Introduction to library resources given to high school freshmen over two class periods on November 15 and 17, 2011.

1. Welcome to the
Library
Jennie Davis
South Campus Librarian

2. Topics Covered
o Different Kinds of Resources
• Books
• Articles
• Internet Information
o How to discover and locate those resources using
• Library Catalog
• Online Databases
• Search Engines
o How to use the information you find
o How to avoid plagiarism

3. Many Sources of Information
3 Main Types
o Books
o Articles
o Internet Information

4. Reference Books
o Can’t check out from the library.
o Includes general encyclopedias, subject
encyclopedias, atlases, dictionaries,
almanacs, etc.
o Include chunks of information on lots of
different subjects.
o Good for learning about a new topic.

5. Circulating Books
o Books that you can check out from the
library.
o Novels, plays, short stories, non-fiction.
o Lots of information about a particular subject.
o Can be broad or narrow.

6. Using Books for Research
Advantages Disadvantages
o Lots of information on one o Usually published more than
subject. a year after they are written.
o Excellent for analysis or in- o Not useful for very recent
depth examination of a information (within the last
subject. few days or months).
o Great for historical o Limited use for information
information or to see how that changes rapidly.
something was viewed in
the recent or distant past.

7. Articles
o Come from newspapers, magazines, journals,
and other periodicals.
Periodicals are materials
that are published at
regular intervals (daily,
weekly, yearly, etc.) or
otherwise periodically.

8. Newspapers
o Published daily or weekly, focusing on current
news.
o Cover international and national news, but
often best source for regional and local news.
o Most articles are short and give only the most
essential facts.
o But feature articles can be very in-depth.
o Editorial sections are good sources of opinions.

9. Magazines
o Usually published weekly or monthly, some bi-
weekly or bi-monthly.
o Popular, newsworthy, informational, or
entertaining subjects.
o Usually short and to the point, with some
longer feature articles.
o Usually picture-heavy.
o Written for the general public.

10. Journals
o Published anywhere from weekly to yearly.
o Focus on a particular subject area.
o Written by experts on a subject to be read by
other people in the field.
o Use very technical language.
o Very text-heavy, sometimes with charts,
statistics or diagrams, but few pictures.
o Cover narrow subjects in-depth.

11. What is a peer-reviewed or
scholarly journal?
A journal is considered scholarly or “peer-
reviewed” when articles that are submitted for
publication in a journal are reviewed by other
scholars in the same subject area (peers of the
article’s writers).

12. Using Articles for Research
Advantages Disadvantages
o Much more up-to date than
books. o Can’t cover as much
o Much more targeted information as books (but
information than what is more than newspapers).
found in a book.
o Still is a lag time between
o Great for finding opinion writing and publication.
and commentary on current
events and hot-button o Not as much information in
issues. one place.
o Journals best for specific,
current information on very
narrow topics.

13. Internet Information
o Can be published instantaneously, yet some
pages are years old.
o Subjects can cover everything you can think
of (and some that you can’t).
o Generally picture-heavy and not much text.
o Often not very in-depth, though it depends
on the page.
o No one has to verify or edit information
before it is published to the Internet.

14. Using the Internet for Research
Advantages Disadvantages
o Most up-to-date. o Anyone can put anything on
Publication can be the Internet.
immediate.
o Difficult to judge whether
o Ease of access. information given is correct
or useable.
o Great way to find voices or
topics not often included in o Difficult to verify identity of
traditional publications. webpage author.
o Sheer amount of Internet
o Government information is information makes it hard to
reliable and plentiful. find what you are looking for.

15. Book, Article, or Webpage?

16. History and culture of
several Native American
tribes
Book

17. Sports scores and stats from
today’s football game
Webpage

18. Collection of short stories
and poems by American
authors from the 18 th and 19th
centuries
Book

19. Expert analysis of last week’s
mid-term elections
Article

20. Study by several medical
doctors about whether a new
treatment for osteoporosis is
effective
Article

21. Basic information about the
Renaissance and how it
began
Book

22. What you need to do to
obtain your driver’s license in
the state of North Carolina
Webpage

23. How to find books
Use the Library’s online catalog.
http://lrc.vgcc.edu/home

24. Boolean Searching
o OR- Use between keywords to get MORE results
o AND- Use between keywords to get FEWER results
o Parentheses- Use with AND and OR to group search
terms to get targeted results.

