AH11 Information Competency Modules - #7 Controversy 14 Future Foods

Roadmap for a Research Project

If you were given a subject that you knew nothing about, and told to write a ten-page research paper on the subject, you could follow these steps for your research paper: There are several online encyclopedias available through the Internet now. Remember the Britannica Academic that we looked at back in Module 6? The Gavilan Library subscribes to this encyclopedia, which means you can use it from home or any other Internet-connected computer if you have a Gavilan Library card or student i.d. card. The link for the encyclopedia is listed in the Full List of Library Databases. Remember to scroll down past the Databases by Subject section, to the alphabetical listing. And if you're off-campus, you'll need to log into the system. Read the directions on that login page to see if you use the first 4, 5 or 6 numbers on your library or i.d. card. Or the entire G00 number. The search box will take phrase searches (without the quotes) and Boolean searches (with the AND between terms). When you hit the GO button, you'll get a list of results that have your search terms in them. Be sure to scan that list for dates. In the case of genetically modified food, probably the latest research would be best, since this is a quickly changing and growing field. Scroll down to the section listing Related Articles, and click on Can you find answers to these questions? By 2014, 90% of what three types of crops planted in the US were genetically modified? Farmers in China who had been growing Bt cotton for several years found their benefits disappeared because of what? Who are the authors of this article? If you scroll to the very bottom of the article, you can find a button for Article Contributors. Click on that button for more information about these two people. The Britannica site will give you the citation format at the top of the page. Click on the little checkmark in a square, and don't forget to choose the APA style. What you are looking for here in this or any encyclopedia: A grand overview of the topic Names of people or countries or companies that are associated with your topic A chronological list of pivotal developments concerning your topic Sub-headings that might suggest ways to narrow your topic. Right now, depending on what piqued your curiosity, you could narrow in on any number of topics: Dolly the cloned sheep, Bt corn in China, golden rice in Asia, special iron-packed rice in Africa.

Books

Encyclopedia articles are great for quick facts, names associated with issues, timelines and broad general descriptions. But regular books are still the best place to find a fully-developed discussion of your topic. Books have the space to develop a topic, discuss several aspects, and go much deeper than broad general descriptions. You don't have to read the entire book. There are tricks to using books more efficiently: Look at the Table of Contents in the front, a list of chapters. Maybe your topic will have one chapter devoted entirely to it. Look at the Index at the back of the book, a list of terms covered within the book. If you can find one or more key words or terms, you can go directly to the pages listed after the term. A book on your topic will give you ideas for specific aspects that you might be able to focus on. This is another way to narrow your topic. You can get to the Gavilan library catalog of books by clicking on the first option in the drop-down list: Books/Catalog. Try searching for: Genetically modified food   Reading the Result List When you click the search button, you'll get a list of every item in the Gavilan collection that has those three words in exactly that order (phrase searching) somewhere in the record for the item. Each listing gives you the title (linked in blue), and the author just under the title. The date after the author's name is the date the author was born (1969 in #13). Next, on a new line, is the date of publication (circled in red in the image to the right, 2011 in #13). That number below the date: GE180.G54 2011 is the call number, the address of where the book is sitting on the shelves.     And the very last line in the entry is the status line, letting you know if it's available or not. It could be available, checked out, lost, still being processed, or just the generic 'not available.' This line also gives you the general area: mezzanine, main stacks, video, etc. If it says 'electronic book', that means you can get it online. Each bookcase in the library is marked with letters, like GA-GQ, to let you know which call numbers are shelved on that particular bookcase. First find the shelf that contains your letters (GE), then find the area of 180s, then find the G section, then to the last number, 54, like following an address from a zip code to the state to the city to a street, down to a specific house number. But first make sure you're in the right neighborhood. Notice in the list above that the first book is upstairs on the mezzanine, the second is on the west wall with the video collection, the third is downstairs in the main stacks, and the last one is an electronic book. The reference librarian can show you how to download the book. When I took this picture, this book was not on the shelf, already checked out by someone else. You can see this from the status line, underlined in blue in the image to the right. Since then, the book might have been returned and your result list will show this book as available.

WorldCat
WorldCat is the grand OPAC of the world, the largest network of library content and services. WorldCat lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world. You can link to it directly by clicking on the icon to the right.
Once again, you'll have to log into the Gavilan databases by typing in the numbers on your Gavilan library card.
Notice that I've changed the search from Everything to Books (circled in red), and that I've surrounded my search terms with quotation marks, to search this as a phrase. The good part about having to give a password is that WorldCat now knows where I'm coming from. When I search for "genetically modified food", it automatically gives me a list of libraries close to Gilroy.
When I click on the listing for Genetically Modified Food by Jennifer Skancke (#11 in my results), it gives me this list: And to make this whole process even simpler, I can talk to that handy reference librarian and order this book. Instead of driving to one of these libraries, I can have it sent directly to the Gavilan Library, through a magic service called interlibrary loan.

Writing Citations for Books
The Gavilan Library homepage has a link to library handouts, which will give you a link to the latest APA Guidelines.
The general rules are:	And here are two examples: Follow these rules and examples in writing your own citations for any print books that you use.

Summary

Here are some general library catalog terms that you'll want to make sure you understand: Call number - the long number starting with letters that tell you which shelf in the library you'll find your book. If you have problems, ask the reference librarian for help in translating those numbers. Status line - the line in the book catalog result list that tells you if the book is available. Sometimes it might be checked out, or missing in action. Interlibrary loan - the service available in most libraries that lets you borrow books from other libraries, hand-delivered to your own local library. You'll have to talk to the reference librarian to get help in ordering the book. Reference librarian - the person in the library who is hired specifically to help you find the resources you need for all your research projects. You can usually find her at a desk with the word "Reference" on it.

And here are some strategies for finding the particular information you want from the book you found: Look at the Table of Contents in the front, a list of chapters. Maybe your topic will have one chapter devoted entirely to it. Look at the Index at the back of the book, a list of terms covered within the book. If you can find one or more key words or terms, you can go directly to the pages listed after the term.

Encyclopedia articles are great for fast established facts, names associated with issues, timelines, background and history of the issue, and broad general descriptions. Books are great for in-depth information, but because of the length of time involved in publishing books (and encyclopedias), they are often at least a year old. In the case of food technology, this could be a serious drawback, since this is a quickly changing area. In the next module, we'll review all the other resources that will give us some more current information.

Now go back and take quiz #7.