RESEARCH MADE
EASIER WITH A
WINNING STRATEGY!
by IRO STEPHEN PERRY,
WASHINGTON, D.C. for
WOMEN’s HISTORY MONTH 2011
EMAIL: PerrySX2@state.gov
TEL: 202-632-2747
P

In this section, we will look at google, how
to limit searches in google, google search
tips, and other newer search engines that
might prove to be more useful and more
productive for your specific topic.
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Google is a massive database, and in the
missions of potential Search Results you might
retrieve, it is not especially easy to find quickly
everything you need or want.
 There are many sites, especially that end with a
.com or a .org that are outdated, have links that
no longer work, or that reflect the very narrow
points of view of a larger parent organization.
 Remember: No one evaluates any of the sites
brought up by a Google Search: neither Google
nor anyone else. Therefore it is up to you to
evaluate each site for relevancy and accuracy.

 Therefore,
learning to be a better searcher
and learning to refine results is always a
necessary skill.
 There are many Google “Cheat Sheets” out
there: for understanding Google Search
Features
http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/featur
es.html
 Some of the most popular features of
conducting an intelligent Google Search are
listed on this site.
Explanation of how to use blekko at:
 http://blekko.com/ws/+/press-videos?h=1


Analysis of BLEKKO:
http://www.infotoday.com/online/mar11/On-The-Netblekko-A-New-Search-Approach.shtml

Helps eliminate “content farms” and bad search
results through use of slash tags /

Example in next slide using slashtag /people for
a search on Rosa Parks

We will look at primarily DOAJ: the
Directory of Online Access Journals
at: www.doaj.org

This database covers 6,500 journals and
covers all subject disciplines
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
Among these are:
ICAST: http://www.icast.org.in/ejournal/ejournal.php
E-JOURNALS: http://www.e-journals.org



CURRENT TABLES OF CONTENTS:
http://www.journaltocs.hw.ac.uk/index.php
Journal TOCs makes viewing tables of contents from scholarly
journals easy. This resource features the table of contents
(ToCs) for over 14,000 journals from more than 500 publishers,
with more being added continuously and features TOCs from
publishers such as Elsevier, SAGE, Oxford University Press, etc.


OPEN HUMANITIES PRESS CONSORTIUM: more Ejournals
included all the time, updated: all free text and online.
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/
 In
this section, we will look at the following
full-text databases:
 Public Library of Medicine (PLoS):
http://www.plos.org/
 MEDLINE
PLUS:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
and other databases in Health/Medicine
 and
OAISTER from WORLDCAT:
http://oaister.worldcat.org
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
RePeC: Economics Topics and Ideas:
http://ideas.repec.org (includes related fields
in the Social Sciences)

RFE: Resources for Economists: http://rfe.org

SSRN: The Social Sciences Research Network:
www.ssrn.com

Free Educational Videos and Lesson Plans from
the Annenberg Foundation: www.learner.org
 Open
Access:
“Everything we
publish is freely
available online for
you to read,
download, copy,
distribute, and use
(with attribution)
any way you wish.”

http://www.plos.org/

“PLoS is a
nonprofit
organization of
scientists and
physicians
committed to
making the world's
scientific and
medical literature
a freely available
public resource. All
our activities are
guided by our core
principles.”
http://www.
nlm.nih.gov/
medlineplus
/

MEDLINEplus will direct you to
information to help answer health
questions.

Search MEDLINEplus: MEDLINEplus
brings together, by health topic,
authoritative information from NLM,
the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), other government, non-profit
and other health-related
organizations.

Preformulated MEDLINE searches
are included in MEDLINEplus and
give easy access to the medical
research literature. It also provides
you with a database of full-text drug
information and an illustrated
medical encyclopedia.
Why you should always
start here:


Multiple sources of
high quality
information
Non-commercial
Constantly updated
and reviewed
Diseases,
treatments, and
surgeries
Illustrations and
animations
Information is read
aloud
Health information
in over 40 different
languages
Easy-to-read
information for low
literacy patrons
 The
Social Science Research Network, SSRN,
covers 310,000 papers and articles published
in all aspects of the Social Sciences,
including related fields. It is updated weekly.
 It
includes the Full Text of each and every
paper, which can then easily be downloaded.
 SSRN
is free, but you do need to register;
registration takes minutes.
Social Sciences by Age level
Individual Videos for the Lesson
on the U.S. Constitution: all free
@www.learner.org
 Examples
I will discuss include:
 The
University of Maryland: DRUM= Digitized
Resources at the University of Maryland
www.lib.umd.edu/drum/
 MIT:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
http://dspace.mit.edu
 Harvard
University (DASH): Digital Access to
Scholarship at Harvard
http://dash.harvard.edu
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 Cornell
University (Ithaca, NY):
http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/ha
ndle/1813/39
 University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor:
 http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/communi
ty-list
From the University of Michigan’s Deep Blue site
 We
will look at:
 MIT:
http://ocw.mit.edu
 YALE:
http://open.yale.edu
 JOHNS
HOPKINS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH:
http://ocw.jhsph.edu/
 OPEN
SOURCE CONSORTIUM:
http://ocwconsortium.org
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NOTE: COURSES ARE NOT FOR
CREDIT; just to promote understanding
of a topic.

For SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY :
www.sciencedaily.com

FOR MEDICINE/HEALTH: The Mayo Clinic
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health-information/

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For LEGAL/LAW: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/
For other fields: TED= TECHNOLOGY,
ENTERTAINMENT, DESIGN VIDEOS FROM THE
BEST SPEAKERS AROUND THE WORLD
www.ted.com
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
Stephen Perry, IRO for Central Africa
E-MAIL: PerrySX2@state.gov
202-632-2747
Washington, D.C.
(Health/Medical Information is courtesy of IRO Paula
Kitendaugh in Dakar. My thanks to her.)
 DON’T
FORGET ABOUT THE NEW VIRTUAL
LIBRARY, now called eLIBRARY USA, with
many new databases, including EBSCO and
Science, and many other full-text databases
that you can now search yourself. Your local
IRC or American Corner staff can log you in
and get you started! Please search it today!