Tag Archives: internet searching

Internet search vs Library database

Initially the first tool used to gather information for my research was the school’s library database. I guess some of Badke’s teachings are rubbing off on me. In using academic search complete(ebsco) I was surprised that the database only yielded a handful of results on my topic about Fair Use on regards to higher education. But using copyright in the boolean phrase was the total opposite. The phrase I used to search was, “Fair Use” AND “Higher Education.” Outside of Google scholar using the internet search engine for research had not occurred to me until this blog prompt. To my surprise using the words “fair use and higher education,” I was stunned by the amount of useful links to academic information sources. I think was because the topic of fair use is highly popular and has a great deal of controversy surrounding it. In addition some key Google scholar source links which I used for my research came up first in the results page. Although Academic search complete came up short against google search  in terms of quantity, we can argue that the database has information that is always reliable. For another database engine I used known as Lexis Nexis, which was flooded with newspapers and case studies with the same phrase. All in all I think that the internet search engine has it’s place in research in some cases. Now in the database side of things, you have to know how to properly utilize a database and also choosing the right one to look into.

Wrapping up internet searching & reading/blogging for Wednesday, March 25

Today we spent time searching scholarly resources on the internet and making use of the advanced search strategies we discussed a few weeks ago. On Wednesday, my colleague Prof. Nora Almeida will guest lecture on searching library catalogs and databases. Please read Badke Chapter 5 and review the Library of Congress Classification Outline.

Your research journal blog post prompt is based on today’s class activity. Please write one 100-word research journal blog post in response to this prompt:

In class today you tried out advanced search strategies and scholarly internet resources from the Badke reading to search for sources on your research topic. Describe one advanced strategy or scholarly resource you used. Did you find different information sources than you found doing a regular internet search (just using Google, Bing, etc.), and if so, how are they different? Did you encounter any difficulties that you haven’t encountered in a regular internet search?

Remember that the FINAL version of your topic proposal is due on Monday, March 30 and the Annotated Bibliography is due on Wednesday, April 1. Please get in touch with your questions…

~Prof. Leonard

Wrapping up research topic development, and looking ahead to searching and finding

Today we spent a good bit of time in class developing research questions and using bubbl.us or regular old pen and paper to draw concept maps. Feel free to scan & post your concept map to our blog.

The draft of your research topic proposal is due on Monday, March 23 by the beginning of class. Please email it to me as a MS Word attachment; that way I can grade, it offer comments, and return it to you by email, even if I’m out of town.

On Monday, we’ll talk about — and do some — advanced internet searching. I hope that by the end of class, everyone will have found at least a few potential sources for their annotated bibliographies (due April 1). Please read Badke chapter 6 (all) and chapter 7, pp. 163-172.

~Prof. Leonard