed to cover all branches of knowledge and they are likely to have some information on every topic. They are often good sources to consult first, since they introduce the main concepts about a subject and suggest other sources that may be helpful. Two examples of general encyclopedias are:

• The World Book Encyclopedia.
• The New Encyclopaedia Britannica

Specialized or Subject-Specific Encyclopedias

Examples are:

• Encyclopedia of Psychology
• McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology.

Specialized or Subject-Specific Dictionaries

Examples are:

• A Dictionary of Architecture.
• A Short Dictionary of Architecture, Including Some Common Building Terms.
• International Dictionary of Architects and Architecture.

Almanacs

Almanacs are filled with up-to-date answers to all kinds of questions. Whether you are looking for basic statistics on government funding of HIV programs or recent winners of the Melbourne Cup, you are likely to find the information in an almanac. They provide figures, charts, tables, and statistics.

Examples are:

• The Time Almanac (formerly the Information Please Almanac)
• World Almanac and Book of Facts.
• Whitaker's Almanac.
• The Star Almanac for Land Surveyors  2001

Handbooks

Handbooks supply concise factual information like charts, formulas, tables, statistical data, and historical background. Because they are updated frequently, handbooks include information about new developments. References to additional information are usually included.

Examples are:

• The Physics Quick Reference Guide.
• Handbook of Physical Quantities.

Periodical Articles 

Sometimes articles in newspapers or general interest periodicals (Post Courier, The National, Newsweek, Time, National Geographic) can provide a quick overview of a subject. Searches in general periodicals may also provide you with an idea of what kinds of articles are being written about a subject.

.

Biographical Sources

Sometimes you may want to learn something about a person without having to read a full-length biography. The Library has several biographical reference works that provide relatively brief articles about thousands of people. You can always expect to find something about the most famous people. It should also be possible to find something about people that are not widely known.

Examples are: 

• Dictionary of American Biography 
• Who's Who in America
• Dictionary of National Biography: the concise dictionary
• Encyclopedia of World Biography
• New York Times Biographical Service

Refining a Topic

Once you have found some background information, you can refine your broad research topic into a narrow or focused topic. If you quickly develop a broad topic into a focused topic, it will make it easier for you to have a clear picture of what you will eventually write at the end. On the other hand, if your subject is too focused or detailed, you may have a hard time finding enough sources to write a good paper. In this case, you need to broaden your topic. Depending on your interests, a general topic can be focused in many ways. For example, if you want to write a paper on "government funding of education", consider the following questions:

• What do you already know about this subject?
• Is there a specific time period you want to cover?
• Is there a geographic region or country on which you would like to focus?
• Is there a particular aspect of this topic that interests you? For example, public policy implications, historical influence, cultural aspects, psychological angles, specific groups or individuals involved in the topic.

The online catalogue can give you some ideas for narrowing a topic. Subject headings in the catalogue are broken down into subheadings that define geographical locations, material types, or specific aspects of a topic. Some subject headings also have Search also under or See also notes and links that identify other related or narrower subjects. Besides the online catalogue, you may consult Library of Congress Subject Headings List. A copy of this is available in the Library for students use.

Broadening topics that are too narrow are fairly simple to refine. Think of similar and broader associations for your subject to find a broader topic that will be easier to research. Bear in mind, sometimes a topic may be very new and sources to your research questions may not yet exist. For example, if you want to do a paper on the effect of deforestation on PNG's long-term ability to feed its citizens, consider the following questions:

• Could you examine other countries or regions in addition to PNG?
• Could you think more broadly about this topic? Consider wider topics like agriculture and sustainable development.
• Who are the key players in this topic? The government? Citizens? International organizations
• What other issues are involved in this topic? For example, how can natural resources be allocated most economically to sustain the people of PNG?

Example

Specific Topic:   What is the effect of deforestation on PNG’s long-term ability to feed its citizens?

Alternative Focus: Agriculture, sustainable development 

Alternative Place: South Pacific

Alternative Person or Group: United Nations and its subgroups. 

Alternative Event or Aspect: Birth Control.
After you have taken into account the above alternatives your topic may look something like this: How can the United Nations encourage South Pacific countries to employ sustainable development practices?

Example

Topic Narrowing

General Topic:  Government funding of education.

Time Span:   1980s

Place:   PNG

Event or Aspects:   Education reform

Narrowed Topic:   Government funding for the education reforms program through the Department of Education.

Selecting Resources

In order to be organized in collecting information it is advisable the student keep an Information Timeline. This timeline should be arranged by date of publication from the oldest to the current. This is not only good for organizing your search but comes handy in your bibliography.

