Name _________________________ * Due in Week 5, February 9th*
Student Number ______________________
You should make sure that you come to understand:
This exercise will provide you with the opportunity to practice your skills at searching electronic journal databases electronically. As you carry out the tasks, keep in mind that the procedure outlined is very basic. As well, good searching is not simply a mechanical procedure. You must use your imagination, think laterally and have the dogged determination of a detective to find all the available information.
Bring a formatted floppy disk, and find your way to a 'red' library computer. After clicking on "START", select "Library Indexes & Abstracts". When the window opens, scroll down to and click "Social Sciences Index" thus beginning a WebSPIRS session. From here you can choose to search one or a few of the listed databases. For now, select Social Sciences Index 2/83-6/99 (the date will change as the database is updated) and click "Open Selected Databse(s)." Ask a reference librarian if you need help finding an appropriate computer or starting a session.
Note: you can also do this exercise from any networked computer on campus, or any computer off-campus on the McMaster domain. The WebSpirs web address is: http://webspirs1.mcmaster.ca:8590/
Let's say you were interested in finding articles (that is references for articles) on how women are portrayed on television. So you might type the phrase "images of women on television" in the box and click SEARCH. Try this now:
How many articles (references) are found doing this search? _____________
Now try your key words one at a time...
How many references are found searching for "images"? _______________
How many references are found searching for "women"? _______________
How many references are found searching for "television"? _______________
Now try combining your searches using the Boolean operator AND.
How many references are found searching for "images AND women"? _______________
How many references are found searching for "women AND television"? _______________
How many references are found searching for "television AND images"? _______________
How many references are found searching for "images AND women AND television"? ________
Perhaps you missed some important references that used words like TV, females, or image. Using the Boolean operator "OR", try expanding your terms.
How many references are found searching for "images OR image OR portrayal"? ___________
How many references are found searching for "women OR woman OR female"? __________
How many references are found searching for "television OR TV"? ___________
You may have figured out that you do not need to retype these phrases every time but can combine previous searches instead (ie #1 AND #2 would substitute for "images AND women" if the first two searches you did were "images" and "women"). You could also use the check boxes beside your search history list, and the "Combine Checked" button. But for clarity, here we will type everything out in full.
(In some cases you can use the * symbol to help you expand terms: stereotyp* will find stereotype, stereotypes, stereotypical, stereotyping, etc)
Now try combining your expanded search terms.
How many references do you find searching for (image* OR portrayal) AND (women OR woman OR female) AND (television OR TV)?_______________
Hint: You should have more than six but less than eight article references, if you have followed this procedure.
Now have a close look at the article references you have found. Do some appear to be close to what you had in mind? Are new ideas coming to mind? From these you can keep going; for example, search the name of the author of a pertinent article to see what else he or she has written
The descriptor field (DE) is very useful for finding articles that might be relevant to your subject but whose references do not happen to use the words that you chose to search out. For example, look through the descriptor field, highlight the descriptor "sex-role-in-advertising" and copy it to the search window (right click and choose "copy", click the "Back to Search" button, left click in search window, right-click paste)
How many references have "sex-role-in-advertising" as their descriptor? ________________
It is possible to restrict your search to certain fields in other ways.
How many references have "media" in their descriptors? _______
How many references are there with "media" in the title? ________
Now try to limit your search to articles published quite recently
How many references are there with "media" in the title that were published after 1996?_____
Now try doing a search with your own choice of subjects and words. (Note: You should use this opportunity to begin researching your Inquiry paper topic, refining your topic and to begin building the bibliography and paper proposal due in Week 6)
Write down a short description of your topic here ____________________________________________
Go through a similar process to that outlined above, but be more adventuresome and try different things. When you are happy with your search, mark between ten and twelve interesting looking references (by clicking the little box attached to each reference). Next, follow the instructions to e-mail a copy of your bibliography to your self and your inquiry instructor.
Also, download the marked references to your floppy disk (click DOWNLOAD, explore the options, change the drive to a:, hit DOWNLOAD). Print one page of your search and attach it to this exercise. (You can do this in the library with a copy card, in the computer labs or at home)
In the library stacks, locate one of the journal articles referenced in your list (Find the call number in Morris--if our library owns it--then find the call number in the stacks. Attach a photocopy of the first page of the article to this exercise.