PART ONE

HOW TO FIND INFORMATION

FIND YOUR FOCUS

Whether you already have a topic or are facing an assignment where you have a choice of topic, spend some preliminary time—either jotting down ideas and questions or browsing online.

FIND YOUR CONNECTION TO A SPECIFIC TOPIC

Brainstorm

Brainstorming is jotting down your ideas without inhibitions. Just list your topic and then write down questions, and subtopics—whatever comes to mind, without worrying about correctness or relevance. This method gets to those ideas that lurk below those on the top of your head, and, although some may not be workable, you should discover some that are worthwhile. Brainstorming for seven to twenty minutes can show you where you would like to learn more. It is always easier to do required research if your own curiosity motivates you. For example, if you have an interest in film and media, and your general topic is the Great Depression in the United States, your brainstorming might show you a manageable research topic: the effect of the Depression on the movie-making industry.

Browse online to find your subtopic

Another method is to go online and enter your general topic in a subject directory such as Yahoo <www.yahoo.com>. Click on some subtopics and visit a few websites to gather some possibilities.

For the Great Depression, a few mouse clicks in Yahoo could lead you to the University of Michigan’s history museum site<www.sos.state.mi.us/history/museum/explore/museum>, where you would find a series of resources that explain what life was like for Americans living in the 1930s, including their radio and film interests.

FIND A TOPIC YOU CARE ABOUT

Brainstorm

You may have an assignment where you have total free choice. Let’s say that you must write an article for a newsletter for a parents’ organization. Making a list of topics that might interest your readers could lead you to a good topic—perhaps how to teach children to be skeptical about what they find on the Internet.

Browse online to find your subtopic

Instead of brainstorming, you might just hop on the Internet.

You can find a topic by going to a subject index and clicking on the categories that apply to your audience or course. For example, for a required paper on Contemporary American drama, you could do subject searches at Hotbot <www.hotbot.com>, Altavista <www.altavista.com>, or Yahoo and click on the categories under "theater." Follow the subtopics and links until you find something that interests you. You could, for example, end up with a topic on how Interactive and Alternative Theater groups are helping disadvantaged teenagers.

You can also check a subject directory on the Internet to see what categories are listed for your general interests. For example, suppose you have a love of animals and a vague idea that you will do some sort of report about the use of animals in medical research. A subject search at About.com <www.about.com> or Yahoo could take you pretty quickly to articles about the pregnant mares whose urine provides estrogen for the hormone replacement therapy that so many millions of women are now taking. This narrow topic could be thoroughly discussed in a research paper. In addition to discovering details about the treatment of the horses themselves, you could get related information on the pharmaceutical industry, statistics on the number of menopausal women taking the hormone produced this way, the alternatives in synthetic hormones, and what veterinarians say about stress on animals.

Whatever you select as a topic, be aware that your paper must ultimately develop a manageable subtopic. For example, you might be interested in diabetes, but you will need to narrow your area of research—perhaps by looking at adult-onset diabetes.

USE LINKS AND BOOKMARKS

Some of the most valuable information on the Internet comes from places where others have sent you.

The Internet began as a means for scientists to share information. That spirit still governs the best of the Internet. Although commercial interests may now seem to dominate, there are still an incredible number of people who post material for others to use—for free and in the spirit of openly sharing information. This is the part of the Internet you can tap into, to inform yourself and to participate in public discourse.

The most important characteristic of the Internet and more specifically the World Wide Web is openness: it is democratic—and disorganized. You can’t predict what you will find. You may follow a promising lead and find an article about your topic—say the mystery writer Helen MacInnes—and just as easily find the picture of someone’s dog named after Helen MacInnes.

BE PERSISTENT

The first few research sessions should be for exploring.

Use search engines.

Use the resources on the search engines’ homepages.

Use reference lists.

Don’t give up when you get disappointing replies to your queries. Read this book to learn about your options: there are a number of different avenues to explore and different methods for asking questions.

Search engines by themselves will not be enough to help you find the information you seek, but the links from the sites that the search engines find will lead you—as long as you are persistent.

BOOKMARK THE LINKS

During your first few research sessions, survey and bookmark each interesting page you visit. Bookmarking (saving the Internet address in your browser—called "history" in Netscape and "favorites" in AOL) is faster than writing down addresses or downloading files. To do so, just click on the "button" at the top of the screen—labeled "bookmark" in Netscape or Internet Explorer, "favorites" or the heart icon in AOL. Skim quickly. Do a quick assessment of the quality of the information at a particular site, bookmark it if it seems worthwhile, and then move on to other sites that a particular search has turned up. This is the fastest way to get a sense of what information is available.

Then go back to those bookmarked sites and methodically determine which you definitely can use or might want to use again; save those Internet addresses to your disk, or e-mail them to yourself. Unfortunately, with most programs, you will have to copy and paste the addresses one at a time. If you are using a computer at your library or computer lab, make sure that you have all the information for each site before you finish your session. Other users will be bookmarking after you; some libraries erase the histories each evening.

