The Internet Vs. the Library
How to Locate and Critically
Assess Your Academic Research in
the Digital Age
By Darren Chiang-Schultheiss
Fullerton College English Department
darrencs@fullcoll.edu
Friday, March 18, 2016
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Why Use Outside Sources?
Support for our claims
Authoritative evidence
Lends credibility to our ideas
(ethos)
Present counter arguments
To criticize or evaluate
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When to Use Electronic
Sources
Electronic version is more easily
accessible than the print version
Relevant print sources do not exist
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Where to Look?
Indexes and databases
(electronic and print)

Humanities Abstracts

Project Muse

PsycINFO
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JSTOR
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ARTstor
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GaleNet
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EBSCOhost

eLibrary

LEXIS-NEXIS (current affairs)
Library Card Catalogs

Fullerton College:
http://library.fullcoll.edu

Bibliographies (complete,
selective, annotated, and annual)
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News Services
 C-Span www.c-span.org



London Times
www.thetimes.co.uk/news/pages/Tim
es
New York Times www.nytimes.com
USA Today New www.usatoday.com
Periodical Websites



Do an Internet search on the
periodical title
Drawback: your exposure is limited to
searching only one periodical source
at a time.
Advantage: you may find the print
version on-line.
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FC Subscription Databases
EBSCOHost
J-STOR
Project Muse
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GaleNet Literary Database
(Just click on “Authenticate”;
no password needed)
National Newspapers Database
CQ Library
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Where to Look?
Search Engines (portals)







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Google(www.google.com)
AltaVista (www.altavista.com)
Teoma (www.teoma.com)
Excite (www.excite.com)
HotBot (www.hotbot.com)
Go (www.go.com)
Webcrawler (www.webcrawler.com)
AskGeeves (www.ask.com)
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Where to Look?
Subject Catalogs:

Yahoo (www.yahoo.com)
Meta-search Engines:

Dogpile (www.dogpile.com)
Information Literacy Search
Strategies
by Debbie Abilock

http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceen
gine.html
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How to Look?
 Your goal is to narrow the number of
“hits” relevant to your topic.
 Be familiar with the search tips for each
search engine.
 Look for a help link that explains how
the search engine works.
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Basic Strategies for Search
Engines
Check for proper spelling and typos!
Decide what the relevant search terms are.
Use phrases when possible rather than single
words.
Phrases should be typed in quotation marks,
e.g. "global warming" or "acid rain."
Is your search engine case sensitive? (Most
are).
Does it allow for truncation or stemming?
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Try Boolean searches.
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Try Boolean Searching
(and, or, not, +, -, parentheses)
Five Different Searches

alice walker

“alice walker”

“alice walker”+everyday use

“alice walker”+(interpretation or criticism)

+“alice walker”+(everyday use)-.com+.edu
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Evaluating Internet
Sources
Remember to use print and pixel
resources, not just electronic
information found on the Web
Evaluate every source you use
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Why Must I Evaluate
Internet Sources?
Academic Publishing & Peer Review
Editors
Internet Publishing
Your Own Scholarly Credibility
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Evaluating Internet
Sources
Location: WHERE is the information
stored?

Consider the WWW domain extension in the
URL. This offers some clue as to the
responsible party.
–
.edu = educational sites such as K12 schools, colleges, and
universities
–
.gov = local, state, and federal government institutions, including
agencies
–
.com & .tv = commercial, business entities
–
.org = organizations and not-for-profit organizations
–
.net = usually commercial and public network service providers
–
.mil = military, US armed forces
.int18,
=2016
international, sites
located outside the US (most are
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identified by a two-letter country designation.)
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Evaluating the Sources
Authority: WHO is posting the
information?

Is there an author? Is the page signed?

Is the author qualified? An expert? Credentials?


Who is the sponsor?
Is the sponsor of the page reputable? How
reputable?
If the page includes neither a signature nor indicates
a sponsor, is there any other way to determine its
origin?


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 Is
Look for a header or footer showing affiliation.
Look at the URL. http://www.fbi.gov
Look at the domain. .edu, .com, .ac. uk, .org, .net
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there a link
to information about the author or34the
Evaluating Internet
Sources
Purpose: WHY is the information
posted and what is its level of
objectivity?
What is the purpose of this
document?
 What degree of bias is in the
information?
 Is the author trying to:

persuade the reader?
 inform the reader?
18,
advocate
some
action?
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Evaluating Internet
Sources
Currency: WHEN was the information
posted?

Is there a date given?

If so, when was the last update?

If given, does it mean:

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Date information was first written?
Date information was placed on Web?
Date information was last revised?
How current are the links? Have some
expired or moved?
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Evaluating Internet
Sources
Consider Coverage:
What topics are covered?
 What does this page offer that is not
found elsewhere, especially in the
print world?
 What is its intrinsic value?
 How in-depth is the material?
 Should be of a substantial length (> 4
pages of printed text).

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References
FC Library Home Page: (http://library.fullcoll.edu).
Carbone, Nick. Writing Online: A Student’s Guide to the
Internet and World Wide Web. 3rd ed. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Rodrigues, Dawn. The Research Paper and the World
Wide Web. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997.
Ruszkiewicz, John, et al. SF Writer. New York:
Longman, 1999.
Darren Chiang-Schultheiss
Fullerton College English Department
darrencs@fullcoll.edu
http://www.wiredprof.com
714-992-7305
Friday, March 18, 2016
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