1: Group Your topic:
wind power and economics
Look this up in the database Science Reference Center (an option on the EBSCO Masterfile Select page). How many results do you get? ___________ What is the date of the most recent one? ____________ (be careful: how are they sorted?) Are these "scholarly"? How can you tell? How many of them are "scholarly"? How many of them have the full text right there? ________ Pick one that looks interesting or good for this topic how would you go about finding "more like this"?
Now do the same thing using Google Scholar ( scholar.google.com ). How many results do you get? ___________ What is the date of the most recent one? ____________ (Is this hard to determine? Why?)
Are these "scholarly"? How can you tell?
How many of them have the full text right there? ________
Pick one that looks interesting or good for this topic how would you go about finding "more like this"?
Group 2: Your topic:
sustainability
Look this up in the database Gale Virtual Reference Library . How many results do you get? ___________ The "Virtual Reference Library" includes a lot of different reference books. Which ones did your results come from? ______________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ What are the dates of these publications? ____________ Would these results count as "scholarly" for your assignment? Why or why not? Pick one that looks interesting or good for this topic how would you go about finding "more like this"?
Now do the same thing using Wikipedia. How many results do you get? ___________ What is the date of the most recent entry? ____________
Is this resource "scholarly"? Why or why not, and how can you tell?
How could you use the information here to go about finding more information?
Group 3: In the database National Newspaper Index Look for:
hybrid vehicles and pollution
as a Keyword search.
How many results do you get? ___________ What is the date of the most recent one? ______________
Pick one that looks interesting or good for this topic how would you go about finding "more like this"?
And how would you get to text the either online, or figure out that it's in the library in print? (it's ok to say "help!" on this one!)
Now do the same thing using Google.
How many results do you get? ___________ What happens if you put double-quotes around the phrase hybrid vehicles: "hybrid vehicles" and pollution how many results? ____________
What is the date of the most recent one? ____________ (Is this hard to determine? Why?)
Would any of these results count as "scholarly"? If no, are there ones your instructor might still accept as "authoritative"? Why or why not? How would you decide which ones?
Group 4: In WorldCat (the link on the RRLC page), search for:
Sustainable agriculture
- in WorldCat (you have to choose the database again)
How many do you get? ____________ Try this instead:
"sustainable agriculture"
(just as typed here, with the quotation marks) How many do you get? ______________
What order are they listed in? How can you change that (say, to see the most recent material first)? (hint: click on the "Searching" tab and examine all the options on the search page you get)
What kinds of materials are included in WorldCat? (hint: look just above your result list)
Compare this to searching:
"sustainable agriculture"
In Google Books ( books.google.com ) How many do you get? ______________...