Kathy Dabbour's Blog

Journalism 410 Library Lecture

2009-10-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Journalism 410: Suggested Information Sources

The following are questions from Prof. Bowen's Thursday 12:30 J410 class, which I grouped under suggested library and internet resources to find the answers as discussed in today's library session. I have also added some of the search tips.

General notes:

Identifying keywords for searching any database or even Google!!

Sample topic: housing for disabled in the Valley

Brainstorm synonyms for keywords to maximize searching.
Use OR to search synonyms and broaden results: disabled or handicapped or persons with disabilities
Truncate terms to automatically search spelling variations: disab* (NOTE: Lexis Nexis uses the exclamation point as a truncation symbol!!)
Use AND to narrow or combine search terms: and housing and san Fernando valley
Use parentheses or separate search boxes in databases to enter terms that are searched with or
(disab* or handicapped) and (housing or apartment* or rent*) and san Fernando valley

Lexis Nexis Academic:
Use the Power search link on left side of page to be able to combine keywords with AND and OR and use truncation (exclamation point ! not the asterisk). Select the source from the menu.

Use Legal tab and then Law Reviews to find detailed discussions about cases, laws, regulations, constitutional rights, etc. Use the W/P (within same paragraph) instead of AND to combine keywords since law review articles are so lengthy.
Business tab to search for information on companies and annual reports
Note: only has latest 6 months of LA Times is in LexisNexis. Use Proquest Newspapers for LA related articles)

Public safety/traffic safety on San Fernando Valley roads
How to make the most of a Lexis-Nexis search
State and federal rights against discrimination
Most effective way to search through an annual report; corporate information
Finding corporate information/ better way to navigate

Proquest Newspapers: (Best for complete Los Angeles Times; also includes Daily News for Valley stories)
Public safety/traffic safety on San Fernando Valley roads
Statistics on Los Angeles

Find Articles and Research Data:

Start in the General/Multi-Subject Databases, e.g., General OneFile
Try also "Search for Articles by Subject" list and select the subject discipline that matches your topic. Usually, the first database listed under a discipline is the best choice.
For example, Under Business & Economics: use ABI Inform and Mergent for company information.

Where else might you go for academic studies for things like caffeine use or discrimination on surveys

Most effective way to search through an annual report; corporate information:
Finding corporate information/ better way to navigate

Search geographically: enter most specific geographic areas in case studies done on that area. If not, go broader geographically.

Statistics:

In general, think about which agency or oganization might produce those data. If you are not sure, try looking up news or journal articles in Lexis, Proquest, or as discussed above to find someone else's research or news article on your topic that quotes statistics to figure out who or what agency is responsible for collecting data.

San Fernando Valley Statistics and Facts note explanation about the Valley and the difficulty in finding statistics about it since it is not a city. A great reference on that page is the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center, which complies all Valley data.

Statistics Search Engines: Note: very useful subject guides on right side of page for searching variety of stats, such as education, social services, and health related.

Government Sources of Statistics:

Government Reference Sources

State statistics on prisoner disability
Statistics of health problems regarding caffeine/what the law says about it

How to navigate through different sites obtaining information on cat/dog statistics in LA

Statistics/discrimination of people with disabilities or the focus on right-handedness

Statistics on Los Angeles

San Fernando Valley statistics on disabled housing

Government and Organizational Web Sites:

Google Advanced Search: use the exact wording search to find the most direct link to a government or organization's web site

U.S. Federal Government Web Sites:

California and Los Angeles Government Web Sites:
Legal Research Web Sites:

Best place to find educational test scores in the LAUSD: their web site. Look for media links which usually show reports of interest to the media.

Obtaining public school records: by district or County or State Boards of education

Data on child protective services

Finding regulatory agency budgets

Finding corporate information/ better way to navigate

Obtaining budget information/ CSUN’s SPACE program

Major League Baseball policies and procedures

State and federal rights against discrimination

Statistics on Los Angeles

2009-02-12T09:50:00.000-08:00

J 340: Principles of Public Relations
Spring 2009
Kathy Dabbour, COMS & Journalism Librarian

Introduction
Goal: Introduce to public relations research resources available to you.
Overview of Library home page
Overview of public relations home page http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/publicrelations.html

