Absolutely! In fact, librarians are relieved when students find government websites for projects and research. Why? Government websites, unlike a lot of what you might find on the web, are credible and trustworthy. How can you tell if a website is credible? Lots of ways! Let’s take a look at a few things you should consider:
1) Who wrote or compiled the information?
Is there an author listed or can you easily identify the organization that published the information? Or…is it anonymous? If you can’t find the author or the organization that published the material, it might be time to move on to another source.
2) Can you find information about the author(s) or the organization?
Are there credentials listed after the author’s name? Or can you easily find additional information about the agency or organization? Look for indications of authority such as a PhD, MD, MS, or other letters indicating that the author has evidence of completing a higher education or graduate degree. Also, look for affiliations with a university or government organization.
3) Can you independently verify the information presented?
Can you trace the information presented back to its original source? Where is the author or organization getting the information? If you can’t verify the information—you got it—it might be time to move on to another source.
4) Do they cite their sources?
This goes hand-in-hand with independently verifying the information presented. Does the source cite a particular study, but doesn’t give any other information about the study? Is there a reference list at the bottom or are references cited throughout the website?
5) How does it compare to other information you find?
Does the source talk about the topic in a new way that you’ve never encountered? Is it so out there that you can’t find other sources that talk about it in the same manner? Remember to think critically and take care when selecting your sources.
These steps give the researcher—you—even more reasons for finding and using government websites in your research. Want to get started using government information on the web? Click here to get started. Also, check out the links below for more information about evaluating websites and other information you find on the web.
Citing government documents can be tricky. They are published in many different formats, including Congressional committee reports, Federal regulations, public laws, and more. But that should not stop you from using, and properly citing, a government document in your paper or listing it in your sources cited. The challenges of citing a government document may stem from the fact that government entities do not always conform to standard publishing guidelines. A title may vary, even in the same document; the copyright date may not be included; or any one of a number of other discrepancies may pop up when it’s you are trying to complete your bibliography. Purdue’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) provides guidelines for simple government citations. But if your sources are more complex, check these online and print options:
MLA handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Call # LB2369 .G53 2009. Copies located in the first floor reference collection and from Library Help on the second floor.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Call # BF76.7 .P83 2010. Copies located in the first floor reference collection and from Library Help on the second floor.
Don’t forget, you can stop by the 2nd floor for Library Help or Ask a Librarian during the hours when the desk is staffed.
Did you know that K-State Libraries has been a depository library since 1907? And what, you might ask, is a depository library? The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) was established by Congress in the 1800s to ensure the public’s access to information about government activities. More than 1,200 U.S. libraries currently participate in the program, eighteen of which are scattered throughout Kansas in private and public colleges and universities as well as in public libraries.
As a participant, K-State receives publications—books, magazines, pamphlets, maps, and more—for free, from the Government Printing Office (GPO), which we agree to make available to the public. Most of K-State’s print government documents collection is located in Stack F; maps and microforms are stored in the white metal cabinets on the third floor. More and more government documents are available electronically and can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection.
One way to determine if your OPAC search results include government publications is to check the Location field for any inclusion of the word government. Another clue will be the call number. Unlike most of the Libraries resources, government resources do not use the Library of Congress Classification (LC) system, but are organized by SuDoc (Superintendent of Documents) numbers—we’ll talk about that in another post.
A SuDoc number for a government agriculture resource might look like this:
A 1.2:C83/12
But an LC call number for a non-government agriculture resource might look more like this:
S441 .J247 2010
It can get a little confusing, but just remember, help is never far away. Every depository library appoints a coordinator whose responsibilities include helping users locate government documents. K-State’s coordinator is Regina Beard (rmbeard@k-state.edu). Give her a shout if you need some help. And, of course, you can always Ask a librarian!
~Regina Beard
Sources
Keeping America Informed. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1999, Print. Government Printing Office, About GPO, access December 22, 2011.
While we've been moving one million volumes here in Hale Library, RefWorks, my favorite citation management system, has been housecleaning and renovating. And they still have a few projects in the pipeline.
