Week 3

Lecture;
The focus of this lecture was on Online Libraries and Online databases. Online Libraries include online journals, electronic books, artworks, musical and text repositories, whilst online databases involved E-mail directories, maps and atlases, news and media, government statistics, portals and people searches. While there are these subtle differences, Online libraries and databases are very similar: they are both an extremely useful and accessible source of information, they can be either available free or by subscription and they are both browsable, searchable, usually up to date, and available 24/7.

Readings;
In the first reading, Finding what you want on the web, Technology analyst Bill Thompson explains how he believes without Google, web searching would be very difficult. Thompson compares Google with other major web search engines like AllTheWeb, Teoma, MSN Search and Yahoo, and still finds Google is the most effective and efficient. Yahoo which is most likely the next down the line usually takes you to Google search results anyway.

The second reading, Bare Bones Lesson 7: basic search tips, basically goes through different strategies to make sure your search is as precise as possible. I found all of the tips very effective and am a frequent user of almost all of them. Although i was not aware that lower and upper case wording can affect your search too. So this reading became very useful for me.

Activities;
Global warming article;

10 useful search tips:

• Advanced search - When on ProQuest the search was set on basic but if you look at the tabs at the top of the page you can select 'Advanced' which is a different form of doing your search which will narrow your results.
• Library home - When on the ECU library home there are certain headings, you can find what you want under the red 'Find' heading. That's where i clicked the Journal Articles link.
• Journal Articles - Under the blue heading 'I want to find journal articles using library databases... ' you can narrow your search once more by clicking a databases search link. You do this depending on what information or key words you have to further your search.
• Data resources by subject - I clicked on the 'find by subject' which took me to this data resources page where i can now chose a relevant subject according to my search.
• Online databases for Environmental Managment - I chose Environmental Management on the page before because that was the most relevant to my topic. That took me to this online databases page where i can now chose a database with either full text or not full text to further my search
• Proquest science journals - the online database i chose for Environmental management took me to the ProQuest. ProQuest is a great database because it has many tabs at the top of the site that can also narrow your search once more. Like Advanced search, Basic search, Topics and Publications.
• Quick catalogue search - Quick catalogue search was on the ECU library home page and it was a window where i could type in any key search i desired and simply hit a 'go' button.
• Learning assistance - On the ECU library home page there is a yellow heading under the blue 'Find' heading where you can click on specific links that are like quick steps to other searches. for example i found the forth one down - Academic tips sheet very relevant and efficient.
• News update - On the ECU Library home page there is also a red heading which has 'News Update' which has more broad and specific links to further your searching.
• ECU library catalogue - can offer you great catalogues with a quick keyword search window and 'Go'.