Cabrillo College
Library

Winnie Baer

What's on this page

1. Background information

2. Find books in the Library

3. Find periodical articles

4. Find Newspaper Articles

5. Web Searching

6. Plagiarism Tutorial

Get to this Internet Page

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To identify good background information for your topic:

1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
2. Click on Full Text Articles (second icon down on left)
3. Click on Credo Reference    If you are off campus, you'll be asked to type in your library card
   number.

You can search for words or phrases (use quotations marks around phrases). Here are some sample
searches.

On this screen, you are told how many results there are, how long the articles are (in number of words),
and there are suggestions as to how to narrow your search.

Your turn. Try using Credo Reference to identify background information on your topic. It may take you
a little while to get used to it. Let me know if you need help!

What did you find?

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See what books you can find. The goal of this little exercise is to get familiar with using the online
catalog to find books.

1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
2. Click on Library Catalog

Here's a sample search for books on college success. The online catalog tells you what books,
electronic books, videorecordings and DVDs etc. the library has. The first item listed here is an
electronic book, the second one is a book available in the Main Stacks, and it's call number is included
so you can go find it. Over on the left, you are given suggestions for refining your search.

Okay, now it's your turn. Look for books on your topic. What did you find?

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To identify periodical articles on your topic:

1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
2. Click on Full Text Articles (second icon down on left)
3. Click on Adademic Search Premier (top left, under General) If you are off campus, you'll be
   asked to type in your library card number.

Click to go to the Advanced Search Mode

And you'll want to limit to Full Text:

Here's a search for articles that are about study skills and success and learning.

Once you get a list of results, click on the article title to get to full information about it.

Once you bring up detailed information about the article, note that you can click to print, email, and save
the article.

Also: you can click to cite it!! How cool is that??  

Your turn! Use Academic Search Premier to look for articles on your topic. Or use one of the topics
given above. What did you find?

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1. From the Cabrillo College Library homepage
2. Click on Full Text Articles
3. Under News/Newspapers, click on Proquest Newspapers (If you are coming in from off
   campus, type in your library card number.)
   
   Another database is called Newspaper Source.. It gives you access to regional newspapers,
   e.g., Monterey County Herald, San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle -- but NOT
   the Santa Cruz Sentinel, which you'll find on the Web.
   
   Another database is called Ethnic NewsWatch. It gives you bilingual access to magazines
   and newspapers from various minority groups.
   

Here's an article published August 2009 about methyl bromide (a pesticide used in strawberry fields
that is suspected of causing cancer)

Note that you can click to print the article. You email this article, and also get a formatted citation for it!!

You are now going to be esearching a controversial issue -- some kind of controversy that impacts
your ordinary life. Look for newspaper articles on a controversial topic.

Here are some controversial topics I have thought of:

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When you are investigating a controversial topic, a very fine place to start is CQ Researcher.
CQ stands for Congressional Quarterly -- they research topics that people in Congress
are going to be voting on.

1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library homepage
2. Click on Library Catalog
3. Click on Full Text Articles
4. Click on CQ Researcher    
   If you are off campus, you'll be asked to type in your library card number.

Another place to get background information on controversial issues is ProCon.org -- "Pros and
Cons of Controversial Issues."

If you have a Santa Cruz City/County Public Library card, try using their Opposing Viewpoints database.

We all use Google as our primary search engine. It's the biggest, the most innovative, and the best.
Really. Use quotation marks to keep words in phrases together.

Click on Show Options to see how Google groups your results together by format or some other
characteristic. Another feature to try out is called Wonder wheel, where Google tries to
suggest to you other words and phrases to use for searching.

The problem with using Google is that anyone can publish on the Internet. So you need to think about
the information that is being presented. It is probably best to depend on books, journal articles, and
newspaper articles for most of the information you gather. When you do use Google, here are some
techniques to help you:

• A domain name in a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) that has .com in it -- that's a commercial
  site, and, in the end, they probably want to sell you something.
• A domain name with .org is an organization of some sort -- like the public radio site listed above.
  Might be trustworthy.
• A domain name with .edu in it is an educational institution. Might be trustworthy.
• A domain name with .gov in it is from the government. Should be trustworthy.
• Let's together look at some Web sites that are fakes and of dubious quality:
  
  Evaluation is important

Use Google to find some information on your topic. Find at least one good quality Web site. Find at
least one that is bogus or is non-credible.

Good quality Web site:_____________________________________________

Why I think it is___________________________________________________

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Not very good quality Web site:_________________________________

Why I think that's the case __________________________________________

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This Plagiarism Tutorial explains the ins and outs of plagiarism -- and is fun as well!

You Quote It -- You Note It!

If you don't finish the tutorial today, you can return to this page and go through it some other time --
the steps for getting to this page are listed below. c

Getting to this page on the Internet

1. Go to the Cabrillo College Library home page <libwww.cabrillo.edu>
2. Click on Internet Links, then click on Health Science
3. Scroll down to Course-Related Materials and click on ENGL 255, Basic English, W. Baer

W. Baer and T.N. Smalley Fall 09