Where Can You Find Information?

Thinking about where Mohamed may find the information sources needed for his research paper, consider the following possibilities.

Web Searches: Free Market Information and Filter Bubbles

Because The Information Cycle begins with an event that is disseminated across social networks or news sources, it is tempting to think this is where you should start a research project. Many of us are introduced to new events, ideas, organizations, people and places in our social networks or trusted news sources. We might even have an important news article, blog post, personal experience or podcast that inspires the research project we are interested in exploring for a class. Taking your inspiration from real life events or personal experiences is a great idea, but doing research in your preferred digital ecosystem is not advisable.

There are two problems with conducting research through our social networks and in web browsers:

1. most of us lack access to high quality information, and
2. when we interact with the internet most of us are subject to algorithmic intervention—where a computer follows step-by-step instructions to perform a task (an algorithm) that makes inferences about data that includes things such as  identity, demographic attributes, preferences, past behavior, and likely future behavior to automate decisions about what you are looking for and determine what search results may be provided.

Let’s look at each of theses issues more closely.

Access – is free really free?

When you are conducting research for a college level course, most professors require the use of peer reviewed journals or scholarly publications. These high quality information resources are not typically given away for free. If you pay for access to every article or book you want to read for a research paper, you will quickly find research to be an expensive endeavor. Two examples:

Google Scholar:  Many scholarly articles can be found in a  Google Scholar (or other preferred browser) search; however, when you go to the website to access the article you are given a free abstract of the article but then may be asked to pay for the full text. But, if you are on Marietta College’s campus you can access the scholarly articles via Google Scholar.

Scholarly books: The same can be true of scholarly books; you can get a free preview but have to pay for a full text view of the book online. Scholarly information is valuable and can command high prices in the free market. But, if you are using the Marietta College library databases, such as OhioLINK Electronic Book Center, you have free access to many scholarly ebooks, as well.

The Legacy Library is a resource that provides you with access to a wealth of sources and services. Your tuition helps pay for this information and it has been vetted by librarians, so you know it will be appropriate for college level research.

Filter Bubbles – who determines what you find?

The more subtle problem with research across social networks and through web browsers is algorithmic intervention. Companies that provide web-based services, like social media platforms or web browsers, have powerful incentives to keep you engaged with their platform or application: advertising revenue and personal data collection. Facebook, Twitter, Google and other web-based service providers keep your business and increase your participation on their platforms by presenting you with content that entertains or resonates with you. They employ sophisticated algorithms to make sure you enjoy connecting with people, events, ideas, organizations and advertising on their platforms. These companies also collect as much personal information about you as they can to tailor your experience and perhaps sell this data to other companies.

If you use a web-based platform enough you will find yourself in a Filter Bubble, a place that presents you with agreeable and entertaining information at the expense of challenging or disagreeable information. The vast majority of free web-based services or applications rely on personal data collection and advertising revenue to get and keep your business. Conducting research in this kind of environment will limit your ability to find multiple perspectives, especially perspectives that differ from your own view of the world.

Academic Libraries

Academic libraries are an important place for students to conduct research. They are not interested in collecting personal data from students or optimizing search so that students only find agreeable or entertaining content. Academic library collections are developed with students and faculty in mind. They are tailored to the academic programs, assignments and research needs of the campus. Students who become familiar with the organization and collections of an academic library will save themselves time and effort when conducting research for college classes. Academic libraries primarily collect scholarly information in a variety of formats; however you will also find information from journalists and government officials. In this way, academic libraries mirror the classroom. Professors are primarily concerned with scholarship and academic ways of thinking about the world, but they are keenly aware of how this relates to greater society.

Mohamed knows he needs to use academic books and scholarly journal articles for his paper, but it is important to understand how these required resources relate to other formats in an academic library collection. Scholarly information is published in a variety of formats, each with its own special considerations in regard to conducting research. The formats described below can be found on physical shelves and in digital searches of databases or catalogs.

Librarians are available in Legacy Library to help you navigate the library and advise you on your information search.

You might use the following formats as you conduct research at your academic library.

Reference Information

In an academic library, reference information is synonymous with background information. It is the source information you use to understand the basic elements of your topic, the terminology scholars use when discussing a topic and how it fits into a larger context. Academic encyclopedias and dictionaries form the backbone of a reference collection, but you might use other primary sources or commentary collected by your academic library to learn more about your research topic. Reference collections tend to be separated from other collections physically and digitally. They are intended to be used like Wikipedia, for understanding a topic, but not necessarily as the final destination for inquiry. Unlike Wikipedia, most professors are fine with students quoting and citing academic reference resources. This is because reference resources are written or edited by academics, scholars, scientists, researchers and other experts. However, students should not stay in a reference collection if they want to go deeper into a research topic.

Books

Books have been a staple of academic research since Gutenberg invented the printing press. Most academic books come out of traditional publishers with clear editorial review policies. Research in the humanities and social sciences, which include academic disciplines such as anthropology, literature and history, are primarily published in this format. A book can cover a research topic deeper than most other information sources. Books will give you a full picture of the topic, event or controversy you are researching. They can give you the context of a research topic, detailing the history and current situation we find ourselves in. Books tend to be the culmination of long term research and investigation, so you can mine a book’s bibliography or works cited pages for scholarly journal articles, research studies, government reports, experts in the field or other books. Also, academic books give you clear connections to disciplinary thinking on a topic, giving you insight into the important academic theories, scholars, research experiments or foundational knowledge of which you should be aware.

Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Magazine and newspaper articles are typically written by journalists who report on an event they have witnessed firsthand or after they make contact with those more directly involved. Journalists focus on information that is of immediate interest to the public and they write so that a general audience can understand the content. In research, newspaper articles are often best treated as primary sources, especially if they were published immediately after a current event.  (See the GATHER chapter for more information about primary sources.) Magazine articles and longer investigative newspaper articles tend to explore why something happened, usually with the benefit of a little hindsight. Writers of these long form articles rely heavily on investigation and interviews for research. Journalists tend to be equal opportunity consumers of academic, government and popular information resources. This blending of resources makes their work more accessible for students exploring a topic or looking for a direction to take their research. Newspaper and magazine articles are considered popular resources rather than scholarly resources, which gives them less weight in academic work.

Scholarly Articles

Scholarly articles are written by and for experts in an academic field of study.  They typically describe original research conducted to provide new insight to an academic field of study. You may have heard the term “peer review” in relation to scholarly articles. Peer reviewed articles undergo a review process carried out by professional researchers, academics and industry experts. This group checks the accuracy of the information presented in a scholarly article and the validity of the research methods used to conduct the research behind the findings. This peer review process adds a level of credibility to scholarly articles that you would not find in a magazine or news article. Scholarly articles tend to be long and feature specialized language that is meant for an expert audience. They provide the framework for researchers and scholars to build new original research projects. Scholarly articles carry a lot of weight in scholarship and professors often require their use in undergraduate assignments.

While scholarly journal articles are typically required for students doing college level research projects, they are not a great place to start your research. By their nature, scholarly journal articles are narrowly focused on one particular study or research project. It takes several studies to start drawing conclusions about a social phenomenon, scientific theory, law of nature or other piece of the academic cannon. As a novice to a field of study, an undergraduate student should start formulating their research question, research topic, and narrow research focus before they dive into scholarly journal articles.

When searching databases for scholarly journal articles, it is a good idea to have a few different arguments or points you want to make about your topic. Having more than one argument or line of reasoning ensures that you can use different studies for different points you want to make. It also forces you to find scholarly articles that come to slightly different conclusions or design their experiments in slightly different ways.

Government Information

Some academic libraries are depository libraries for the Federal Depository Library Program and collect specific documents or publications from different government agencies; most are not. All academic libraries collect or curate government information, in print or digital formats, that is useful to their campus communities.

Government information consists of any information produced by local, state, national or international governments and is usually available at no cost. However, it can be reproduced by a commercial entity with added value and cost. To use free government information, look for websites that are created by official government entities such as the US Department of the Interior, UNESCO, the State of Ohio or the Library of Congress. You can typically conduct searches of the official websites or use databases and tools developed by a government agency to search different kinds of information. For example, the United States Congress has a searchable database of legislation and proposed bills. The US Census Bureau has a searchable database to help you explore census data. Another way to access free government information is to use web portals developed by official government agencies. Web portals are websites that bring together information of many different formats into one uniform search.  USA.gov is a large federally developed web portal that brings together information and services from many different government agencies across the United States. Many academic libraries have research guides or links to relevant government information, databases, tools and portals.

Government information can help students understand the history, policies, legislation, programs, regulations, or agencies involved in a research topic. Sometimes the government is a key player in our research interests. In this case, government information can be treated as primary source information. Many government agencies conduct original research, this can be published as government reports or scholarly journal articles. In this case, government information can be used as evidence to prove or disprove a theory or hypothesis. Many government officials have demonstrated expertise and first-hand experience with our research topic. In this case, government information can lend us credible expert opinion or commentary on our research topic. Government information is useful and vast, students should approach government information with a clear research topic or research question in mind to avoid overload.

Library Catalogs

A library catalog is a database that contains all of the items located in a library as well as all of the items to which the library has access. It allows you to search for items by title, author, subject, and keyword. A keyword is a word that is found anywhere within the record of an item in the catalog. A catalog record displays information that is pertinent to one item, which could be a book, a journal, a government document, or a video or audio recording.

If you search by subject in an academic library catalog, you can take advantage of the controlled vocabulary created by the Library of Congress. Controlled vocabulary consists of terms or phrases that have been selected to describe a concept. For example, the Library of Congress has selected the phrase “Motion Picture” to represent films and movies. So, if you are looking for books about movies, you would enter the phrase “Motion Picture” into the search box. Controlled vocabulary is important because it helps pull together all of the items about one topic. In this example, you would not have to conduct individual searches for movies, then motion pictures, then film; you could just search once for motion pictures and retrieve all the items on movies and film. You can discover subject terms in item catalog records.

Many libraries provide catalog discovery interfaces that provide cues to help refine a search. This makes it easier to find items on specific topics. For example, if a student enters the search terms “Hydraulic Fracturing” into a catalog with a discovery interface, the results page will include suggestions for refinements including several different aspects of the topic. The student can click on any of these suggested refinements to focus their search.

Locating resources in the library

Using the library catalog, you may find several good resources on your topic, then you need to locate those resources. The catalog will provide you with information about the location of a resource. For example, the image below shows the Legacy Library catalog record with the location and the call number for the resource.