25. Catalog Searching
Take several minutes to search the catalog
and find a book you are interested in.
Make sure the book is at South Campus and is
checked in.
On the provided worksheet, write down the
title, author and call number in the designated
boxes.

26. How to read a
Library of Congress Call Number
RC 564 .M298 2001
RC
564
.M298
2001

27. How to read a
Library of Congress Call Number
Alphabetical Order
Numerical Order RC
564
Alphabetical THEN .M298
Decimal Order 2001
Numerical Order

28. Variations
OH HF REF
442.2 5548.4 PN
.C56 .M525 6081
1998 S3823 .W366
2007 2000

29. Where do I go?
OH 442.2 .C56 1998
OC OH OH OH OH
6025 62.3 441 442.12 4263
A .J98 B .G3 C .L2390 D .C50 E .S21 F
1999 2000 1975 2010 1982

30. Where do I go?
RC 564 .M298 2001
R RC RC RC TC
1952 275.2 56 564 2484
A .C4 B .N54 C .M38 D .M64 E .S21 F
1994 2005 1975 2010 2005

31. Homework
o Bring worksheet to the college library.
o Search the shelves for the call number of
your book.
o Bring worksheet and book to desk .
o Librarian is available to help.

32. Finding Articles
o Can find some articles by browsing
through physical copies in library or
elsewhere.
o More efficient way is to use an online
database.

33. What is a database?
o Collection of information from many
different sources.
o Can include articles from thousands of
newspapers, magazines and journals.
o Often have full text and can go back into
the 1990’s and earlier.

34. A database is not…
o Freely available on the Internet.
o Unedited or unregulated.
o Always full text.
o Just for research papers.

35. Searching Online Databases
http://lrc.vgcc.edu/home

36. Using the Internet for
Research
The internet is a great place to get information, but
can be problematic.
o Finding the RIGHT information in the sea of
Internet clutter can be a major challenge.
o Being a BETTER SEARCHER can help you find
information more efficiently.
o Making sure you have RELIABLE information is
critical.

37. Evaluating Internet Information
What to look for
o Authority
o WHO wrote it?
o Are they qualified?
o Can you verify their identity?
o Is there a sponsor?
o Accuracy
o Is it correct?
o Is the information reliable?
o Are there factual errors? Typos?
o Objectivity
o Is it fact or opinion?
o Is there a noticeable bias?
o Is the page designed to sway opinion or trying to sell you something?

38. Evaluating Internet Information
What to look for
o Currency
o When was the page created?
o When was it last updated?
o Are links up-to-date?
o Has information changed since the page was written?
o Coverage
o What topics are covered?
o Is the information valuable?
o Is there information that you can’t get from another source?
o How in-depth is the information?

39. Evaluating Internet Information
o Verify information by confirming what you find with another
source, find the same info in an article or book.
o If the owner of a web site is well-known and trusted (CNN,
American Diabetes Association, US State Department) the
page can probably be trusted .
o Check the identity of website authors you don’t know by
doing a news search.
The key to using Internet Information (or ANY information) is to
examine it carefully and use critical thinking to evaluate it.
Example

40. Bring it all
What’s next?
together!

41. What is Plagiarism?
Taking someone else’s work
and claiming it as your own
OR
Using someone else’s words
or ideas without giving them
proper credit.

42. How do you avoid plagiarism?
o If you use exact text from another person’s work,
put quotation marks around it.
o Summarize longer selections by putting the main
ideas or points in your own words.
o Paraphrase another person’s idea or statement by
putting it completely in your own words.
o And ALWAYS cite your sources.

43. What is a citation?
Details about a source of information that you got from
somewhere else and are using in your own work.
Certain Information is typically required, including
o Author name(s)
o Title of the information source
o Title of the longer work the information source is in (if applicable)
o Publication information (publisher, place, year)
o Editor name (if applicable)
o Location of exact source (page numbers, web URL, vol. number,
etc.)

44. What is a Bibliography or
Works Cited?
o A list of all sources you use for a paper or other kind
of project.
o Must be presented in such a way that someone else
can use the Works Cited and find the same
resources that you used.
o Usually found at the back of a paper.
o Writers use internal citations and footnotes in the
body of a paper to note which sources are used
where and refer readers to the full information in the
Works Cited.

45. Recap
o Different kinds of sources
o How you discover and find those sources
o How you use the sources
o What plagiarism is and how to avoid it
http://jeopardylabs.com/play/library-jeopardy144