Print entire files only if you really need a paper copy. Illustrations, for example, can be downloaded and saved on disk to be imported later into your document.

Remember that with many programs, you can only save or print the screens you’re actually viewing. Ordinarily, you will need to bring up each link first before saving or printing it. If you have time, you can select out individual sections of those Webpages you found useful. Otherwise, save the entire document to study later.

BE UNINHIBITED—AT LEAST FOR A WHILE

A research project that doesn’t change your way of viewing the topic has failed you, so plan your research process, not the outcome. If you think specifically about the organization and conclusions of the report too soon, you will block what should be an exploration, an openness to new ideas. Stay open to discovering new information and to interpreting old information in new ways.

For your first searches, you will benefit from exploring wherever the links take you. This quick surfing often leads to surprising and interesting material. Later, you can analyze what you’ve discovered. As long as you bookmark (and then save the bookmark list on a disk as backup), you will be able to revisit those sites.

SEARCH SUBJECT DIRECTORIES

Subject directories such as Yahoo and Magellan allow you to enter a search term or to click on topics, subtopics, sub-subtopics, and so forth.

The advantage of searching by subject is that a professional researcher has assembled the answers. Subject directory databases are actually organized Indexes. Your search terms are matched against a list of terms that have been set up by someone who knows the field and who has read the articles in the database. Thus your results will usually be relevant to what you ask for.

For example, you could enter the subject "distance education" in the query box in Yahoo <www.yahoo.com>, or you could click on "education," then "university/college" and then "distance learning." Either way, you would find an alphabetical listing of colleges and universities that offer distance learning programs. Seeing the word "telecourse," you might try entering that word in the query box. Yahoo would then provide you with a definition of "telecourse" and a listing of institutions offering telecourses with links to each.

You would get a different list of Websites if you used AltaVista’s subject directory; in addition, at Altavista <www.altavista.com> you would find a different sub-category, "online education, " with links to colleges offering courses on the Internet.

At Magellan <http://magellan.excite.com>, the same subject search yields still different sites, and they are listed with brief descriptions and ranked by relevance to your subject "distance learning." Magellan also offers a link to Excite. Its search yields a link to the World Lecture Hall <www.utexas.edu/world/lecture> with links to faculty worldwide who have posted information on their courses.

So with a simple subject search, just a few mouseclicks can often get you a great deal of information very quickly.

See the appendix of this book for the addresses for other subject directories.

USE REFERENCE PAGES

Reference pages link you quickly to relevant resources often not found by search engines.

General reference pages are Websites that provide links to key resources for basic research. There are also a number of reference pages organized around particular disciplines. For both these types, a researcher has posted links to a variety of sources of information, many of which would not be found by the search engines.

Find the Appropriate Reference Page for Your Topic

Reference pages are worth the sleuthing effort necessary to find them. Important reference pages are listed on page 000.

Check the homepages of search engines. Almost all search engines offer comprehensive reference lists on their homepage.

Check Virtual Library <http://www.vlib.org/Overview.html> which offers a vast list of resources—and each category is maintained by an expert in that field.

Look up faculty pages at colleges and universities. Professors routinely post their course materials, including links to libraries and other resources of information. You can find these pages through search engines. Try using the name of a particular college or your topic phrase plus "college or university."

The World Lecture Hall at the University of Texas <www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/> posts links to faculty homepages, all over the world, by discipline. Many of these sites provide very detailed college course outlines, reading lists, and links to other resources.

Check library homepages; ask your librarian. More and more libraries are providing reference pages with excellent links. Don’t limit yourself to your own library; check others as well. Addresses for major research libraries are listed on page 000.

PREPARE PHRASES FOR YOUR SEARCHES

Most search tools allow you to type in a list of words for them to look for. You can give more precise directions by adding punctuation and connective words (Boolean operators) to create a search string.

DEVELOP A LIST OF TERMS

Electronic searches are conducted by telling the computer what words or phrases to look for. You can make a list of subtopics and synonyms, or you can get some keywords by consulting an article in an encyclopedia, such as The Free Internet Encyclopedia <http://clever.net/cam/encyclopedia> or Encyclopedia Britannica <http://www.britannica.com>. Alternatively, an encyclopedia may be part of your word-processing program or in the reference section of your on-line service.

Note that information in the encyclopedia may not be appropriate for your paper; however, it can help get you started by providing you with some background information and with a list of specific terms to use for searching.

For example, an article in Encyclopedia Britannica on "diabetes" used these terms:

diabetes mellitus	endocrine system	pancreas
blood glucose level	soluble fiber	disorder of carbohydrate metabolism
diagnosis	therapies

These terms can be used in several combinations when employing a search engine.

DEVELOP QUESTIONS AND MAP OUT WHERE TO RESEARCH

Make a list of questions that you need the answers to. Some may be brief ones that can be answered by a single statistic, such as "How many American teenagers have diabetes?" But others might be more complicated, such as "How do diet and exercise relate to insulin needs?" When you get online, you will find that some search engines— AltaVista and AskJeeves, for example—allow you to ask a question in their query box.

