Week Three, 14th March 2008: Online Libraries & Databases

Lecture
This week we learnt how to get resources on the library, www.ecu.edu.au/library. There are many research options on the ecu website that can used.

There are database where you can findelectronic journals/articles, which is very helpful.

There are many types of libararies which we also learnt in this weeks lectures, online text repositories, online journals, electronic books, musical libraries, and artwork libraries.

There are also many types of online databases, for examples, people searches, online directories, maps and atlases, government information and statistics, and news and media.

This lecture was very useful and informative, as I found out instead of using sources such as google to find information that can sometimes be very unreliable, I can use the ECU databases and find resources that is authentic and at the same time reliabe.

Tutorial (Work Shop Three)
This tutorial gave me a lot of insight on different ways to search things on the internet, instead of using less reliable search engines such as google.

10 useful functions or search tips from the ECU library are:

1. The "imformation about" ecu library can give someone insight on how the library works, any quesries they might have and also opening and closing hours for those who want to come in after lectures/tutorials or on their days off.


2. "resources for" can help students, other researchers, staff with numerous amount of things, such as end note or even get academic tipsheets.


3. "the services" some services the ecu library provides is, loan services, reference guides and document delivery.


4. The "find" function can help students to fine online journals or articles to cite on or to find online catalogues for books, cd's etc.


5. The "learning assisstance" function can help students with any questions on getting started at the library or when the next library work shops are on.


6. The "quick link" function is an easier way to get around the ECU website, for example instead of going back to the homepage to get in to simo, i can easily just click the link on the page and it takes me staright there.


7. Academic tip sheets can be found on the ECU library page, where students who have queries about referencing, plagiarism, or anything at all to do with university.


8. You can also access IT services from the ECU library


9. The "news updates" functions gives information on what is happening at ECU, either at Joondalup or Mt Lawley.


10. There is also a quick search on the ECU libraries if a student is looking for a particular catalogue online.

After searching the economic impacts of global warming on businesses, I found that without narrowing down the search there will be too many results which will make it hard for a person when researching. So by putting punctuation marks on the words you are search the search becomes more to the point and not so wide. After doing this my search results were not so much and Ionly ended up having a final result of 38.

People who might use the Medline plus tutorials on the website would be those who are interested in a particular drug, or are concerned about anything they might or might not have. Also people who have a prescription drug may want to know about it or whats in it.

I researched Angina on the website and it came up with alot of informative results and the active tutorial was very useful for those who don't like spending time reading off the computer and would rather have it spoken out for them.

Screen Shots

Print screen shot of an online journal of the economic impacts of global warming on businesses

Print screen shot of an active tutorial on Angina

Readings
Reading One: ‘Finding what you want on the web’
This reading just clarifies that a good search does not include google and that there are various other ways to search the internet, rather than using google.

Reading Two: ‘Bare Bones Lesson 7: Basic Search Tips’
The second reading just point out different search tips you can use when searching on the web. Such things as using quotations to make it clear it is the phrase you are looking for, use the words 'AND' or 'OR'. Basic tips like these can always narrow down your search.