Class 09: Finding Sources (1)

Held: Thursday, 15 September 2005

Summary: Today we return to our consideration of sources. In today's class, we focus primarily on the ways in which one identifies appropriate sources.

Related Pages:

• Information Literacy Tutorial Modules.

Convocation:

• Rosenfield Symposium: Jurek Martin: Media and Government: Strange Bedfellows.

Due

• Williams 7.

Notes:

• Professor Bonath will be leading much of today's class. I involve a member of the library faculty not because I lack expertise in information retrieval, but because (a) my expertise centers on my own discipline and not on the disciplines that are central to your research and (b) in my experience, the library faculty have even greater expertise.
• Please be careful on what you title your email messages. For example, a message titled My Bibliography probably stays unread until I decide to scan your bibliographies. A message titled Help! There's no way I can do the assignment for tomorrow. What should I do? probably gets read quickly.
• I was feeling bad about how long it was taking to get grading done, but then I read my notes from my last Tutorial, and it took just as long last time.
• Don't forget today's convocation!
• I will return writing assignment 2 at the end of class.
• Don't forget today's appointments. We'll discuss your essays and your topic selection.

Overview:

• Library resources for scholarly papers.
• Exercise: Finding sources.
• Reflection.
• Academic honesty exercise.

Overview of Resources

• Professor Bonath will discuss the resources available to you as you look for "sources" for your research.
• She will also provide basic instructions in how you identify those sources.

Search Exercise

• Using whatever resources you wish, identify at least one of each of the following that might help you answer today's research question (to be provided by Bonath or Rebelsky)
  • One or more Web resources.
  • A journal article
  • A book
• Next week, we'll consider other forms of resources (primarily law journals, court decisions, and patents)
• I encourage you to work in teams, rather than individually.
• At the end of the exercise, I will ask you to report on what you've found.

Reflection

• Why and how do we use sources?
• What kinds of sources are available?
• Given that different kinds of sources provide different evidentiary weight, what kinds of things help make a source more or less reliable/useful?

Academic Honesty Exercises

• What are your reactions to the examples that I sent out yesterday?