Laying the Foundation

Research

How to Research | Identifying Bias in Information Sources | Resource List on Humanitarian Issues

Successful Research in the Information Age

A. REFERENCE WORKS:

• General encyclopedias give background information and a broad understanding of the topic at hand.
• Subject-specialized encyclopedias concentrate on one discipline or field, meaning they are great resources for a more in-depth intoduction to your topic. This type of encyclopedia will often provide a bibliography or further reading list pointing to other good, reliable sources of information.
• Other reference sources include: Biographical Dictionaries, Almanacs, Statistics Handbooks, Maps, Atlases, and Standards.

Reference works can lead to more valuable information. Look for:

• Key names - is the encyclopedia article authored (name generally appears at the bottom of the article). This person is generally thought to be an expert in the field, which means they may have books/articles/websites of their own.
• A bibliography/further reading list might also be included in the article. Jot down titles, names, and possible websites from this list.
• Keywords/concepts/ideas/facts/figures should also be recorded

B. USING A LIBRARY:

Libraries are generally the best place to start any research. Knowing what a library collects and many of the services offered by the library often makes the research process less confusing.

What is available in libraries?

• BOOKS: Look for books using the library catalogue. If any names and/or titles were discovered using Reference Sources, look for those items first. In most cases, a keyword search in a library catalogue should locate a number of items. Most library catalogues are accessible through Library homepages. Services such as placing a hold, and interlibrary loan can be done by inputting a library card number and requesting a library pick-up location from your home computer.
• PERIODICALS: (Newspapers, Magazines, Academic Journals): Most libraries house an extensive collection of both print and electronic periodicals. Periodical articles provide authoritative, current, and comprehensive coverage of countless topics and issues. The easiest way of looking for periodical articles is to use a periodical index. A periodical index allows you to search for articles by subject or keyword. Most periodical indexes now are available electronically - in fact, many of the periodical index providers also provide full-text electronic access to articles. Most libraries also offer remote access to many of the periodical databases they subscribe to. In order to actually access the information, you generally need to key in a library card barcode to use as a means of identification. Most library homepages will offer full lists of the periodical databases they subscribe to with instructions for access.
• LIBRARIANS: A visit to a reference desk in any library will often help you to define a topic more clearly. Librarians are in the business of providing good information, which means they can often point you in the direction of key information sources - be it in print, electronically, or online.

C. USING THE INTERNET

The Internet should always be the last step in the research process. It is last step because of the very simple fact that while it does provide a great wealth of information on any possible topic, it lacks organization, standardization, and authority. All authoritative reference sources have a definite organizational scheme. Libraries are highly organized through classifications systems and standardized vocabulary. Anyone who has the appropriate technology can become an author and a publisher on the World Wide Web. In order to find good information, you must have a basic understanding of the topic at hand and then be able to use this understanding to do some Smart Searching.

Smart Searching^TM is a deliberate, structured approach to finding information on the World Wide Web (Chris Sherman, www.searchwise.net).

Three steps are involved in Smart Searching:

• Define A Search
• Select the Appropriate Tool - And Use It Properly
• Learn How to Interpret Results

Defining a Search

In defining a search, you must consider if you are looking for a specific fact, a particular web site, or just browsing around for information that might or might not answer the information need. When defining a search, it is simply a question of whether you are trying to locate, browse, consult or get a data dump (everything available) on a particular topic.

Other things that must be considered when defining a search:

• Are there distinctive words and/or phrases that can be used to limit irrelevant results
• Are there any synonymous, equivalent terms, or variant spellings or endings that need to be included

Selecting the Appropriate Tool

Once a search has been defined, you can use two different search tools in order to find sources on the World Wide Web - by either using a Directory or a Search Engine.

A Subject Directory is best used when you want to know what is available on a subject and where to find it. A directory will slot web sites into categories that have often been created by a subject specialist who assesses what a site is about and puts it into an appropriate category. Subject categories may be browsed, or searched. Directories are most useful when a major resource on a topic is needed.

A Search Engine is best used when you have unique keywords, phrases, quotes, and information buried in the full-text of web pages. Search engines will retrieve lots of documents, often providing a wider range of views to the topic at hand. When you search the web using a search engine, you're asking the engine to scan its index of sites and match your keywords and phrases with those in the texts of documents within the engine's database. This then, results in too many hits, and often, too many pages that are not related to what you are truly looking for. In order to get better results in a search engine, you must become familiar with the search language ("+", "-" AND, OR, NOT =) needed to properly search that database (search engine).

Whether you are using a Directory or a Search Engine, the Help or How to Search link will often provide you with valuable information on how to get the best results.

Learn How to Interpret Results

Once you have defined your search and picked the right search tool, you need to learn how to take a critical look at your search results. There are key areas to look at as you decide whether a site is worth exploring any further from the search results list:

1. Title of Web Site - should contain at least one of your search keywords.
2. Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - provides useful information about a document's potential value. Pay close attention to the domain names. The better information will generally come from .org , .edu, .net, or .gov sites.
3. Page Description - should be the most useful part of a search result by telling you exactly what is on the page, who created it, and why it was created.

Evaluating Information on Web Sites

So far, you have been guided through the smart searching process with the goal of directing you to the best possible resources on the Web. You must now learn how to further scrutinize a specific web site. According to the website Life Beyond Yahoo: Evaluating Information, these are some questions you can ask yourself as you evaluate an individual web site:

• Who wrote/authored the site?
• Does the author have the authority to present this information?
• What does the author have to say about the subject?
• Does the author/publishing organization have anything to gain by presenting this information?
• When was the site created and updated?
• Why it the site useful or important?
• Can the information be verified in book, periodical or other sources?