Searching for Information

Depending on your topic, different types of resources (the web, newspapers, magazines, journals, books, etc.) may be more appropriate than others. You need to be aware of what kind of information is in each type of resource and who the intended audience is.  The different type of resources:

• Books,
• Journal Articles, 
• Newspaper Articles, 
• Bibliographies,
• Book Reviews,
• Government Documents,
• Primary Sources,
• Review Articles,
• Statistics,
• Video and Sound Recordings,
• Web Pages.

Evaluating Resources

Consider the following criteria when evaluating resources:

• Quantity
• Diversity
• Date of Publication
• Quality and Reliability
• Additional Resources

Quantity

Make sure there are enough resources  needed to:

• Support your argument
• — Include a variety of viewpoints and materials

Diversity—  

Variety is necessary therefore include many different resources from primary and secondary sources.—

 Primary Sources

—Contemporary accounts of events and original documents such as
—letters, diaries, audio-recordings of speeches, newspaper articles— 

Secondary Resources

 Retrospective sources based on primary resources include scientific or scholarly analysis
— Examples of retrospective sources are books, articles, editorials, reviews, and scientific studies

Date of Publication

When was the source published? Remember the Information Timeline. Depending on the topic of research different materials from different time periods will be used.

—Current Events Research

• Use resources that are recent and reflect current academic and public interests.— 

Historical Research

• Use a variety of resources from different time periods including both Primary and Secondary resources. 

Quality and Reliability— 

When choosing your resources, the most difficult task is determining their quality and reliability. This is particularly problematic when a source is found through the Internet. Some factors to think about when assessing the quality and reliability of a publication are:

• —Intended audience
• Purpose of the publication
• Assumptions the author makes
• —Bases of the author's conclusions
• Author's support or disagreement with other authors of the subject
• Content is in line with what you know or have learned about the issue

— To help determine quality and reliability, it might also help to look over the source's documentation and read some reviews of the source. There are very few review sources in the Library but many are available on the Internet. Search the internet using terms such as reviews or more specifically book reviews and you will find review sources. This task requires making additional considerations or further background reading taking into account the following:

• Does the source provide other leads?
• Documentation (i.e., footnotes and bibliography) that:
• Provides additional resources
• Substantiates the author's research

• Know the difference between popular magazines and scholarly journals. Unlike popular magazines, articles in scholarly journals usually have a Reference List or Bibliography at the end.

— Citing Sources 

In academia, the ethics of research demand that authors be credited for their work and their writing. First years at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology are required to use the American Psychological Association (APA) style manual as a guide for writing and citation. A copy of this is available on special reserve in the Library. There are also other style manuals available in the Library. Citation guides are also available on the internet. Please consult the APA style manual for guidance on citation. This will help you to avoid plagiarism as well as help you to compile your bibliography.
—

Organized Searching

Basic Searching

By Ismael K. Isikel 17/02/2015

Matheson Library

Papua New Guinea University of Technology

This search guide is for the students of the Papua New Guinea University of Technology in Papua New Guinea. It is intended for the students to maximize their success in searching and retrieval of information.

Basic Approach to Online Searching for Information

You can search by Author, Title, and Subject if you know any of these or by guess work. You simply type in any of theses on the search prompt slot in your laptop or mobile and you will receive a search result that you go through and select those items that are suitable for your purpose.

Before Searching

Before starting your online search you break your topic down into terms or phrases so you can use these to search for information. This is known as analyzing the topic. For example, your instructor gives your class this topic "Social Impact of Experimental Seabed Mining in Papua New Guinea" to write an essay on. You break this topic down into words or phrases.

Example

Topic: "Social Impact of Experimental Seabed Mining in Papua New Guinea"

Words and Phrases: Social impact, Mining, Seabed, Seabed Mining, Experimental Seabed Mining, Papua New Guinea.

The words and phrases are taken directly from your topic. It does not mean that these are the only words and phrases. There are others that you may recall from previous readings and discussions in the community including the social media. Experimental seabed mining is a topic that is currently being discussed in the media and other sources and terms such as Nautilus, Solwara 1, Bismarck Archipelago, and names of countries involved in the subject should come to mind. Add these to your Words and Phrases and your list may look like the one here.

Words and Phrases: Social impact, Mining, Seabed, Seabed Mining, Experimental Seabed Mining, Papua New Guinea,,Nautilus, Solwara 1, Bismarck Archipelago.