Next think of who might know (and be willing to tell) the answers to your questions.

For example, you might list these possible sources for information on diabetes:

doctors—endocrinologists

nutritionists

medical sites

Diabetes Association

This list will help you identify the journals and Websites you should consult, the names you should enter in searches, and perhaps the names of those to whom you could send an e-mail inquiry.

USE PUNCTUATION AND BOOLEAN OPERATORS

Every search program uses slightly different rules of operation, but most use two searching conventions. Check the directions or helpline of the program before beginning.

Quotation marks indicate that a phrase is to be treated as one search term—for example "blood glucose."

"Boolean operators" such as and and or tell the computer how to interpret your list of search terms. In general:

and specifies that both terms should appear.

or specifies that either term should appear.

not specifies that a term should not appear.

When a search engine says that "Boolean and is implied," you don’t need to type and; just
type in all the terms you want with a space between them.

Some search engines use the plus sign (+) to mean that a particular term must appear, and the
minus sign (–) instead of not.

For example, information on adolescent diabetes in humans (as opposed to cats) can be
found with these search terms:

"adolescent diabetes" and diet and exercise and insulin not cat not feline
or
+"adolescent diabetes" +diet+exercise+ insulin-cat-feline

USE VARIOUS COMBINATIONS OF SEARCH TERMS

Try to identify what you hope the articles you find will discuss. There may be a number of documents about your exact topic, but more likely, the articles will discuss one aspect or another—not all you want to know. Play with your list of possible terms and see what combinations work best with the search programs you are using.

NARROW YOUR SEARCH

To avoid finding too much information:

Specify that two terms must appear—newts and salamanders.

Use a long string of words—if your search engine allows it.

Use several phrases "corporate spying," "intellectual property," "computer security."

Exclude words or phrases. For example, for a search on computer security, specifying not children , not parent would eliminate articles discussing the parental control of their children’s access to certain Websites.

EXPAND YOUR SEARCH

If you narrowed your topic and can’t get enough information, you may have to find it inside articles on more general or related topics. To make certain you have enough articles:

Request alternatives—dairy or milk or eggs or cream or cheese

Submit synonyms—green or "environmentally friendly" or "eco-safe"

Submit words instead of phrases—corporate, espionage, patent

Submit more general terms—instead of cockatiel, try "exotic birds"

In spite of your best efforts, you may not find any sources or you may find hundreds of thousands. In either case, first think about what you asked and rephrase your search.

IF THERE IS NO MATCH FOR YOUR REQUEST

You may have misspelled one or more words.

You may have used the wrong symbols or phrasing for that particular search engine. Consult the helpline.

You may need to try a different search engine or database.

Try alternatives. For example, if you specified newts and salamanders, change your query to newts or salamanders. Once you find some sites, their links will take you to others that may be more specific.

Give both the abbreviation and the full name, linked by or —NPR or "National Public Radio."

Try adding more alternatives— Irish or Gaelic or Celtic.

IF YOU HAVE TOO MANY LISTINGS

You may get enough information by reading the top articles listed. Ordinarily, if you get a great many listings, you shouldn’t bother with more than the top ten or twenty results in any case. The top articles on the list use your required terms more frequently and have been rated "most relevant" to the topic you have specified. After you read the twentieth one, you are unlikely to find much more information and are better off changing search terms or changing search engines.

Take a look at the first ten to see if they coincide at all with your topic. For instance, if your inquiry on diabetes yielded thousands of articles and most of them are personal stories from cat owners about feline diabetes, you’ll need to rephrase the search string or use a different search engine.

If the first ten listings are on your topic, download a few of them to skim offline and extract more search terms to use.

If the search engine allows it, add more technical or specific terms to your search string—

" adolescent diabetes" "blood glucose level" prognosis

Specify terms that you do not want—

+saturn+planet not automobile not car not dealer.

REFINEMENTS

Truncate endings (Omit -s, -ed, -ing, -able, -ial, -y/ies endings). Sometimes you’ll give the root word and an asterisk to indicate variations: corporat* would retrieve documents containing corporate, corporation, corporations

Omit other connectors, such as with, of, between.

Some searchers allow you to specify a date: 1995-2000

means "1995 through 2000"; 1995, 2000 means "1995 and 2000."

• Some search programs use symbols instead of connecting words:

Note: + may mean "must appear."

These symbols are all uppercase of the numerals on the top row of the keyboard; place the symbol immediately before the word you are designating, without spaces. However, check the helpline before using these symbols to find out which to use.

Some programs will allow you to use a long string of phrases linked by punctuation; others may have a limit. You will usually need to do several searches with different keywords, changing your terms so that you get more and more specific information.

Some searchers also allow you to specify the proximity of two terms. You might find that it’s useful to say that two terms should be mentioned within ten words of each other (such as copper and patina), or that you don’t want two terms within ten words of each other (such as copper and mining). The search engine’s instructions will tell you how to write that command.

