This weeks lecture concerned information about online libraries & databases. I learnt that online databases are a collection of information and were great for researching and gaining this information about particular areas of research. I learnt that the advantages of online libraries have current information, easy to use and make notes from and can be accessed any time of the day, though there are a few disadvantages such as various content can be hard to find and may take some time to find.
Some of the online resources spoken in the lecture are:
- Text Repositories
- Electronic Journals
- Electronic Books
I also learnt the importance of referencing these resources, the copyright issues and how to complete it.
This lecture was very useful to me as I now know how to research information on the ECU library and processes of finding valuable information quickly.
TUTORIAL ACTIVITIES
MEDline Search Engine
The MEDline plus website has a very useful search engine that provides access to medical information. I typed in "Cannabis" and a brief summary of marijuana appeared on a new page. The information was too brief to find any specific information about the drug though there were a few links at the bottom half of the page which connected my to another websites information about Marijuana http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/marijuana.html. This website held facts, statistics, a detailed explanation of cannabis and the effects on the body.Overall Medline plus was great tool for learnign about Marijuana with useful links to great sources.
MEDline plus Website
I found visiting the MEDline plus website very interesting as I am interested in human biology and various diseases. The website has given me an enormous amount of information concerning health and drugs which can be obtained by clicking on one of the link at the left of the homepage. One of these links is "Health Topics". Here you can gain information about disorders, conditions, diagnosis tests, therapies, learning to stay healthy and demographic groups. The "Drugs & Supplements" link also provides useful information, from prescriptions to herbs. The search process for this information is very easy as it gives you an alphabetical online library.The rest of the MEDline plus website offers search processes to find doctors, local resouces for medical purpose and including an online medical encylopedia.Knowing this website, I can now use it to add to my knowledge diseases, which can also help me as a resource for an assignment for doing my Bachelor of Human Biology next year.
The 10 useful functions or search tips on ECU Library are:
1) The 6 'find' link categories to help find what type of text you are looking for.
This helps to decide what type of text you are searching for which leads you to more specific categories to identify what type of text you wish to find.
2) The ecu library catalogue provide easy access to the library's resources. This is a helpful search option to help find what you're looking for.
You can use useful search functions like 'keyword' searches or 'subject' searches etc which allow you search results to be more specific.
3) Finding journal articles is made easy with the journal article database which gives you 6 categories to find databases.
4) By going into the 'website' link through the 'find' box, you are given a choice of subjects to choose from which are relative to the information you're trying to find.
5) The reserve collection service allows you to reserve material which will be saved for you to loan at a later date.
6) MetaQuest is another function which helps to find particular databases with up to 10 at the same time which can make searching easy and efficient.
7) Search by faculty. This allows you to obtain search result relative to the faculty you want your results from.
8) The SFX article locator allows you to find a full text article that may even be hard capy in the library or on e-reserve.
9) If your wanting to find results via the subject you chose, another selection of sub subjects is available which gives you the option of next choosing a database, website or guide.
10) Once you choose your faculty/category/subject etc, you are led to a number of databases which you can choose from. These databases differ with search results depending on what type of result you wish to obtain.
Week 3 - Journal Research (Economy & Global Warming)
The task of researching for a journal concerning economy and global warming was easy to complete using the ECU library of journal databases. The library allows you to search for journals via a large number of journal databases. It only took five minutes to search for a quality full text journal which contained valuable information written with facts and quotes from experts and important figgures in the world, eg: 'Tony Blair'. The article discusses countries like USA who have not yet signed the Kyoto Protocol because President George Bush didnt want economic damage upon USA even though USA is the largest producer of greenhouse gasses. While Bush makes this decision, it is said that there will be major temperature increases with droughts more commonly occuring; contributing to gradual economic damage to not just USA but to all countries if not solved quickly.This task shows how simple the ECU library allows research for quality information to be.http://0-proquest.umi.com.library.ecu.edu.au/pqdweb?did=1153840031&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=7582&RQT=309&VName=PQD
READING ACTIVITIES
Finding what you want on the webAn article on the BBC news website posted an opinionative comment by Bill Thompson, a technology analyst who comments on the difficulties of searching through the web. Thompson discusses how Google is his primary search engine for researching current information though sees flaws that make his research somewhat difficult. Thompson says that he has tried many other search engines and one of them being MEDline plus, which is an example of one not being indexed with other search engines like Google adding to his difficulties. Thompson uses "Debbie", a librarian as an example of how efficient searching is done. Debbie uses more than one search engine to gain her information, more than a simple search and a click on the button. This implies that gaining great results from searching can take time and effort.This being an opinion piece has me to agree or disagree. In this degree I agree as I have found that searching for quality information is extremely troublesome when using little resources of just one search engine, even if it does have a large amount of data as Thompson said.
Bare bones Lesson 7: Basic Search Tips
The Bare bones Lesson 7: Basic Search Tips page in the USC Beaufort Library helps readers to search the web efficiently with ease which simple additions of symbols when typing in the search boxes. I tried the assignment at the end of the page with typing the important keywords in the search first, because I havn't realised this before unlike the other useful search tips. For this i used google and typed in economy indonesia history and then history indonesia economy and found that the first search held better quality sites at the beginning of the hit page. Knowing these tips I feel confident that searching for information for future university assignments which gain me more valuable information.
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