Outlines of Ch.3 + 4

Ch. 3: "Search Techniques: Electronic Sources" (p.48--)

-Search strategy: analyze topic, identify standardized subject headings, identify keywords and terms that are not standardized subject headings, combine subject headings or keywords to narrow or broaden your search, select the appropriate electronic source to use, execute the search by typping in the commands on the computers keyboard, evaluate the search results for appropriateness, revise the search in light of your results.
-Electronic format- term refers to any information that is created or stored electronically either on hard drive, on a disk, or on magnetic tape, and accessed by a computer.
-Online- term refers to information that is stored in a remote computer that is connected to the internet and accessed locally. Online catalogs can be host based (Telnet) or web based.
-Database- term is a collection of data (information) that is organized so that its contents can easily be searched, accessed, and edited.
-there are advantages and disadvantages to using electronic format rather than printed format. E-books may make more titles accessible without going to the library, but sometimes there's nothing like sitting down with a good book! The book lists many examples.
-Types of databases: online catalogs, internet, bibliographic indexes and abstracts, books, periodical articles, plays, poems, essays, reports, and transcripts.
-most commonly searched fields in an online catalog are: author, title, edition, publisher, date, physical description, notes, subjects.
-internet pages: title, domain, site, url, link, image, text.
-use keyword searching when you: are unsure about the order or spelling of all the words in the title, do not know the author's name, do not know the precise subject heading used, want to combine terms to narrow or limit a topic.
-Truncate- shorten keyword to find more words, such as "colleg?" would turn up college, collegial, collegiate, etc.
-Boolean searching- uses operators AND, OR, NOT as in the venn diagram idea.
-nested searches- uses parenthesis
-Proximity searching: adjacent, followed by, near, with.
-Search tips- be precise, use the help menu, use the advanced search feature to formulate your searches, avoid spelling errors.

Ch. 4: "Library Catalogs" (p. 65--)
-Definition of library catalog: a listing of all the items in a particular library, describes it and gives its location.
-Classification Systems- purpose: logical arrangement in library to find book easily.
-major library classification systems: Dewey Decimal, Library of Congress, Superintendant of Documents, United Nations Symbols.
-most common: Dewey, and Library of Congress.
-Differences between them: Dewey begins with numbers/ LC with letters; Dewey has 10 major subjects, LC has 21.
-History/background: Dewey Decimal system originated by Melvil Dewey in 19th century, LC designed by the Library of Congress for its own use in 19th century but is so comprehensive that it has been adopted by large libraries.
-Superintendent of Documents is used by libraries with extensive collections of government documents.
-Call number: indicates subject matter, author, and title, determines location in library.
-Factors that determine where a book is shelved: call number, size, if its reference or reserve, subject category, etc.
-materials that are often not found in library catalog searches are individual articles in journals or anthologies, or government publications.
-Online catalogs can be host based (Telnet) or web based.
-Advantages of online catalogs: ability to search for author, title, subject, or keyword; can update the catalog frequently; can show if it is currently checked out; can access the database from different locations other than the library (like at home); provides links to the websites.
-Library catalogs around the world: Biblioteque Nationale - national library of France), World Cat - database of 30,000 libraries in 64 countries makes interlibrary loan procedures easier.

-card catalogs traditionally were organized in drawers on index cards, arranged alphabetically by author, title, subject, with a card for each.
*Here's a cute old movie clip, its about-- two friends make a visit to the public library, and there are old fashioned card catalogs still, so they look up a book by the author, and the librarian finds the book for them and tells them to ssshhhhh--
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=1134656391