PERIODICALLY, CHECK THE RESULTS

As you research, you will need to make sure that you are getting what you need for your report. One helpful technique is to periodically stop and list the topics for which you have found information. Arrange the topics into an outline, noting where you still need more information. Then use the words related to those missing topics for your next searches. Save the outline on disk to retrieve when you’re ready to plan your report.

For example, you may have found plenty of information on the types of diabetes, the use of insulin and diet to treat diabetes but nothing about the role of exercise. Recognizing that gap, you could search again, using that term.

USE METASEARCHERS AND SEARCH ENGINES

Do not rely on only one search engine.

Although search engines only find a small percentage of the information that is posted on the Web, often that small percentage is sufficient because of the links those Websites in turn provide.

The number of Websites on the Internet has doubled in the last year alone. It is not realistic to expect that search engines have been able to keep up with that increase in volume, and they haven’t. An article in Nature (July 5, 1999) reported that the two most efficient search engines (NorthernLight <http://www.northernlight.com> and Fast Search <http://www.fastsearch.com/>) each only found 16% of the keywords in posted articles.

However, you need not be daunted by this fact. The nature of the Internet is such that a large number of Websites provide links to others, and they in turn provide further links and so on. You just need to plunge in and bookmark the interesting sites as you discover them.

USE METASEARCHERS

Metasearchers search a number of search engines simultaneously. There are several advantages to using them.

• The search is faster because you don’t have to type in or click on each search engine’s address.
• Metasearchers rephrase your search terms to conform to the rules of each specific search engine.
• Some metasearchers (SavvySearch <http://click.savvysearch.com/ >and Highway61 <http://Highway61.com>, for example) collate the results by relevancy into a single list. But all metasearchers return just the top ten or twenty results first, so you won’t be overwhelmed with a huge number of responses.

The same query will bring up different results from different search engines, so from the metasearcher’s results you may find that one search engine is better for your topic—and for refining your search. Note which search engines find the best Websites for your topic, then go to those engines directly for further queries.

For example, entering an inquiry "stress workload workplace" to the metasearcher SavvySearch yielded thirty articles from the search engines All the Web, Thunderstone, Infoseek, WebCrawler, and HotBot, arranged with the most relevant articles first. Clicking on "Search more engines" yielded thirty more articles from Altavista, Excite, Google, and Lycos. The same inquiry to the metasearcher Dogpile <http://www.dogpile.com> yielded some different articles from AltaVista as well as over eight hundred articles in Yahoo. The Infoseek articles returned from Dogpile also provided a link to "similar pages," yielding a great list of resources on the subtopic "burnout." See the appendix in this book for more metasearcher addresses.

USE SEARCH ENGINES

Use a Variety

Most people get in the habit of starting with the same search engine for every query, often using the default search engine from their Internet service provider. However, certain search engines are better for particular topics. See the appendix of this book for descriptions and addresses.

In general, use a variety of search engines for even the smallest research project. Note the terms that are repeated in the most relevant articles and use them to refine your search; then use the new search terms with each search engine.

Use FastSearch and NorthernLight.com

Metasearchers are often the fastest source of information, but they don’t include the currently most comprehensive search engines —Fast Search <http://www.alltheweb.com/> and Northernlight <http://www.Northernlight.com>.

Both these search engines are very fast and both avoid the duplication that you find with other search engines. Both allow you to enter multiple terms—in a straight list (without commas or and’s), the more the better. NorthernLight also allows you to organize the results into folders and to categorize subsequent searches. NorthernLight’s private database includes articles available only for a fee, but with the author, title, and date, you may be able to find many of the articles at your library or even on the Internet.

For example, NorthernLight found 275 articles on stress, workload, workplace—many of them different from those found by the metasearchers. One of those articles available for a fee was in US News and World Report. Using the date of the article at www.usnews.com, you could read that article for free.

So the searches with two metasearchers and NorthernLight quickly produced a wealth of information to be analyzed and organized.

USE INDEXES AND OTHER DATABASES

The backbone of many research projects is the information found in scholarly articles.

Databases are electronic storehouses of information. In libraries, a number of databases are installed in designated computers. Sometimes these databases are listed in a menu on the library’s homepage as well. For example, you can find newspaper and popular magazine articles in Magazine Index or Reader’s Guide Abstracts. Law articles are covered in WestLaw; medical articles, in Medline ; business articles, in ABI/INFORM; articles on educational issues in ERIC, and so forth. Check with the reference desk of your library for information on specialized databases available for your particular topic.

You can find out which periodicals your library subscribes to in the library’s catalog, but to find specific articles, you will need to consult indexes—the lists of the contents for each issue. Articles within magazines and newspapers are listed in indexes according to author, title, or subject. In addition, some electronic databases give abstracts of the articles and some also give you the text itself to read on the screen or to print out. There are four types of databases:

Bibliographic databases (lists of titles of books and articles) are the most common type. These indexes and catalogs will usually give you a brief description or the abstract of a book or article, along with the title, author, publisher, date of publication, and number of pages. Note that some bibliographic databases indexes are on the Web as well. See the appendix of this book for their addresses.