Searching

After you have broken down your topic into words and phrases you may then proceed to search using each word one at a time or string them together using the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT. Advanced Search uses the Boolean operators. In an OPAC you may not be required to actually write out the search phrase using the Boolean operators because there is a prompt slot available that only requires you to fill in the terms.

When i typed in Experimental seabed mining, for example, doing a Google search it came up with about 254,0000 results in 0.38 seconds. The first item that appeared on the list is this:

Scholarly articles for Experimental seabed mining

… impacts of deep seabed mining on abyssal benthic … - ‎Trueblood - Cited by 23 … and its implications on deep seabed mining - ‎Sharma - Cited by 33 … of environmental impacts of deep seabed mining - ‎L. Morgan, Nii Allotey … - Cited by 22

Note the phrase "impacts of deep seabed mining" in the first item above. That is one phrase i did not think about to include in my search words. Therefore, each time you get a search result read carefully for other terms that you may use if the search result does not give you any relevant items to read for your paper. However, the good thing about search engines is that they retrieve other items with related terms to your search word.

Social Media & Academia

Searching Using an OPAC

Searching an Online Library Catalogue

By Ismael K. Isikel 13/02/2015
Matheson Library
Papua New Guinea University of Technology


Students in academic institutions need to have the skills and knowledge of searching and retrieval of information through online catalogues in order to be successful in learning. The online library catalogue is now used in a number of universities in Papua New Guinea. They are also commonly known as Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) and are usually found in library systems.

Search Options

There are four options of searching: 1. Quick  Search; 2. Advance Search; 3. Visual Search; and 4. Searching from Search Results. Each of these are explained next.

1. Quick  Search

Quick Search allows you to use one search term or phrase at one time. Type in the search term (author, title, or subject) in the prompt slot and right click on the mouse or press <Enter>. A result screen will appear showing the result of your search. The advantage with quick search is it is fast but the result may be minimum.

2. Advance Search

Advance Search allows the user to use more than one search term at one time. There are three prompt slots and requires the searcher to use the Boolean Operators AND, OR and NOT to string together multiple search terms.The procedure is you type a term in each prompt slot and specify the range of search by using whichever is appropriate of AND, OR, and NOT. Right click on the mouse or press <Enter> and a result screen will appear showing the result of your search.

3. Visual Search

Visual Search employs graphics (icons)  indicating subjects that are provided. The procedure is you select Go to Visual Home, select the appropriate icon, left click and it will give another set of icons and subjects which are: 1. Brows the Library; 2.Reading Programs; 3. Animals; 4. Holidays; 5. People, 6. Science, 7. Sports, 8. Stories, 9. Places, 10. Word Processor. Do a left click on the appropriate icon and a further set of icons with subjects will appear. Left click on the icon of your choice and a set of titles will appear.

4. Searching from Search Results

You can do a Search from Search Result by highlighting a term or phrase. A green light will appear on Select Search on a menu on the right of the screen. Left click on  Select Search and a result screen will appear showing further titles related to your highlighted term.

Sorting Search Results

There are 21 different ways to sort a search result. It simply means that the list of titles that appear on the screen can be rearranged in 21 different ways for convenience.These 21 different ways are actually based on the items in a library catalogue card. The twenty-one different ways are:

Title Words
Author Words
Subject Words
Notes Words
Title Index
Author Index
Subject Index
Publisher
Series
Bar Code Number
Call Number
ISBN
LCCN
Location
Format
Fund
Date of Publication
Date Acquired
Full Subjects
Reading Program
Lexile

When your search result appear the menu on the right side of the screen changes from Search, Author, Title, Subject, Reading Level to Previous, Next, Go to, A to Z Sort. Click on A to Z Sort and the above 21 options of sorting will appear. Choose whichever option you want and click on it. For example, if you choose Title Words the catalogue will rearrange the list alphabetically. It usually takes less than a minute for the catalogue to sort. This is particularly helpful when compiling your bibliography or Reference list at the end of your paper.

Web Links

One other feature of the online catalogue is Web Links. This allows you to connect to the internet via a link in a book. This may be helpful if you need further information that is not available locally.

Caution: This guide is based on  a library system known as Athena and therefore, there may be variations between this OPAC guide and other OPACs in other library systems. Variation may appear in terminology or navigation.

Web 2 and Cloud Computing

This post is a general commentary on Web 2 and Cloud Computing based on personal general observation.

The worldwide web or simply the web may now be categorized into a series of stages of expansions of web applications beginning with web 1  to web 2  and on to cloud computing. These series of expansions indicate stages of development of applications which allow the internet users more flexibility, and of course opportunities, to participate on the web using a wide array of applications linked together by a series of interconnected servers around the world. It allows the user to store and exchange data or information in the computer hard drive as well as on storage devices on the cloud. That is why it is now referred to as cloud computing. 