Shifting away from GroupCodes. Remember how you needed to enter that code for RefWorks or Write-n-Cite if you were off-campus? Not for much longer! Instead, RefWorks is using our account information to match us to our universities.
As part of this change, some of us at K-State received an email this morning saying that an account's username had been changed to our email address. If you are like me, you may have had a tiny little stress attack because you have more than one account. It's ok, you still do! The accounts that get this message haven't been used in more than 18 months. When I read the email more closely, the original account name is provided, so I vaguely remembered which one they were talking about. You should still be able to log into your other active accounts as you always have.
Wondering just how many RefWorks accounts you have floating out there? On the RefWorks login page, you can click on "Forgot Your Login Information." Enter your email address and you will shortly receive an email that lists all of the RefWorks usernames and passwords associated with that account. Please note, if you have a shared account (like with other researchers on a team), you may not see that one listed if someone else's email was used to create it.
Write-N-Cite 4--Yes, version 4! For once, Mac has leap-frogged ahead of Windows with Write-N-Cite, so you can update your Write-N-Cite if you are a Mac user, but have to wait a few more weeks if you have a Windows machine. I have WNC4 on my Mac at home and already love it. Remember the funky placeholders? Gone. Now you see the formatted citation right away. It also handles footnotes much better. Also, WNC4 is now a toolbar (Mac) or ribbon (Windows) in Word and once you've connected, it stores your account information, including citations, in Word. You can log out if you want, like if you share yoru computer.
Unfortunately, WNC4 wasn't released until after the updates to the computer labs at the beginning of the semester. This means that if you are in the InfoCommons, you will still use WNCIII on the Windows machines and WNC v.2.5 on the Macs this spring semester.
RefWorks 2.0 -- if you haven't played with RefWorks in the past 12-18 months, the whole interface is sparkling new. And orange, very orange. Still you can see your folders and references faster and even create subfolders. Plus, clicking on a link to a reference doesn't take you away from your workspace, it just opens a smaller window. Learn more by watching this demo of RefWorks 2.0.
With all of these changes, we're working on a new RefWorks help center. It's not ready for primetime, yet. Hopefully we'll be able to make it live in the next few weeks.
Public Speaking Library Days will forever be branded in my brain as Hammer Time. I understand that amuses only me. But, you know what, MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This makes me so happy, I'm going to play it for you now.
Seriously, each time I stood in front of you to talk about evaluating sources, I imagined you all in parachute pants--and you totally rocked them, by the way. But enough about my issues, let’s talk about yours.
You have a speech coming up. A speech that requires evidence. Maybe, even now, as visions of turkey (or tofurkey) dance in your head, you are gamely working away at exploring your brilliant topic and searching for the high quality evidence that you know exists. Because wouldn’t Fall Break and Thanksgiving be a little package of bliss if you knew you had your research all tied up before heading home? If only you could remember all the ways to search and evaluate your sources that the librarian talked about. Excuse me while I save your day!
First, remember everything that we covered (and more, much, much more!) is all wrapped up for you in a happy package we call the Public Speaking Class Guide.
Second, you can do your online research from anywhere that you have the Internet. When you are off-campus, you’ll just be asked for your K-State eID and password. If you’ve headed home without that final piece of evidence, do a little research while the rest of your family dozes in a food coma.
Third, leave your assumptions (or argument) at the door. Start your research by getting the lay of the land and then narrowing it down. If my argument is that zombies will save the world, I’m going to start out by searching for information about zombies in general before narrowing my research down to their savior-like qualities. This way, I can discover any unique or alternate keywords that I can plunk in a database, like ”living dead” and “reanimated corpse.” Perhaps I learn that zombies is a term used in the banking and computer industries, and neither scenario involves eating brains--now I know that every article about zombies may not be relevant to my topic. I may also discover that I can't find any articles talking about zombies as saviors, but I can find articles about how someone saves the world, and other articles about zombie behavior. Put the two together and you have just recreated the moment when two strangers accidentally mixed chocolate and peanut butter to create an amazing taste sensation. (*Sigh* watch this for an explanation.) Honestly, the cool thing about research in college is that you don't have to repeat someone else's ideas, you can combine them in new and interesting ways to create new knowledge and ideas.