In addition, some bibliographic databases are citation indexes. These lists include the articles on a particular subject plus information about the references to that article (citations) by other scholars. This cross referencing can lead you to many other sources, as well as help you select which would be the most important to read. A citation index allows you to find out what experts consider the classics in their field. Be sure to read an expert who is cited often. Citation Indexes are organized by discipline. Look in your library for the Humanities Citation Index, the Science Citation Index, and the Social Sciences Index.

After finding the titles of books and articles you want to read, you’ll then have to find them in the library. If you are searching in your library’s program, the database will often tell you the location of the book or article—whether it’s in the reference section, in the stacks, on reserve, on microfilm, or on microfiche.

Full text databases are bibliographic databases that include the whole text, not just the title. Understandably, there are not as many of these. Most of these full-text databases provide unformatted texts (just straight typing), but others are organized with headings and links to related articles. If you want, you can read entire articles—even books—on the screen or print out the sections you want. On the Internet, some full-text databases require a fee for you to see the actual text. However, selected recent articles are available free from many magazines and most national newspapers. See the appendix of this book for the addresses.

Statistical Sources are the fastest way to find statistical information—such as Census Bureau data in the 1990 Census of Population and Housing, or The County and City Databook, or USA Counties, 1994. If your library subscribes, U.S. government data is collated at <www.usgovsearch.com>, or you can go to individual Websites of particular agencies. Non-profit organizations also provide valuable statistics and other information through their Websites. See the appendix of this book for some suggestions.

Directories include information of the sort found in phone books. For example, Yahoo! has a particularly good directory for people and businesses. The specialized directories also sort the information by categories, giving you leads to further research. For example, you can see lists of businesses by type, giving corporate officers and annual sales figures. Check your library for Dun’s Business Locator, Dun’s Small Business Sourcing File, and Standard and Poor’s Corporations.

Some databases have restricted access (you must have a library account, or you must pay a fee). To use such a database, you may need an authorization number and password when using your personal computer.

Three Full-Text Databases to Try

FirstSearch, an excellent resource, includes access to a large number of databases in specific fields of study. It is on the Web for a fee and available in many libraries.

Click on the subject area and then on the database you wish. Type your specific topic in the search box , click on "Search," and that will retrieve the titles of relevant articles. As you read their descriptions, click on the "tag record box" for those articles you want to read. When you have selected a number of articles, click on "save tags" and then "show all tags." After you review this list, you can then either save the information on the articles to your disk or e-mail them to yourself to use in your bibliography.

Lexis-Nexis, available by subscription, indexes thousands of news articles—including press releases and newswire articles. Although it is expensive, many organizations and public libraries are now allowing at least limited access to this service. It is definitely worth a wait in line. Use the helpline to learn how to use their very sophisticated search tools. To pay for individual searches, go to the Website at <www.lexis.com>.

CARL (Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries) is a service that lists scholarly articles according to subject. You can order copies of the articles for a fee or you can record the bibliographic information and find the article in your own library. To reach CARL, type in <www.carl.org/carlweb>.

USE LIBRARY CATALOGS, BOOKSELLERS, AND E-TEXTS

The Internet provides a shortcut to the books you’ll need for your report.

Although computers have revolutionized the way libraries work, the basic method remains the same as it was in the old print-based days: Librarians catalog books, magazines, newspapers, photographs, and recordings by author, title, and subject, with cross-references to important subtopics within the subject. This information is stored in the library’s catalog, so you can look for a work by subject—or by author or title if you have that information.

Now that catalogs are electronic, you can search several libraries within the same system simultaneously, and you can search the catalogs of many of the world’s libraries from the comfort of your home computer. As more out-of-print books are available online, you can also read the book or print out selections of it at your computer. See the appendix of this book for some addresses for libraries and online texts.

Books take time to make it into print: Even when an author rushes a manuscript to the publisher, there are editors, reviewers, fact checkers, proofreaders (and the author once again) to evaluate and correct the manuscript before it gets to the reading public. Those intervening interactions with the content and style of the book add to the quality of what is printed, but of course they also make for delay. Once you have a book in your hand, the information may be thoroughly verified but also surpassed by later events.

Nevertheless, you will probably need to use some books— at least for background or overview. For some topics, books may be the major resource. Whatever your topic, the solid foundation of information that books provide is an important anchor for information from more recent articles—either in journals or on the Internet.

You can find books on your subject by going to your local library’s catalog on designated computers, or by looking at online library catalogs, or by checking commercial bookstores online.

SEARCH FOR SUBJECT FIRST

Searches in catalogs can be conducted for author, title, or subject. You may have a particular author and/or title in mind, but more often, you will be searching for any books available on your subject. When specifying a subject search, enter the keywords. Use alternate terms and Boolean operators. (See pages 00-00). Most catalogs allow you to get a "full display" which will give you all the publishing information as well as a brief description of the book, the other subjects it covers, the call number, and whether the book is available.