Overview of Periodical Indexes/Databases
Periodicals (magazines, newspapers, trade publications, and scholarly journals) are excellent sources of current and/or specific information for research projects.
It's a good idea to formulate a search strategy before using a periodical database.
The following databases use Boolean Logic (AND, OR, NOT) and truncation/wildcards symbols (*, ?, etc.) for combining keywords and phrases to locate articles on specific topics.
For a complete list of available databases, see Databases A-Z.
FYI, you can also connect to the Library's databases and full-text periodicals from off campus

General Periodical Sources
ABYZ Newspapers & News Media Guide

Los Angeles Times and the Daily News are best searched with Proquest Newspapers (cover later)

News + Current Issues includes links to many news databases, i.e., Sundial, Factiva, Lexis Nexis, etc. Can also search more than one at a time (except Lexis Nexis)

General Multi-subject Databases includes links to periodical databases that cover a variety of subject areas (can also search more than one at a time)

Specialized Periodical Sources for Public Relations Practice and Research
Communications and Mass Media Complete
Indexes and abstracts over 600 journals and trade publications; includes full text for over 240 journals. Subjects covered include journalism, public relations, mass media, photojournalism, communication studies, speech, linguistics, communicative disorders, deaf studies, advertising, and related areas of interest to practitioners and educators in these fields. Dates of coverage vary by journal. Use to look up stories about public relations, research.

Search #1:
public relations
8284 hits (too much!)
Keyword is good place to start, search a single word or phrase, but searching all mention of the words "public relations"not necessarily about PR

Search #2
SU public relations
5054 hits (better, still too much, now all articles about PR)
Subject, if matches database, more precise

Search #3
SU public relations and ( research or survey* or questionnaire* )
Add more keywords; use OR and * to expand
1394 hits (more keywords you add, less hits)

Search #4
SU public relations and ( research or survey* or questionnaire* )
Limiters - Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals

1176 hits (now limited to research journals)

Search #5
SU public relations and ( research or survey* or questionnaire* )
Limiters - Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals

Limit by Date of publication: 2000 - present
580 hits

Search #6
SU public relations and ( research or survey* or questionnaire* )
Limiters - Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals

Narrow by Geography: - UNITED States, if too much international
Date of publication: 2000 - present
217 hits (more manageable)

Look at full record
Print, Email, Save and choose citation style (APA, MLA)
Cite this article (warning that it is not perfect—check manual or library web site for examples)
Save to folder to do multiple citations at once

Locating Articles
Full text included, can print, email, save PDF or HTML
Find Text menu: links to full text in other databases if we have it; tells where we keep our print subscription if we have it
Interlibrary Loan if we don’t own at all

LexisNexis Academic
LN covers full text news, business, and legal sources. Out in the real world, law firms, etc., LN is different. We have LN “lite,” which is designed for the academic audience.

General Easy search tab (default):
Just searches words and phrases, like Google. No Boolean and, or, not or * like Ebsco. Limit by type of source to search and date as needed.
Searches news sources (Major U.S. & World Publications = mostly trades and newswires, some big city U.S. and international English language newspapers);
Non-English language news (languages covered include: German, Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian);
Newswire services (PR Newswire, Associated Press, Reuters, etc.);
Radio and television news broadcasts (cable, broadcast TV news; NPR radio, political campaign materials);
Blogs (related to politics, business, news, industry);
Company information;
Legal (court cases and laws)
Show how PR press releases are picked up in the newspapers, Blogs, and news broadcasts
Example: blackberry curve limited to previous year and newswires and blogs only
Show Results:
Link to a full text record
View: list, expanded, full
Select documents for later printing, etc.
Result group by category (type of source=news wires and press releases), subject (more relevant to search terms), company, geography, etc. for quick browsing
Print, email, save
Edit search to see how covered in the media
Change to Major U.S. and World Publications
Sources by category: newspapers (click + to expand list to specific newspaper titles)
Can also search transcripts, blogs

News tab: more specificity of sources, sections to search, public opinion polls, Spanish language, and legal news sources, etc. Allows use of Boolean (logical) connectors (and, or and not), greater specificity of information source than Easy Search, but still searching large groupings of publications; can also search by specific article section (headline, lead paragraph, byline, etc.)
Reminder: AND narrows search (all search terms must be present in a record): blackberry curve and verizon
Other narrower options than AND when searching anywhere in document (full text):
Within (good for narrowing big search results)
OR broadens search (any search term can be present in a record, enter in same box): Verizon or at&t or t-mobile
Truncation (!) at the root of a word broadens search (root word and any variation on the ending, however if you enter singular term automatically searches the simple plural):
AND Pric!
Sources tab: find publications by name, type, where they are published, and get information about the source. Use for your article about a political topic where you can’t use the LA Times, Daily News or NY Times.
Browse by publication type: News & Business
Filter by: Country (US), Region/State (Illinois), Pub type (news), Source (newspapers)
Select titles on list, use i icon to find out if it’s covering the dates you need, etc.
Click OK Continue button
Puts you into Power Search, can use Boolean logic, truncation, within, to search terms

