The librarian is: BLOGGING | Journalism Library, Columbia University

The Journalism Library Blog has MOVED! This site is no longer being updated as of July 2009. Come find us at our new location:

https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/journalism

See you there!

Library resources for MA students, handouts from Evidence and Inference course, Fall 2008 -

• Columbia
• Beyond Columbia

World Wide Web is a composite collection of content created and hosted on the internet by millions of organizations and individuals. In order to effectively evaluate information that you find on the internet, consider the following criteria:

Authorship -

• Who wrote this? As Peter Steiner said, “On the Internet,
  Nobody Knows You’re a Dog”
• Is the author an expert in the field?
• What are author’s affiliations?
• Who is the sponsor or publishing body of the site?

Currency -

• Is the information provided timely? This is particularly important in areas of science, technology, health, and politics.
• Is publication date or “last updated” date included with the information?
• If the information is dated or historical, does the document refer to the source and year, e.g. “Based on 1990 U.S. Census data”?

Objectivity -

• Does the author or web page sponsor have a bias?
• Is more than one viewpoint expressed on the topic?
• Does the author or publishing body have a particular agenda?

Coverage -

• Is the information freely available?
• Is the site complete or under construction?
• Does the information have a print equivalent?

Accuracy/Verifiability -

• Does the information include references to experts in the field or rely on other sources?
• Does the information include a bibliography?
• Was an explanation offered on how the data was gathered and interpreted?

If you need help in evaluating a particular internet resource, please stop by the Journalism Library or contact any of the libraries on campus for assistance!

The MA Orientation 2008 library presentation is now available for viewing online - click on the presentation link below to relive the fun and get all of the research and information links!

- Power Point Presentation

Library catalogs:

“Hybrid” databases (bibliographic information, plus full text):

Full text journal collections:

National libraries:

CLIO is Columbia’s library catalog. A journal title search will tell you which journals we receive, print or electronic versions.

JSTOR is a multi-disciplinary full text journal repository, with an emphasis on historical back issues of journals. The archive can be searched or browsed.

ProQuest Digital Dissertations has the downloadable full text of dissertations completed in the US back to 1997, and an index of completed dissertations back to the 19th century.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers has the searchable full text of a number of US newspapers, back to the 19th century. Results are shown in PDF format.

Readers Guide Full Text and Readers Guide Retrospective are indexes to articles that have appeared in general interest magazines and journals, and which may not be covered by other databases.

CLIO is Columbia’s library catalog. A journal title search will tell you which journals we receive, print or electronic versions.

General Science Full Text: (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) A multidisciplinary database that indexes articles in general science periodicals back to 1984 (with full text available from 1995 on for selected titles).

PsycINFO: (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) The premier database for literature in psychology and related disciplines, PsycINFO includes references back to 1880.

MEDLINE: (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) The premier database for finding research articles in the biomedical sciences. Columbia offers students and faculty access to Medline via the OVID interface, which has a more sophisticated search mechanism, and which makes locating online full-text versions of articles indexed in Medline simpler, via Columbia’s “e-Link” feature.

Medline is also accessible free to the public via PubMed, at http://www.pubmed.gov/ There are not as many bells and whistles in PubMed, and it doesn’t automatically link you to full text of journals, as the OVID interface does.

Scientific American Archive Online: (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) The full text of the magazine, with images, archived back to 1993.

Web of Science (access restricted to current Columbia affiliates) is a workhorse database which compiles bibliographic citations to articles across all disciplines (including the sciences). Using Web of Science, you can find out how many times a particular article has been cited, which is an important measure of its impact.

Science Libraries at Columbia: The science libraries at Columbia are: Biological Sciences Library, Chemistry Library, Engineering Library, Geology Library, Geoscience Library (at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory), Health Sciences Library (at Health Sciences campus, 168th St.), Mathematics & Science Library, Physics & Astronomy Library, and the Psychology Library.

Check out Free Government Info.

This is a site (started by a few librarians) which tracks threats to government information’s freedom from “many economic and political forces,” and is also involved in raising public awareness about the importance of this type of information.