USE ONLINE LIBRARY CATALOGS

Even when you plan to go to your library, you are usually better off searching first from home if you have home access to the catalog. This way you can print out a list of books, plan your library search, and avoid waiting to use the library’s computers. If you use other libraries’ catalogs, you’ll also have a sense of what information is available and can request an interlibrary loan for a book your own library does not hold.

Research libraries such as the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library have Websites that you can consult—giving you the opportunity to look at major listings of books and, in some cases, databases as well. Use a search engine to find a specific library, or check the comprehensive list at <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/usa-acad.html >.

ASK A LIBRARIAN

Don’t be shy; librarians are professional researchers and they are there to help you find information. If you don’t understand Library of Congress subject headings (the terms indexers use for categorizing books and articles), request help with that list. Ask about your library’s special collections or resources on your topic. Most libraries also keep "vertical files" with a variety of resources on the most popular topics. These files will be listed in the library catalog, as will items in the media collections, on computer disk, and on CD-ROM. Ask for help also if you need to read an article on microfilm or microfiche.

USE ONLINE BOOKSTORES

There are several reasons for going to the commercial booksellers, such as <www.amazon.com>, <www.barnesandnoble.com>, <www.booksonline.com>, and so forth:

• The latest books may not yet be available in libraries.
• The search is easy to do, and it’s free.
• You can get ideas about books on related topics.
• You can get the bibliographical information for a book if you forgot to write it down when you were in the library.

USE E-TEXTS

Books in the common domain (that is, those with expired copyrights—usually 75 years after the date of first printing) can be published on the Internet. Some are in just plain typed text, but the Bartleby Project at Columbia University

< http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/index.html> and the Gutenberg Project <http://www.promo.net/pg/> provide attractive texts complete with illustrations. Perhaps you just want to verify a quotation from a scene you remember in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream; consulting the entire play online may be the fastest way to get what you need.

In fact, consulting e-texts may be the only way that you can find documents in their original form. As more historical material is scanned and posted online, that is where you will need to view it—not in the archives of the major research libraries.

In addition, articles in current issues of many journals and newspapers are available online— which may be just what you need if your topic is in this week’s news.

See the appendix of this book for other e-text addresses.

CHECK DISCUSSION GROUPS

You can use comments from discussion groups in your report if you take time to verify the information.

The Internet began as a communication network among experts; the best of discussion groups continue that tradition. Amazingly, many individuals continue to volunteer their expertise in answering people’s questions.

You may not have time for participating in discussion groups on your topic. However, you can see what others have posted in an asynchronous (not live) group devoted to the particular topic that you are researching. Your job, of course, is to make certain that what is presented is worth citing.

Verify what you find by an alternate route. Check a statistic or alleged fact in another source. See Chapter 18, "Verify the Information."

Follow a thread so you see what others say in response. The best way to follow public discussion groups is to go to a search engine such Altavista <www.altavista.com> that tracks the conversation for each topic—regardless of what group is discussing it. Altavista has indexed, according to topic, the public conversations on Internet message boards and newsgroups. You can follow threads of discussion in an organized way rather than going to the group’s posting. You’ll find a wide range of quality, from self-indulgent comments to expert opinion. See whether references and alternate points of view are mentioned. Then verify the quality of that information by going to other Websites or library sources.

Notice that some ideas can be valuable even when the writer isn’t an acknowledged authority. Sometimes an idea just makes sense. See whether you can determine whether the idea is good—perhaps by querying an expert on your own via e-mail or interview. Or just present the comment in your report as an idea submitted in a discussion that makes sense to you.

MAILING LISTS (LISTSERV)

If you have a long-term research project, you may decide to subscribe to a mailing list where you can get all the group’s messages sent to your e-mail address.

There are organized mailing lists on almost any topic. Some are private e-mail conferences—open only to individuals presenting the necessary credentials; others are available to the public. You can join a public mailing list by sending a message to the organizer. Warning! you will get a flood of e-mail, so select your list carefully. Also be very careful before participating yourself in the conversation; some mailing lists are really professional symposiums, and questions from novices are not welcomed.

Select a list. You can search a list of descriptions and addresses. See page 000. Also read the guidelines for discussion groups beginning on page 00.

There are two types of discussion groups: moderated (where a person or committee selects which messages will be posted to the group) and unmoderated (where the computer sends all messages out to the group, regardless of content). Some groups also sort messages by content (threads), so you can read only those messages that interest you.

Many lists are available through Internet service providers. If your e-mail program doesn’t subscribe for you automatically, you’ll need to print out and save the directions to subscribe and (most important) to unsubscribe.

Listserv is the program which manages the subscription to mailing lists.