Business tab: Search for information and news on public (trade on stock exchanges) and private companies, general business news under “news”
People tab: Search biographical information on famous people living and dead,

Legal tab: Allows searching law review journals, court cases, U.S. and state codes, Code of Federal Regulations, etc.

ProQuest Newspapers (back to general sources)
Full text newspaper database, only database that has the complete Los Angeles Times back to 1881, whereas Lexis only has the latest 6 months (you can get to the Times via their web site, but you will hit a point when you are asked to pay—use Proquest for complete coverage). Also has the Daily News back to 1995 and New York Times 1851- present

Uses Boolean logic like CMMC, similar look and feel.
Better regional coverage for U.S. newspapers than Lexis Nexis
Limit by document type (editorial, review, cover story, etc.), location of story, name of publication
Other databases available via Proquest to consider:
Ethnic Newswatch (ethnic press in the U.S., searchable by target ethnic group)
ABI Inform (business & industry periodicals)

Library Catalog
Locate books, media, government information, periodicals (by title) here at Oviatt Library.
Search books, media, and government information by author, title, keyword
Search periodicals by title of journal, newspaper, or magazine (good if you found something via Google and you are prompted to pay for it. Don’t do it!)

Reference Resources
Handbooks on conducting research, surveys, PR practices, etc.

The rest of the PR Research Resources web site
People, companies, places to find jobs, identify where to send a survey (also PR practice resources):
Directories of publications, PR firms, etc.
Biographical information sources
PR web sites
Business and industry sources
Facts, opinions, statistics
PR practice (background information related to markets, reference bookshelf items)
Note public opinion polls web site could help with your survey assignment for examples of how to word questions on various topics
Citation style guides has cheat sheets for citing in APA and MLA style, including how to cite articles you found in library databases

2009-01-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

Journalism 210
Spring 2009
Library Session on Databases & Internet Resources
Kathy Dabbour, Journalism Librarian

http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/journalism.html

1. Library Web site overview: http://library.csun.edu
a) Library Catalog: books, periodicals, media, government documents, includes links to online subscriptions, electronic books, etc.
b) Find Articles and Research Data: overview of relevant categories for journalism: news, general, law, other subjects.
c) Databases A-Z: go directly to databases I am going to demo.
d) How to do Library Research: search tips, strategies, citation styles, avoiding plagiarism
e) Ask a Librarian: online chat service, etc.
f) Quick search forms
g) Inter library Loan: For books and articles not held by the Oviatt Library, request an inter library loan or search http://www.worldcat.org to see if other local libraries have the books, periodicals, media you need

2. Journalism Research web page overview: http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/journalism.html
a) Will not use all of these sources for this class.
b) Why not just Google or use Wikipedia for everything? Library databases provide access to reputable, credible sources that are prescreened by known publishers and editors. When you work as a journalist, this is important for presenting information accurately and objectively. You will likely have access to information sources via your news outlet’s library or research department. If not, public libraries provide remote access to databases, too.

3. Facts, Opinions, and Statistics (selected):
http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/journalism.html#facts
The following web sites can lead you to facts, opinions, statistics, and background information to support your news gathering and research.
a) American Factfinder (Population, housing, economic, and geographic data from the U.S. Census. Use their tutorials to learn more.)
b) Electronic Reference Books (encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, etc.)
c) Government Information: Federal, State, Local, International
d) Government Reference Sources (Links to federal sources of statistics and other information on crime, legal, business, education, etc. topics)
e) National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)
f) News on the Web
g) NewsBank Special Reports (Focus on topics of current interest, including current and background information, statistics, maps, images, web sites, and suggested search terms. Updated daily.)
h) Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center (Focus on controversial topics. In addition to periodical articles, includes primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to Web sites. Note: Only two users can search this database at the same time! Public Opinion Polls and Surveys
i) Public Records Directory
j) RefDesk.com--Reference, Facts, News
k) San Fernando Valley Statistics & Facts
l) Statistical Data Sources

4. Government, Political, and Legal Web Sites (selected):
General
http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/journalism.html#legal
A. Legal Research Sources (Links to federal, state, and local sources of legislative, judicial, and administrative law.)
B. California and Local
C. United States

5. Business and Industry Sources
http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/journalism.html#biz
See also my PR page with more places to look for information on business and industry.
These web sites will lead you to sources of information about companies and industries.

