The Unpublished Post, Finally Published?!

If I were to select three of the most helpful things that I’ve learned throughout the course, I believe that it would have to be:

  • Basic Searches — using AND/OR, quotation marks, parentheses, the asterisk (*), etc.
  • Finding sources using various keywords, databases, etc.
  • Creating a research question and further developing the question into a more specific question.

Basic Searches are crucial in terms of using a search engine because they basically inform the search engine what to sort out/find for the user.  I find it to be important because prior to my findings in this class, I had no clue that simple words like “and/or” would make a difference in a simple search.

Finding sources helped me in the sense that it taught me that there were multiple resources available to me now that I’m a college student (i.e. databases, keywords, etc.).  It helped me realize that you don’t have to specifically search for information directly on your topic, but you can research on topics relating to your topic.

Creating a research question feels critical to me for future research papers and other projects to come.

I wish that we had spent more time on evaluating sources for how authoritative the author is, the quality of the research/material presented in the articles, and the relevance to our research questions and how to apply them to our work.

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3 things I learned/What I wish we spent more time on – Helder

1. One of the things we learned in class that I think will be very useful in the future is how to search for sources on a database so that the best sources are found. Using and/or in your search terms is a very useful way to narrow down your search results to find a specific source. I think I will use this approach when doing future research projects.

2. Another thing we learned in class that I will consider in the future is the authority of authors. Knowing if the author of a source you found is popular and has good credentials is important to determining if it is good source.

3. Another thing I think is valuable is all of the databases we learned how to use. I didn’t know these databases even existed.

I wish we spent more time on the history of Google and its development.

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Most important things I learned in Lib1015

1)  I had learned how to use sources using the BEAM model. I learned to use sources appropriately.

2) The way to search a database using advanced search terms. I also learned methods on how to narrow my searches on library databases.

3) I had learned the way to find a narrow focused, unbiased research question.

I wish we had spent more time using more databases.

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This semester

The three things that were most helpful to me were developing a topic, focusing the research question, and authority of authors. Developing a topic is helpful because sometimes the most helpful thing to do is just draw a concept map and try to get ideas from it, it can be a starting point. Focusing the research topic will be important in the future when I will be writing longer research papers. It will be helpful to have a focused question rather than a broad question that needs a lot of information to answer. Authority of authors will be useful because professors need to see if the sources you used will be credible.

One thing I wish we spent more time on was going more in depth for in the databases.

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Yevgen- 3 things I enjoyed about the class.

Write your own blog post here that answers these two questions:

What three things that you learned this semester about doing research have been the most useful to you (or are likely to be the most useful to you)? Please explain why for each of those things.

Amongst all the useful research related info that I’ve absorbed in this class, I find the “basic search”, “focusing research questions”, and “evaluating the quality of sources” most interesting. I use basic search quarries on a daily bases. This class enhanced my use of the “and” and “or” terms in my searches. I know when and how to utilize each to get the maximum amount of relevant search results. I learned to create interesting research questions, that go indepth, and allow me to professionally assess my topics. I also now know how to evaluate sources for relevance, accuracy, and reputability.
What is one thing that you wish we had spent more time covering in class or that we failed to get to in class? Why do you wish we had gotten to that?

I think that we should have spent more time discussing Google’s algorithms and procedures that allow us to efficeently utilize their search services.

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Class Evaluation

1. What three things that you learned this semester about doing research have been the most useful to you (or are likely to be the most useful to you)? Please explain why for each of those things.

Three things that I learned so far during this semester are how to use a database correctly, search more effectively, and develop a well organized research question.

2. What is one thing that you wish we had spent more time covering in class or that we failed to get to in class? Why do you wish we had gotten to that?

I wish we could of had more Google days.

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Research

Throughout this semester I’ve learned many things about doing research. Three things that I feel that will be most useful to me is searching with the terms And/Or, learning about the many databases of information there are, and using concept maps to organize and branch out our ideas.

One thing that I wished we had spent more on is weaving out which databases are the most efficient.

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Class Review Questions

  1. What three things that you learned this semester about doing research have been the most useful to you (or are likely to be the most useful to you)? Please explain why for each of those things.
  2. What is one thing that you wish we had spent more time covering in class or that we failed to get to in class? Why do you wish we had gotten to that?

1) One of the three things that I found most useful to me was the “and vs or” tip. It really helped me find more specific searches instead of just typing every little bit of information I could find into the search bar. It is something that I’ve begun to use everyday when using Google and I can actually see the difference in my search results. Another thing that I found useful were the library databases. At the beginning of the semester, I did not expect to use the databases this much but was surprised at how much information it provided. Without this class, I probably would not have known what they were or how to use them. I can see myself coming back to them for future research references. The last thing that I found extremely useful in this class was the importance of going back to our work and revising it constantly. Usually I just hand in work as soon as I’m done and put minimal effort in looking it over but because of the constant revision we had to do with our research question, it allowed me to appreciate the importance of proofreading. Many of these things have benefited me in this class and can be used outside of this class as well.

2) I wish we spent more time discussing the company itself. I know that this was a research class and we were learning how to use Google efficiently for research but I did enjoy the videos from the Google representatives when they explained how things worked. Google is such a big company and there is a lot to learn about it. It was really interesting learning how the workers came up with the aspects of the search engine and how they are still working to make it better. Maybe there should be a class dedicated to the history of search engines!

 

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What Library Class has taught me

  1.  The things that have been most useful for me this semester are the focused research question, using the databases, and the and vs. or for basic search. Before I was not aware that the primary objective of a research question is not to just sum up information from various sources, but rather use this information to come up with a conclusion of my own. The research question must therefore be very focused and specific, and this class has taught me how to do this. The databases were helpful because I probably would not known how to get the most out of them by using all the different features they have, to find the exact article or book that I am looking for. The basic searches were also very helpful, seeing as how I now know what keywords to use and how to use them so that I can get the best possible results.
  2. I wish we had spent more time on going over the differences between peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed articles, because at times I could still feel myself get confused between them.
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3 Things That Were Most Useful to Me~

The 3 things that were most useful to during this semester on how to do research was using AND/OR to target a specific info I wanted out of it. Another thing was how to evaluate source whether they were scholarly or not. Lastly, was how to use the advanced search on databases and such to make my search more refined. These were one of the few that were most useful for me to use during the whole semester.

  • I wish we could of discussed more about peer-reviewed articles and such, I didn’t really fully understand how to identify it till I found out that there was an option for it.
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