Note that there are always two addresses—one to subscribe or unsubscribe (the address with serv in it), and one to address messages to the group—usually the name of the group@its address. Don’t confuse the two. Because computers dumbly process your e-mail message, it’s equally useless to tell the whole group of subscribers to unsubscribe you as it is to give your remarks on an important topic to the computer that is composing the subscription list.

Submit a request to subscribe by sending an e-mail message according to the directions: Usually, you leave the subject line blank. In the body, you give your real name and e-mail address and add the line "subscribe"

If you can, specify a summary or digest form. (The directions will tell you if that is possible. Often you specify that after you are a subscriber.) The digest form means that you’ll get summaries of the messages—an advantage when there are many responses each day, as there sometimes are

Unsubscribe when you are no longer interested. When you’re finished with your project, be sure to unsubscribe, sending the appropriate message as given in the initial directions—usually the same message as your first one with the substitution of the word "unsubscribe" for the word "subscribe," sent to the subscription address.

GENERAL ADVICE FOR PARTICIPATING IN DISCUSSION GROUPS ON THE INTERNET

Mailing lists can provide valuable information, as can the previous postings of some discussion groups. However, finding information this way is often less efficient than using subject directories, search engines, and libraries. Plan to join in chats only if you have lots of time to spare.

Read the rules. Every group has guidelines for conversations and routines for sending/ responding to messages.

Identify the group’s purpose. Some chat rooms, MUDs and MOOs are just fun places for role playing, self-expression, and flirting. You probably won’t get much material for a research report.

Consult past messages. You may get answers to your questions by reviewing the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) or the archives (previous messages or postings sent), available through Deja <www.deja.com> or listed when you subscribe. Be sure to read both for a few days before sending an e-mail query to a mailing list or discussion group yourself. You’ll invite negative responses if you ask a question that is redundant or inappropriate. Since some mailing lists are really scholarly conferences by e-mail, check carefully before attempting to participate.

Compose good subject lines. As you scroll through a list of messages in a newsgroup, you’ll notice the importance of accurate wording for the subject line. A well-phrased subject line assures that the message will be read by people who are interested in that topic. Many people ignore messages with vague or emotional subject lines (such as "I need help!"). Give a concise indication of your message: "Request anecdotes on distance learning."

For asynchronous discussions, spend time on composing. Use short paragraphs and revise to eliminate repetition. Proofread and check punctuation.

Quote briefly when replying. You will also notice that some people repeat the entire message they’re responding to, since some e-mail programs make it easy to do so. It’s preferable to quote briefly from the message you’re responding to, using angle brackets on each line to indicate the quote > . Some e-mail programs do this automatically. In addition, avoid sending non-substantial messages such as "I agree." Reply only when you can contribute to the conversation.

For synchronous conversations, read your message before sending. The fun of synchronous groups comes in part from the speed of the conversation, and it’s easy to get caught up in the spirit of the group. Most groups will forgive an occasional typo, but guard against confusing or offending others with a carelessly written message. Whether you are participating in a moderated group or not, if others complain about you, you can be identified and barred permanently from that or related groups if you have violated the rules.

Be wary of getting so caught up in the group that you lose your perspective. Often a relationship that develops online makes you trust the other’s opinions. Don’t confuse that reaction with researching experts’ opinions.

QUERY BY E-MAIL

Often, the fastest way to find information on the Internet is to ask a person.

You may already have enough information to sift through, but often a direct question to an individual can be the most efficient route to getting a good perspective on your topic. Query by e-mail is to three distinct audiences:

• People you know—friends, relatives, or other professionals who may be knowledgeable in your field of study.
• People who are paid or who have volunteered to answer inquiries. For example, many businesses and organizations have a button on their homepage where you can click to send e-mail to their office. There are also a number of "ask the experts" Websites, some run by universities. See the appendix for some addresses.
• People who haven’t volunteered, but may respond anyway.

To discover Internet addresses for the names of people you have encountered whom you’d like to query, consult one of the Internet Directories (see page 000). Of course, many individuals don’t answer "cold call" queries even from people they know, but a respectful, carefully phrased question might yield a response.

If you do send an e-mail, keep in the mind that your question should be clear, easy-to-read and, above all, brief. Many people don’t mind helping if they can do so quickly. Whether you know the person or not, follow these guidelines to make it easy for the person to respond.

Write a short subject line that is to the point. In their list of incoming messages most e-mail programs give only the first few words of a subject line, so you need to engage the expert’s attention quickly.

Subject line: Tailless salamander

Write a reference line at the top of the body of the message. Your request must be clearly worded; explain exactly what it is you want to know.

Re: Six tailless salamanders were sighted this weekend in Kirbyville, Texas; do salamanders normally lose their tails this time of year?

Be realistic about what you request. Allow at least a week for response time and ask a question that can be answered quickly.

Explain what you will do with the information. In one or at most two brief paragraphs, indicate your purpose—especially if a public forum is involved.

I write for the Austin Community College student newspaper and would like to cite your answer in a short article tentatively entitled "Eyes on Nature’s World"—about carefully observing nature while hiking.

