Day 2: Electronic Resources and the Library

New Directions || Primary and Secondary Resources || Workshop: Subject-Specific Resources || Workshop: Transferring Resources/Further Searching

8:30 - 9:00 Plenary Session. New Directions for Research Libraries

Stephen Ferguson, Assistant University Librarian for Rare Books and Special Collections

9:00 - 10:00 Plenary Session. Primary and Secondary Sources

Distinction between Sources and Tools
1. Sources as "containers" of information and knowledge
  1. Primary vs. secondary sources
  2. Characteristics of primary sources [Yale Colloquium]
2. Tools as aids to research
  1. To summarize
  2. To clarify
  3. To indicate
Research planning: Issues to explore at the outset
Types of research tools and how they function
1. Hybrid tools (Sources and tools combined)
  Example: Encyclopaedia Britannica in print and on the Web
2. Fact tools
  Bartlett's Familiar Quotations in print and on the Web
3. Finding tools
  Example 1: PAIS in print, via telnet, on the Web
  Example 2: Cornell Library Catalog not in print, via telnet, on the Web
More networked examples of tools.

10:30 - 11:45 Workshop. Finding Resources in Your Content Area

Meet in related disciplinary groups in Firestone Library. Access the subject-specific Web pages created by the librarians leading each group and explore the resources contained therein, including locally networked CD-ROM indexes or their telnet equivalents at Cornell and Web resources

1:00 - 3:00 Workshop.

Part I: Moving Resources into Your Web Site

Macintosh group--Michael Engle; Windows group--Audrey Wright

Think about the function(s) of your Web site: teaching, research, both?
Open AOL Press
Open Your Web Site
Create new pages for the resources from the morning
Pull the new material in from your diskette
Add text, Web links, telnet links
Clean up your work

Part II: Finding More Resources: Subject and Keyword Searching

Controlled Vocabulary -- (Library of Congress) Search the Online Catalog
- Example: search for books which might include discussion on terminology used in anthropology (fin k anthropology dictionar?).
Non-controlled -- Web search engines
- There is always an element of serendipity
- Search for "Uses of the word 'tribe' as applied to African tribes" using Infoseek (africa word tribe terminology)
- Browsing pre-classified subject groupings such as found in Yahoo is also effective in certain situations (e.g., when you don't know what terms might be used to describe your topic, or when your topic is very broad.)
Try this collection of Web search engines to continue your searching.
Electronic resources grouped by the their access method.

Revised June 2, 1997
Audrey Wright and Michael Engle
1997 NTTR Seminar, Day Two