Dr. Farnell’s KINS Class-

Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=nwTQT_2f7P6uUHCi4es2PD5A_3d_3d

Article link (for later): http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090126082343.htm

Dr. Farnell’s KINS 2643 Class (FALL 2008) Class #2

Starting From the Library Homepage

Well, in our last class we talked about what you would need to do if you started from somewhere other than the library website for your research… So, now let’s focus if you actually did start from the library website.

Finding Articles

From the library home page select:

Find Articles (Databases) > Databases by Subject > Kinesiology/Physical Education >

This will lead you to the following Kinesiology related databases:

Sport Discus
Health Source: Nursing Edition
Medline
ERIC (Educationan Resources Information Center)

Some additional databases that may be useful can be found by starting at the libary home page and then selecting

Find Articles (Databases) > Databases by Subject > Psychology >

PyschInfo
SocIndex

Remember, if you ever need information about the coverage of a particular database remember to click on the “i” beside the name of the database.

Conducting searches

When searching in our databases, think of it like searching in Google.  Just enter your relevant keywords.

Some cool things you can do to make your search more specific or to yeild more results is to use some advanced search operators.

One such operator is OR

OR will increase the number of results retrieved because it is looking for similar terms.

Thus, if you’re searching for steroids, you’re also searching for performance enhancing drugs, etc.

” “ will only search for words right next to each other.  It’s called a phrase search.

If you want to do a search on performance enhancing drugs, you might want to put ” ” around the phrase like so “performance enhancing drugs”.  Otherwise the database will just look for those words seperately not necessarily next to each other.

Yet another trick is the * ending.  This is called the truncation or wildcard ending.

Adding a * to a word like athlet* will search for the following words: athlete, athletes, athletics, atheletic, athletism, etc., etc.

Alrightie, well one more class to go!

See you all on Monday!’

Amanda

Dr. Farnell’s KINS 2643 Class (FALL 2008) Class #1

Hello,

Here’s an overview of our first class together–

Evaluating websites

Remember that when starting at Google, Yahoo, etc. for your research needs that when you search for information, you need to evaluate your information.

Look at the domain of the web address you’re visiting.  If it is .com then it’s a commerical site whose usual purpose is to sell your stuff.

Thus, I wouldn’t necessary trust botox.com for the real dangers of chemical injections.

If a site is a .gov or a .edu– You know you’re on a more trusted site but you still have to evaulate!

Ask yourself-

Documentation:
Is there adequate documentation for factual statements?
Is the documentation reliable, verifiable from a second source?
Is there enough information to cite this information in a paper (author, title, source, date)?

Content:
Is the information current? When was the last time the page was updated?
Does the page have good flow, indicating that some thought went into its design?
Are there few or no spelling or grammatical errors that indicate hurried thought?
Is it flashy with little content?

Authority:
Who produced this site – is it a credible source? Anyone can put up a website – be skeptical of the source.
Is this document self-published or does it carry the weight of a publisher or organization? What is the domain of the

Persuasiveness:
Is the document biased or slanted?
Are there few or no logical errors such as appeal to authority, circular reasoning, etc?
If you found this information in a printed source, would you trust it?

What makes a journal/journal article scholarly?

First, just a simple tip– scholarly/academic/peer-reviewed/referred all mean the same thing.

According to our library glossary:

Peer-reviewed means “articles reviewed and critiqued by noted experts (”peers”) in the same discipline; sometimes called ‘refereed’” library.ucok.edu/sp/glossary/index.html

Thus when you’re taking a look at an article from Scientific America or Discover, you’re not looking at scholarly articles.  Instead, you’re looking at something called “popular literature” or news that is written for the general public about scholarly and or scientific studies, etc.

Identifying scholarly versus non scholarly literature:

If you ever have a question about whether an article is scholarly/peer-reviewed/referred, you can check the article’s journal via a database called Ulrich’s Periodical Directory.

The periodical’s record will inform you whether you’re looking at a trade publication, a referred journal, or a consumer periodical.

Tracing back to the Original Scientific Study

Sometimes, you might see an article on CNN.com, or a blurb in the New York Times about a topic you’re very interested in terms of your studies.  If so, you can always trace back to the original scientific study for your own research.

Take for example this article– Good Moods Prevent Colds

While the article itself on Sciencenews.org might not be a source you can use for your paper.  The article does prevent itself many clues, allowing you to trace back to the original study.

Note that the journal name and one of the study’s authors’ names is mentioned.  Perfect!

If you know the journal name, all you would have to do is visit our library homepage and click on the “Journal Titles” tab on the far right-hand side of the website.  Once clicked, you can enter the journal’s name to find our holdings (print and/or electronic), etc.

From there, you can find the original study.  A definite peer-reviewed source perfect for your research and paper!

Ok, well that’s about that.  Remember, if you have any questions, you can always contact us at the Reference desk via email, phone (405-974-2878), chat, or text!

See you on Friday!

Amanda Lemon