6. General Periodical Sources: Helpful for background information for stories, familiarizing yourself with news publications: http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/journalism.html#gen

A. News + Current Issues databases http://library.csun.edu/xerxes/databases/NewsCurrentIssues
1. LexisNexis Academic
a) Lexis Nexis Academic is a “periodical database” etc.: searchable database that provides access to articles by keywords, author, journal title, etc. that often includes summaries and full text.
b) LN covers full text news sources including U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, transcripts of radio and television news broadcasts, newswire services (Associate Press, Reuters, etc.), and blogs. Also provides full text business and legal information, including court cases and laws from the federal government and states.
1) General Easy search tab (default): Searches news sources, some business and limited legal. Just searches words and phrases. Limit by type of source to search and date as needed.
2) Example: officer involved shooting limited to previous month and default sources
3) Show Results:
4) Link to a full text record
5) View: list, expanded, full
6) Select documents for later printing, etc.
7) Result group by category (type of source), subject (more relevant to search terms), geography, etc. for quick browsing
8) Link to full text
9) Print, email, save
10) Bottom of full text record: Find documents with similar topics:
11) Edit search and search in news transcripts (narrow search term still listed)
12) Result group by category and show specific subjects, type of source, etc.
13) Information button provides detail about sources being searched
14) Edit search and add los angeles to show adding other keywords narrows down
c) General Power search tab: Allows use of Boolean (logical) connectors (and, or and not), greater specificity of information source than Easy Search, but still searching large groupings of publications; can also search by specific article section (headline, lead paragraph, byline, etc.)
1) Explain Boolean logic and truncation
2) AND narrows search (all search terms must be present in a record): officer AND shooting
3) w/p, w/5, etc. narrower than “and”: officer w/p shooting
4) OR broadens search (any search term can be present in a record): officer OR police
5) Truncation (!) at the root of a word broadens search (root word and any variation on the ending, however if you enter singular term automatically searches the simple plural): shoot!
6) (officer or police) w/p shoot! w/p los angeles
d) News tab: more specificity of sources, sections to search, public opinion polls, Spanish language, and legal news sources, etc.
e) Legal tab: Allows searching law review journals, court cases, U.S. and state codes, Code of Federal Regulations, etc.
f) Business tab: Search for information and news on public (trade on stock exchanges) and private companies, general business news under “news”
g) People tab: Biographical information on famous people living and dead, Barak Obama as an example to show objectivity of sources, basic facts.
h) Sources tab: Can browse or search specific publications or create your own group of publications to search.

2. ProQuest Newspapers
a) Full text newspaper database, only database that has the complete Los Angeles Times back to 1881, whereas Lexis only has the latest 6 months (you can get to the Times via their web site, but you will hit a point when you are asked to pay—use ProQuest for complete coverage).
b) Also has the Daily News back to 1995 and New York Times 1851- present
c) Demonstrate current newspapers, multi-database vs. historical
d) Sample searches:
1) Los Angeles riot (name of a historical event)
a. Limit to 1992
2) Los Angeles AND riot
3) Limit to 04/29/1992 (no hits—too early)
4) Limit to 04/30/1992 (articles begin to appear)
5) Limit to Los Angeles Times
6) Los Angeles AND riot* (truncation)
7) (Los Angeles OR Rodney King) AND riot*
8) Show results.
9) Click on More Search Options and select “Document Type”: Editorial.

3. Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch (Proquest)
a) Covers the ethnic press, gender-related periodicals.
b) These databases may provide different viewpoints, report issues not covered in the “mainstream” press.
c) Can also search simultaneously with Proquest Newspapers.