Promise to give the expert credit. Offer to send a copy of the report. Add a line at the bottom of your message listing the expert’s full name and professional affiliation, and request any corrections so you can be both complete and accurate.

If you can respond by October 25, I would appreciate it. When you do, please confirm that I have the correct spelling and other details as listed below.

Proofread carefully and spellcheck the message. You cannot expect an answer to a sloppily presented query.

Don’t expect too much. Some people may answer past your deadline—or never; others may reply with form messages that don’t get to the heart of your question. And of course, no one is going to do all your research for you.

Although the quality of answers to e-mail queries can vary widely, it is nevertheless worthwhile to ask.

USE GOPHER AND TELNET

The older systems on the Internet are fastest because they do not use memory-hogging graphics.

GOPHER

Gopher is an easy way to find sites on the Internet. Gopher is a menu system—meaning that you have a list of choices to select, connecting you each time to research facilities appropriate to the subject you specify. The name is a tribute both to the gopher mascot at the University of Minnesota where the system was developed, and to the speed of its fast retrieval ("go-for").

Gopher is a simple, non-graphic searcher. That means that it often can get results faster than the search engines because it bypasses complex graphics, but that also means it will miss many sites on the Web. It is, however, a fast way to find research libraries, and a favorite among people using a slow modem. Addresses are in the appendix of this book.

TELNET

Telnet is an older method of communicating on the Internet. Even though it can be difficult to use, some very good libraries and discussion groups are available only through Telnet. Your library, computer lab, or Internet service provider should provide this service with detailed written instructions. If not, ask a librarian or technical staff member for help. From home, you can use Telnet only if you have the necessary software installed.

You will need the Telnet address. You usually encounter one when you’re on a Website, but check http://www.einet.net for a directory. In addition, you will need to write down the logon (letters and numbers that you type in to start the program). Notice that often these are capital letters.

When you use Telnet, what you are doing is communicating with a computer at the distant location. Print or write down the directions before beginning your session.

Allow for lag time before what you have typed appears on your screen. What is happening is that your keyboard is communicating with the distant computer, telling it what you want.

Use arrow keys, not the mouse. Not only is the mouse useless, touching it can sometimes even break the connection.

Enter only the word or number for your choice at the prompt line. Often you give the number of your selection, but sometimes there is a brief code. Other keystrokes may produce very different responses from what you expect. (For example, a mistake may freeze the screen or add an unremovable symbol.)

Always press enter after typing your selection.

Be sure to sign off properly. The directions at the beginning will give you the sequence of letters or numbers to use to exit the program. If you forget, try pressing Q and then enter.

REFINE YOUR SEARCH

You will need to do several search sessions for best results. In the time between sessions, evaluate what you have found and modify the next search.

USE DIFFERENT SEARCH TERMS

Review the terms you have already used, and look at the results.

• Check a dictionary or thesaurus for alternate wording, synonyms, and antonyms. Try alternate spellings ( "labour or labor," "genealogy or geneology" ). If you have been using "horse" in all your searches; adding "equine" and "thoroughbred" will call up different articles. If you are researching part-time and temporary employment, see what information you get with "full-time."
• Use the terms in the articles you’ve found. For example, you may have found "campylobacter" in an article on food poisoning. Checking for it alone brings up a number of specialized articles.
• Use the names of authors or experts in subsequent searches. For instance, you could list the names referred to in articles on the topic of "deaf culture." Pursuing searches for each of those names in turn could lead you to a Website for—-and a topic appropriate for the rest of your search—the teaching of reading to a deaf child.
• Try using fewer words in your query. Sometimes a sophisticated search string bypasses valuable articles.

Try metasearchers again with the refined search terms. If you began your search several weeks earlier, new material may now be available. When using individual search engines, check the rules for advanced searches.

Some search engines will get both "cat" and "cats," whether you enter one or the other word, but others will only get whichever one you specify. Check the helpline or give both words.

STAY OPEN TO NEW IDEAS AND INTERPRETATIONS

You may have begun your research thinking that you would be able to find enough information to discuss, for example, the problems of food poisoning and then found it was much more interesting to look at the government regulation of the food industry regarding sanitation. Your earlier searches on the topic of food poisoning can provide background when you write the report. Subsequent searches will use different search terms, such as "USDA inspectors." In addition, you would need to look at Congressional bills at the Thomas site <http://www.thomas.loc.gov>; at the Websites of watchdog groups, such as the Public Interest Research Group <http://www.pirg.org>; and at sites for consumer groups, such as Consumer Reports <http://www.consumerreports.org>. Furthermore, discussion groups can steer you into some interesting directions for research. See the appendix of this book for some suggestions about these and other helpful sites.

Try approaching your topic from a different angle. If you’ve been looking for the processes for eradicating moss, look at what gardeners do to encourage moss growth. If you have been looking at health insurance in the United States, look at how other countries provide health care. The details from a different perspective may not go into your report, but considering the opposite point of view will help you make the report more objective in tone.