"How To.." is designed to provide students with a practical knowledge of research techniques and information skills that enable them access a variety of library resources and use them efficiently. The Guides will equip students with skill for research and lifelong learning and assist them in becoming independent library users.
As defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary, information is "knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction. The American Library Association defines information as "all ideas, facts, and imaginative works of the mind which have been communicated, recorded, published and/or distributed formally or informally in any format."
"Information does not stand alone: its meaning and availability are affected by both format and access.
Format is how information is packaged and presented.
Access refers to the ability to get to information when it is needed.
Content is of primary importance. The intended audience, the message itself, and the purpose for a given piece are all driven by the author's need to communicate something."
Research Methods and Strategies. Seattle Central Community College Library, 2006
As defined by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), "Information Literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information".
Health Information Literacy, as defined by the Medical Library Association, is the set of abilities needed to: recognize a health information need; identify likely information sources and use them to retrieve relevant information; assess the quality of the information and its applicability to a specific situation; and analyze, understand and is " a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information"
According to the ACRL, Information Literate individual is able to;
Prior to searching for information, you need to plan for your search strategy. A Search Strategy is a road map or systematic plan for conducting a search. Developing a search strategy will save you time, help to organize your thoughts about the topic and get you improved related results.
If you have the privilege to select a Topic to Search, select a topic which is;
The Internet might offer some help as a starting point. Encyclopedias can provide an overview and identify the main concept and related terms.
Identify the subjects that would include the information needed.
Recognize the information resources that might answer the question. Websites, reference books, journal articles, handbooks,...etc might be among the sources to use.
Keywords are the main words, concepts or phrases that describe your topic. When you think about your topic, underline the key words or phrases.
Consider your search terms / keywords. They provide initial search terms to be used to find information.
To do a good search, you need to analyze your assignment question.
Examples
To ensure that you will retrieve all information on your topic, you need to compile list of similar words / Synonyms and appropriate related terms to each of the keyword identified.
Look for
To formulate a logical search statement, use the Boolean logic / Boolean Operators to link search words together. The most common connectors are words such as AND, OR, NOT .
Use different keywords / different meaning terms, you will only retrieve records which contain both / all terms you entered.
The more words that you link together in this way the more specific the search is. Since the results will have to contain all your search words, they should be more relevant but fewer results will be found.
AND Connector is used to NARROW search results. It is "All the words" option.
'OR' in Boolean logic is used as a link word to find any records which contain one of the words, or both /all of them.Any of the words should be available in the record to be considered relevant and related record. It is "Any of the words option"
For example, if you search for the terms anorexia, bulimia or eating disorders . Any record contains any of these terms will be relevant to your search.
The more words that you link together as alternative words, the less specific the search is. More results will be found, but these may be of low relevance.
Therefore, OR connector is used to EXPAND retrieval by linking synonyms and related terms.
Sometimes you might want to remove a word from your search to prevent resources that include that word from being retrieved.
Excluding words from a search makes the search more specific. Therefore there will be fewer results, but these should be more relevant. such as York NOT new. The search would then retrieve records about York in England but NOT New York in U.S.
"Exact Phrase" can be used to search for more relevant records. You need to put the phrase between quotation marks (" "). Phase search will return records that have both terms in the phrase ADJACENT to each other.
Examples
"Educational Technology" , "Lifelong Learning", "Physical Therapy"
To search for multiple forms of a word with the same root (different spellings of words), you can use Truncation with the term.
Truncation means shortening a search term by adding a symbol to the root of a word, to retrieve its variant endings.
The most used Truncation Symbol is the Asterisk (*)
Examples
Search for "Child*" retrieves documents for all forms of the word child at the root, such as child, children, childhood, childbirth, ..etc.
Search for "Comput*" retrieves records include all forms of the word "comput" at the root, such as compute, computer, computers, computation, computing, computable, ..etc.
Sir Isaac Newton
While doing a research on a specific topic, researchers need to read what others wrote on the same topic. They depend on information created by others as the base for their research, and continue the research and findings.
When researchers use others' ideas / information, they should document the information / source they rely on, giving credit to the author of the original source.
Copyright is the legal right to reproduce, publish and sell intellectual property. Copyright Law is written to protect authors from loss of income. Usually, the author holds the copyright. The author may give the permission to a publisher to publish his work.
Copyright law should have a a balance between protecting the author intellectual rights and protecting researchers' rights to use information.
Fair use determine when non-copyright holders can use copyrighted materials. It allows researchers to use the material / information without getting the permission for the copyright holder
Fair Use Guidelines will consider
Plagiarism is the act of copying, summarizing, or paraphrasing the work or ideas of another person and presenting it as original work. An academic malpractice. Plagiarism is the use of the ideas, words or findings of others without acknowledging them as such. To plagiarize is to give the impression that the student has written, thought or discovered something that he or she has in fact borrowed from someone else without acknowledging this in an appropriate manner.
When doing a research, you must provide a list of information resources (References) you have used at the end of your research paper.
Consistency is very important while preparing your references list
References Must be arranged Alphabetically by author’s last name and initials or by Title in case there is no author.
Reference Entry includes the following elements
Author, A. (year). Title of the Book (edition). Place of Publications: Publisher
Example:
Purtilo, R. (1999). Ethical dimensions in the health professions (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, Pa: W.B. Saunders
Singleton, J. & McLaren, S. (1995). Ethical foundations of health care: Responsibilities in decision making. London: Mosby
Author, A. & Author, B. (Year). Title of Chapter. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), Title of the Book (ed.) (page nos.). Location: Publisher
Example:
Shelton, S. (1998). The Doctor-Patient Relationship. In A. Stoudemire (Ed.), Human behavior: An introduction for medical students (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott
Author, A., Author, B. & Author, C. (Year). Title of the Article. Title of the periodical, volume no.(issue no.), page nos.
Everett, K. (2006). Health and health care for the 21st century: For all the people. American Journal of Public Health, 96(12), 2090-2092.
Hui, E. (2005). Doctors as fiduciaries: do medical professionals have the right not to treat?. Poiesis & Praxis, 3(4), 256-276. Retrieved March 11, 2007, from Academic Search Premier database
Singer, P. (2000). Medical ethics. BMJ, 29, 282–285. Retrieved March 11, 2007, from http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1118276
American Medical Association (2001). Principles of medical ethics. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from American Medical Association Website:
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2512.html
Millions of people use Google search every day for a variety of reasons. Students use it for school, business people use it for research, and millions more use it for entertainment. But most people may not be using Google search to its full potential.
Want to use Google search more efficiently and get the search results you want quickly? Here are 20 Google search tips and tricks to maximize your search efficiency:
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/20-tips-use-google-search-efficiently.html