Fourth, search these favorite databases:
LexisNexis Academic--news sources from around the world. Not sure whether the Variety has the same reputation for covering U.S. politics as the Washington Post? Take a look at the “i” you’ll find at the bottom of every article (no, keep going, allllll the way at the bottom of the article). Click on the ‘i” to learn everything LexisNexis knows about the news outlet.
ProQuest Research Library--we love it because it covers most research topics. And it breaks down your search results by publication type:
scholarly journals
trade journals
magazines
plus a few newswires and sometimes reports Remember, a trade journal is written for someone working in a certain field, like a nurse. A magazine is written at a level for anyone to pick up at the magazine stand and read while waiting for the bus. If you are researching techniques for bandaging wounds after battling zombies, that article in Journal of Community Nursing, a trade journal, is probably going to be more medically accurate than that parenting magazine about bandaging a playground owie. Other cool things about ProQuest:
It suggests topics for you
It includes a "Cite this" link for every article. Guess what it does?
CQ Researcher--my go-to database for major policy topics in the United States. CQ stands for Congressional Quarterly and these one topic reports have been published by CQ and read by senators, lobbyists, lawyers, and more since 1928. There are surprisingly few reports about zombies, but you will find loads of information about college tuition, drinking age, taxes, and more.
Fifth, be strategic. Find a good source, not just the first source. Read through the entire article to make sure it actually says what you think it says. Read several sources so you have context. What sounded perfectly reasonable in the first article may be contradicted by another two articles. Reading multiple sources helps you train your Spidey-sense so you can critically evaluate information--or at least be aware that experts disagree, and why.
Sixth, we focused on articles during Library Days, but your topic may call for other types of evidence. Try some books, locate statistics, or try to search the Internet for quality sources. Maybe a map is what you need, or maybe just a database that covers a more specific topic.
Last, but certainly not least, Ask a Librarian. Whether you find your answer by searching our Frequently Asked Questions or you IM a librarian, don't wait until you're stressed. If you are puzzled or perplexed, just ask!
Often during discussions about Open Access there is a group that is overlooked. Usually Open Access is declared a librarian thing. Maybe it'll even be considered a faculty thing. And while free and open access to information is a library thing and a faculty thing, we all tend to forget it isn't just those. Students do research, too. Open Access is and should be as important to students as it is to faculty and librarians.
Whether you're an Expos student working on an investigative report or a grad student researching your doctorate, you need information. You need access to the endless amounts of research that countless others before you have generated and published, whether it's the latest in biofuel research or archaeological find in the Flint Hills. And helping to connect you with the information you need is what Open Access Week is all about: free and unfettered access to the research and data you need for your own work.
While there currently isn't a student association at K-State affiliated with R2RC don't despair! You can still be an Open Access advocate here at K-State. If you are writing a paper to publish, check out OA journals in your field to publish in. Talk with your professors to see if they're publishing their research in OA journals and advocate they do so. Deposit your scholarly work in K-REx and suggest your classmates and faculty do so as well. Use articles from OA journals in your research. Or check out the R2RC webinar that we will be showing on Wednesday at 11am in Hale 301.
And, while you're at it, take a look at the Special Merit video from the Sparky Awards by a group of students at Boston University.
As you begin settling into your routine for the semester, you should know about a special "class" in your K-State Online class organizer (KSOL). It's called "Research Help at K-State Libraries," and everybody on campus has access to it. Don't worry if you've never seen it before; you haven't missed a class and you aren't being charged!
Research Help at K-State Libraries is your portal to the Libraries through KSOL. It's a quick way to access and start your research, and is loaded with tools, tips, and apps that will make your scholarly work a little easier. Let's jump in and look at what's available to you.
The first thing you'll see when clicking on the Research Help image is our dashboard. This is the main page where you can find Library hours, quick links to writing and citing tutorials, and some great search tools to begin your research projects.