Now one does not have to depend entirely on carrying a flash drive or other external storage devices. You may use these external storage devices to store personal documents that you do no want to share with others via cloud storage devices.

Web 2 applications allow the academic the opportunity to share and exchange ideas with colleagues from the same institutions and others around the world. Blogs, Google Drive and Dropbox are some of the applications that a teacher can use to share and exchange ideas with colleagues.

The Paperless Challenge

Google Classroom provides  yet another option to avoid such student ques.


Students waiting in line to print their assignments at the Matheson Library, Papua New Guinea University of Technology.

The ques at the Library's photocopy and printing service prompted this post. We can help students save on the cost of printing assignments by using Web 2 applications for electronic submissions and marking of assignments.

Other universities are doing this and  PNG University of Technology can follow suit. In an earlier post (Blogging for Teaching & Learning)  i suggested lecturers creating and using blogs and My Drive for teaching and learning activities and of course quick interaction with students.

In the process of writing this post i attended a presentation on Cloud Computing by Mr Douglass Kala at our IT Department today, 15.9.2014. Here i learnt of a newly released Google application known as classroom ( http://classroom.google.com/) that provides another option for teaching and learning. Classroom was  designed specially for learning and teaching between teachers and students.

Academic Leadership & Social Media

Leading in 140 Characters or Less (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.edu This article captures the experience of an American university president, Santa J. Ono PhD, (or in our case Vice Chancellor) in the use of the social media as an academic leader. Santa J. Ono is the President of the University of Cincinnati.

Interestingly, Dr Santa makes reference to a study  (Cooper, "10 Surprising Social Media Statistics.")  that shows
"the fastest-growing cohort on both Facebook and Google+ is people ages 45 to 54; the fastest on Twitter is ages 55 to 64". Many of us here at the PNG University of Technology most likely fall within these age groups and some of us have Facebook and Twitter accounts. PNG University of Technology has been very kind enough to allow us to use Facebook after 4.06 pm.That is enough time for us to communicate items of study and learning interests for our students and colleagues.

Santa concludes by saying, "whether or not a president chooses to engage in digital communication, social media is helping to shape the environment of his or her institution. If that institution is to thrive (not just exist), leaders need to take a look that is long, slow, and careful at the media that are brief, quick, and provisional".

This reminds me of our Vice Chancellor at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology Dr Albert Schram. He communicates with us using his blog and he is also on Facebook. This is a good sign of taking the lead in using the social media for communication in an academic environment.

Blogging for Teaching & Learning

Blogging is synonymous with writing. When i am blogging I am writing and any piece of writing, picture or illustration is called a post that appear on my blog. For example, i am now blogging on Blogging for Teaching & Learning. The purpose of this post is to share ideas on how one may use a a blog and other web 2 applications for teaching and learning. It may not be perfect but it is a start for the beginner.

If a lecturer's field of expertise is in Electrical Engineering, he/she may wish to create a blog on this subject purposely to communicate teaching and learning activities with students and other concerned colleagues.

Lecture Notes

If the lecturer intends to distribute his/her notes to students before or after presentation he/she may post the notes on her blog. Students will access the notes from the blog and my cut and paste to their laptops or other devices such as mobile phones.

Additional notes

Any other additional notes such as related readings or links to sources on the web may also be posted for students access and usage.

Questions

Student should be allowed to post questions relating to course work on the blog and answered promptly by the lecturer any time or during arranged times between lecturers and students.

Assignments

Instructions for assignments may also be posted and accessed by students.

Links to My Drive

My Drive (Google Drive) can be used to exchange large documents with students. Students may follow created links to navigate between a blog and My Drive to access documents.

Access by Students

Two ways that documents can be shared are; 1. by creating links in documents ; and 2. by gmail accounts.

Security for originality of posts
a. Rules
Rules of responsible usage should be posted and should include maintaining the integrity of documents.

b. Keep copy elsewhere

An original copy of each document or post should be kept elsewhere.

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Acknowledgement

By way of acknowledgement i am inspired by Knovel blog that shares information on engineering. It is a very good platform for communication between professional engineers, academics in engineering and students. I follow this blog and its posts appear in tolailanguagechange.blogspot.com. It helps me keep abreast with information in the field of engineering since i work in a university that has a curriculum centered in engineering, science and technology. From time to time i refer students to Knovel blog.