What kind of information do you need? (For a project or assignment?)
How do you use and process this information?
10 Ways to Get the Information You Need
10. Find a web site.
Where do you get your Information?
The Web can provide excellent starting places to do your research.
But if you are only using Google and Wikipedia to find your information, you may not be finding all of the information that is available on your topic. Especially if you are being asked to do scholarly research.
Three very important facts to remember about information:
Search Engines only retrieve a portion of the information available on the web.
A lot of useful information is not freely available on the web. It is proprietary, meaning someone--an author, a publisher, or institution--owns the information.
Not all digitized information is created equal.
You need to critically analyze and evaluate the information you intend to use.
Not all information has been digitized.
There are still books in the Library. And other print and analog resources that do not exist on the Web.
9. Find a better web site.
Know better.
Use the web in an academic way.
Look for bibliographies. (e.g. Wikipedia Reference lists)
Use keywords from the sites that you find to create refined searches for more specific information.
Find web resources that provide scholarly information.
Look for Get it! Cornell links to access full text articles from Google Scholar.
Try your searches in a variety of search engines. Each searches the web for information differently.
Some rare film of Eugene V. Debs, with an actor
reading a speech Debs made in 1904.
See also:
FDR Fireside Chat, 1933
Barry Goldwater at the Republican
National Convention, 1964
1984 United States Presidential Election Results
8. Find a better web site...in the Library. (Use the Library Gateway.)
The Cornell University Library Gateway is the Library's homepage on the World Wide Web. It is the Library's interface for connecting Cornell faculty, students, and staff to our digital and print collections.
Use these Reference databases to find and access articles in a variety of encyclopedias and subject dictionaries:
Cornell University Library Databases -- Limited access
The
Gettysburg Address
This site details the history of Cornell University Library’s copy
of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Cornell’s copy is one
of five known copies in Lincoln's hand. It is the only copy accompanied
by a letter from Lincoln transmitting the manuscript and by the original
envelope addressed and franked by Lincoln. http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/gettysburg/
“I
will be heard!”: Abolitionism in America This exhibition documents our country’s
intellectual, moral, and political struggle to achieve freedom for all
Americans. Featuring manuscripts, letters, photographs, and other materials
from Cornell’s pre-eminent anti-slavery and Civil War collections,
the exhibition explores the complex history of slavery, resistance, and
abolition from the 1700s through 1865. http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/abolitionism/
The Cornell University Library Catalog is a database that contains records for materials held in 19 of the 20 of libraries that collectively comprise the Cornell University Library. The Weill Cornell Medical Library, located in New York City, has a separate catalog.
Research Library indexes and abstracts an extensive number of general interest magazines, scholarly journals, and newspapers in the social sciences, humanities and sciences. Full text of many articles is provided.
Click on the Databases Selected link to select and search other ProQuest databases, including a selection of Historical Databases:
A complete bibliographical reference to the history of the United
States and Canada from prehistory to the present, covering over 2000
journals published worldwide.
How to Critically Analyze Information Sources lists some of the critical questions you should ask when you consider the appropriateness of a particular book, article, media resource, or Web site for your research.
Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association (5th ed.)
CU Library Reference locations include Africana, Hotel, Management, Olin, and Uris Libraries at call number: BF 76.7 .P83x 2001x. Also in ILR and Mann Reference at BF 76.7 .A51 2001.
July 18, 2007 Lance Heidig, ljh5@cornell.edu
URL: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/amst124am.html
.html
Olin and Uris Libraries, Cornell University, Ithaca
NY 14853
Information and reference: 607-255-4144, okuref@cornell.edu
Circulation: (Olin) 607-255-4245, (Uris) 607-255-3537, okucirc@cornell.edu
