Library Skills Program Finding Encyclopedias in Print and Online NAME: CLASS: DATE: This exercise shows you how to find articles from encyclopedias in print and online. Why would you want to find encyclopedia articles? Some students find they are acceptable alternatives to Wikipedia because they give you a broad overview of a topic but come from credible sources. So, let s say you are taking a science class and have to write a paper on the planet Venus. But you don t know very much about this topic. You can get background information by reading an encyclopedia article. Start by going to the reference section of the library. Once you re in the reference section, you ll see the library s collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, etc. Let s begin with the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Here s the call number: Ref Q121. M3 2012. The image below and the call number should help you find the book in the reference section. If you re at the Mahoney library, the books may have a different cover. If you have problems finding it, ask a reference librarian. We want to help! Libraries 1 November 2013
How many volumes does this encyclopedia have? Is there an index in a separate volume? (Circle one): YES NO Now, look at the range of letters. You can find the right volume for an article on your topic by using the range of letters. The articles in each volume are alphabetized. To try this out, find the volume that has an article on Venus. What is volume number for the book with the article on Venus? What is the range of letters for the book with the article on Venus? Now let s find the entry for Venus. How many pages is the entry? Does it contain illustrations or images? You ll notice that there isn t an article on Venus in relationship to mythology or art because this is a specialized encyclopedia, focusing on only science and technology. For the second part of this exercise, imagine you re taking an English class and need to write a paper on Shakespeare. This time, you don t have the name of an encyclopedia to start with. But you can find a reference book on this topic by using Smart Search. Go to the library s homepage and make sure that the Smart Search tab is highlighted. Next, type in the topic: Shakespeare. Click on GO. 2
How many search results were there for this topic: All of these results are NOT from reference books, though. You can limit your search to reference books by using the location limiter. Look at the column on the left hand side of the screen and scroll down to this heading: Location. Click on Location to find a list. Then, check the box for Doyle Reference if you re in Santa Rosa or Mahoney Reference if you re in Petaluma. How many results do you have now? Choose one of the titles, and write down its call number: 3
Now, find the book on the shelf. Ask a librarian if you need help using the call number to find the book. We are here to help you! Notice the other book titles next to the book you chose. These books will be on the same or on similar topics because call numbers allow us to group books by subject. Write down the title of another reference book on Shakespeare in the space below: For the last part of the exercise, you will learn to access online reference books. This allows you to search multiple books at once for articles on your topic. This is an excellent option when you are at home, although you will need to login with your student ID. Need another reason to try online reference books? Students have described the library s online reference books as Wikipedia but with good sources. Unlike Wikipedia, you ll see who wrote the articles. And you can search many encyclopedias at the same time. To try this out, go back to the library s home page. Click on Find E-Book Collections. You ll be directed to a page where E-Book collections are written in an alphabetical list. Scroll and click on Gale Virtual Reference Library. You will be sent to a new page with a search box. Type in your topic: social media. How many results did you get? Take a moment to look at your results. Each result will include important information about the articles you ve found, such as the author, the title of the article, and the title of the book. This will help ensure that the information has been fact-checked. 4
Review your result list. Choose an article to answer the following questions: What is the title of the article? What is the title of the book? List one author OR editor. Click on the title of the article. You can now read it. Notice that the article provides an overview of the topic. It does offer an opinion or analysis. This is typical of articles from reference books. In the space below, list one reason why your instructors would prefer you to use an online reference book instead of Wikipedia: Congratulations! By completing this assignment, you have learned how to Find articles in print encyclopedias Use a limiter in Smart Search to find print reference books on a topic Use the call number to find reference books in print Access an online collection of reference E-Books Find online articles from reference E-Books Find the article title, book title, authors and editors for reference E-books Retrieve articles from reference E-Books 5