4. Countrywatch
a) News and background information on 192 countries

B. General + Multi-Subject databases: http://library.csun.edu/xerxes/databases/GeneralMultiSubject
1. Gale Power Search
a) Magazines, scholarly journals, reference books, Opposing Viewpoints
b) Uses Boolean (logical) connectors (and, or, not)
i. (affirmative action) AND (college* OR universit*) AND admission*
c) View results tabs:
1) Magazines includes news magazines
2) Academic includes scholarly, peer-reviewed journals
3) News includes newspapers, newswires
4) Multimedia includes transcripts, podcasts
5) Books includes encyclopedia articles, government documents, Opposing Viewpoints
d) Find Text

7. Finding Books:
A. Books may be searched in the Library Catalog by author, title, Library of Congress Subject Heading or keyword.
B. To see a list of specific Library of Congress Subject Headings, from the Library Catalog's Basic search page, perform a Subject search on the word "journalism," or "public relations," or "photojournalism" etc., and click on the "related subjects" link.
C. For books not held by the Oviatt Library, request an Interlibrary Loan or search WorldCat to see if other local libraries have the books you need.

8. Reference Resources
(Note: Location: REF RM in the library catalog refers to the Reference Room on the main floor, Oviatt Library. For serial publications, earlier editions are usually found on the upper floors of the Library or in storage.)
Directories
Handbooks & Stylebooks
Encyclopedias
Biographical Research

Kathy Dabbour
Communication Studies & Journalism Librarian
http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/
kathy.dabbour@csun.edu
(818) 677-4706

COMS 600 Library Lecture

2008-09-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

Since there was a log of information presented, I thought I would share my lecture notes:

COMS 600 Library Instruction Session
Fall 2008

Goal: Introduce resources and search strategies for locating quality information sources for graduate-level COMS research.

Introduce the Library home page http://library.csun.edu/

Introduce Communication Studies Research page http://library.csun.edu/kdabbour/comsresearch.html

Background resources:
Encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, statistics links can be used for background information needed for the interdisciplinary nature of COMS—can’t be an expert in everything. These will explain terms, theories, provide statistics, facts, etc.
Periodicals:
Definition of peer-reviewed journals.
Popular press used for news, secondary source explanations, depends on research needs.
Periodical Databases:
Communication & Mass Media Complete—Indexes and abstracts over 400 journals. Subjects covered include communication studies, journalism, mass media, speech, linguistics, communicative disorders, deaf studies, advertising, and related areas of interest to practitioners and educators in these fields. Dates of coverage vary by journal.

Demonstrate brainstorming topics, Boolean AND, OR & truncation.
Sample topic: Rhetorical criticism of elections
Rhetoric of elections [1 record] (explain exact phrase searching)
Rhetoric AND elections (explain AND needed in library databases)
Point out “narrow results by subject” and use to narrow search results, click on Presidential elections, etc.
Subject thesaurus terms: can click to add or use to manually add synonyms to search boxes with OR
Rhetoric AND (elections OR campaigns) (explain OR to add synonyms)
Rhetoric* AND (election* OR campaign*) (explain truncation)
Rhetoric* AND (election* OR campaign*) AND president* (adding AND to focus)
Look at full records to explain additional subject headings and use of controlled vocabulary.
Can limit to peer-reviewed or click Academic Journals in the left nav bar.
Locating articles:
Linked full text
Find Text -- online via other library databases, hardcopy record listed in catalog, interlibrary loan if not available
Inter-Library Loan
Search history allows you to revisit previous searches, display results, and revise the search: what we learned together: the little triangle next to the link to search history toggles it on/off (click the triangle to return to your live search)
Show other databases in Ebsco database menu, including Academic Search Elite, Library & Info Sci & Technology Abstracts, etc. that can be searched simultaneously with CMMC.

5. Other periodical databases:
· Multisearch Communication Studies: Search up to 10 databases from any vendor simultaneously.
· Sage Journals: 20+ communication studies journals,
· Review other databases and coverage on the comsresearch.html list and why one would use them.
· For example: Ethnic Newswatch: rhetoric* AND (election* OR campaign*) AND president* limited to Hispanic press
6. Books, media, government documents:
· Library catalog
· Sample library of congress subject headings from comsresearch.html
· Keyword searching vs. subject headings (LCSH)
· Sample search for this topic: rhetoric* AND (election* OR campaign*) AND president* [choose Communication in the presidential primaries : candidates and the media, 1912-2000 to show LCSH=Rhetoric -- Political aspects -- United States]
· Interlibrary loan
7. Determine which journals the Library has by title using the library catalog
8. Worldcat.org: see what else is out there.
9. COMS theses and dissertations:
10. Internet:
· Review other search engines besides Google, advanced Google searching

Google scholar preferences--set to search CSUN library to see if we have it
· Evaluating web sites based on authority, etc.
11. Review citation style cheat sheets
12. Point out plagiarism avoidance web pages