On the left, you will find the Assignment Planner App where you can get a jumpstart on your research projects. Just enter the due date of your project/paper and viola! --- the planner will create a timeline for your research process, including when to refine your topic, use library resources, and write your final draft. You can even set up email reminders to ensure that you meet the deadlines! The Assignment Planner is a great way to help yourself avoid the last minute scramble to get your project done. (Trust us, your instructors can tell...).
Don't know where to begin your research project? A great place to start is the Find It window. Here we've linked to several of our best general databases where you can find those scholarly articles your instructors want to see. You can even search ProQuest right here in your K-State Online organizer using the ProQuest search widget. If you're looking for books or other physical materials in the Libraries, there is also a link to our catalog.
We also have specialized pages specifically for many of the large classes here on campus, like Public Speaking and Expository writing, as well as pages for distance students and international students. Take some time to explore the resources created specifically for you!
We also have resources to help you with writing your papers and citing your sources. Believe it or not, librarians really love citations and bibliographies, and we've gathered some of our favorite tools here to help make your life a little easier.
You can also check today's Library building hours and librarian hours (when you can get in-person help from a librarian). If you can't make it to the Library but need help finding an article or have another research-related question, you can chat with a librarian using our IM service. Just type in your question during librarian hours, and you'll be connected to a librarian who can help.
So as the semester progresses and your instructors begin to assign your projects, remember the Research Help at K-State Libraries class in your K-State Online organizer. It's your one-stop online research shop where you can find the tools and resources that make your life a little easier.
RefWorks users may notice something a little different when logging into RefWorks starting today. The colors are bright and shiny. Buttons and links are slightly reorganized. You can see your folder listed at the right side of the screen (and hide them if you want!).
The vast majority of changes are simply to the interface. You should notice:
A new orange and blue color scheme.
When you edit a ciation, add a new references, create folders and such a new, small window will appear in front of your original screen. Do your work, save it, X out of the small window and you're back to where you started.
You can see a list of your folders on the right hand side of the screen. There are also links to tutorials and your account statistics in the same bar. If you want more working space on your screen, you can click an arrow and "close" the bar
One new function you may love: subfolders! Use the Create Folder button to create folders and subfolders. It's fun for the whole family.
You can revert to RefWorks Classic by clicking on the link in the upper right corner of the screen. RefWorks Classic will be available through 2011.
Write-N-Cite remains the same, although we've heard that they're working on new versions for Windows and Macs!
If you have about 5 minutes, here's a quick introduction to the new interface.
We will be offereing RefWorks classes this semester if you're looking for a refresher or are new to RefWorks.
Do you know the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britian? Still puzzling over the best use of Venn diagrams? I think this video will solve both of your problems.
Today's researchers need a little hot steel mind lightning*. In fact, if you insert "hot steel mind lightning" for "research" in the sentence, "I need to go to the library and get some research," college life becomes exponentially more interesting.
Hot steel mind lightning, I'll note, is more than an awesome phrase. It's a reality. If you want to streamline your research process and be in constant contact with the millions of resources at K-State Libraries, then find a little hot steel mind lightning via the inocuous seeming LibX toolbar.
The LibX toolbar is a plug-in for the Firefox and IE browsers (sorry Safari!) With the toolbar, you can always search our catalog, hook into our databases, and Ask a Librarian. Well, you can ask a librarian during our service hours. If it's 3:00 a.m., we're probably all at our various homes, asleep. Want to see the hot steel mind lightning in action? Watch this video**!
*A big shout out and full credit to Chad Pape, a former K-State Libraries' colleague, who coined the phrase, "hot steel mind lightning" (or at least popularized it amongst our coterie) lo, these many years ago. Of course, Chad also proposed that all library classes be taught by clowns. Evening and weekend classes would be taught by "sad clowns." That's an idea that hasn't yet found its time.
**I'll apologize right now for the annoying bit when I'm in Google Scholar, bouncing around the screen. I'd edit it out, but I'm using a fantastic, and free, tool called Jing to record and I don't have editing powers with my version.
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