Feinberg Library Virtual Tour

Library Catalog [OPAC] 
Text [Telnet] Version 
Web Version

Library Research Resources

Internet Research guides by Subject

InterlibraryLoan/Document Delivery

Search Engine Directory

Search Engines Explained

Boolean Searching
(from University at Albany Libraries) 

Evaluating Resources
(from Milner Library at Illinois State U.) 

Types of Resources
(from Bowling Green  State U. Libraries) 

Primary vs. Secondary Sources (from Bowling Green State Libraries)

Citing Sources

Plagiarism:  How to Avoid It (from Indiana University at Bloomington)

COURSE RELATED RESEARCH INSTRUCTION

Course # - CSC121A Concepts of Computing

Course Instructor: Tom Burl
Session Librarian: Holly Heller-Ross
Session Date: September 19, 2003
This page includes suggestions for information research resources as well as tips on information research skills.

Information Research Resources:

Finding Journal Articles:

Locate journal articles by searching journal indexes online. From the page Library's Research Resources, select the subject listing and choose from the suggested indexes for Computer Science.  Be specific in your search terms, use words that really match your topic. Here is an example of an article you might find on IBM's Deep Blue:

Finding Books:

A. Library Web Catalog - Used to locate books, series, and journals owned by the Library.  Here are a few examples:

B. WorldCAT – Used to locate books owned by libraries across the U.S. and Canada. Books you find can be requested through Interlibrary Loan. Use the advanced search for more precision searching. Use Keyword (or Subjects) and use the limits to focus your search.

C. Browsing the Reference Shelves - Browsing is a time-honored method of locating research materials. All  books are shelved in the  sections of the library. Some important resources for this class include:
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology (2002) REF Q121.M3 2002
The Concise Encyclopedia of the Ethics of New Technologies (2001) Ref. TP248.23 .C664 2001 
Social issues in science and technology : an encyclopedia (1999) Ref. Q175.5 .N49 1999

Finding Internet Web Pages:  

A. Using existing web subject guides, often created by faculty, librarians or professional associations.
here are a few suggestions:
Librarians Guide to the Internet : Computer Topics
Computer Science Search Guide from the University at Albany
The American Association for Artificial Intelligence topics website
The Computer History Museum History 
The Charles Babbage Institute

B. Using web search engines such as Google.com and Altavista
Try to be specific in your search terms. Use quotation marks around terms that must appear in good results,
 such as "Deep Blue IBM".  This helps avoid locating the many websites on Deep sea fishing and Blue Hawaii! 
One result of this search from AltaVista is http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/

Information Research Skills:

Selecting Relevant Information:

Look for material that fulfills the course requirements! That’s the number one tip for success. Relevant:  right on target, focused on your topic, your topic is the main idea in the article or book, title of the work clearly reflects your topic, authors are experts in that topic area.

Timely:  as current as your topic requires, generally within the last three years, at least one source from the current year, use older sources when they are considered classics or to show a progression of ideas over time.

The Advantages of Different Types of Resources:

Books generally provide in-depth and lengthy coverage on a given subject, but because of the amount of time involved to write and publish, the information is not always up-to-the-minute

Journal Articles from periodicals are good sources for current information. Many periodicals are professional journals devoted to a specific field of study, such as Computer Design or Byte. Articles appearing in these journals are much more authoritative than comparative newspaper articles as most have very stringent review processes for submission. Compared to books, periodical articles tend to focus on a specific aspect of a topic, and are less useful for general overviews or histories of a topic.

The Internet is a great resource for getting current information on a variety of topics, BUT always consider the source. The commercial domain(.com) is less reliable than the educational(.edu) or government(.gov) domains. Also, check when the site was last updated (you can do this and check the source of the document by opening "document info" in one of the pull-down menus of your web browser). If the site was updated several months ago, chances are the information contained within is not reliable.

Evaluating Web Pages is a skill like any other, and improves with practice. This tutorial, created at the University at Albany, will give you some tips. 

(Adapted with permission from a guide written by David Seiller at the University at Albany 7/98)