Self-Assessment

1. I have made excellent progress this quarter with my information literacy growth. I have learned many new concepts and learned more on the things I already knew. This mainly includes learning about how to use the library since before this class I barely ever went there. Now I see the library for the great tool that it is, I know how to find books from the catalog and find them on the self and I know about the different sections like the periodials and reference section.

2. The few areas that I'm having trouble with on my information literacy growth are nouthing to outstanding. I understand all the main concepts of everthing; There are just a few things I need to touch base with like learning more about copyright and plagerism, so that I never commit copyright infringment or accidently plagerism.

3. The steps that I will take in the next three months to continue my growth in information literacy is to actually use the library as a tool for my classes next quater, since I have never really used it before this year other than this class. I will also work on looking for at copyright and plagerism. All in all this class opened me up to the library experience at this class and I will be sure to use the skills I learned and the library for next quarter and the rest of my time at CSU East Bay.

Experiential Exercise

The category that I was given was fisheries in California.

I first started by deciding what my two topics would be that I would research. My first topic is the use of drift nets in fisheries in California and the law for fisheries in California. Then I went on to my sources using the library catalog, CQ Weekly database, Academic Search Premier, GeoBase database and the World Wide Web. I used the library catalog, CQ Weekly and Academic Search Premier for my first topic, and GeoBase and the interent for my second topic. This way seems more structerd to me so I do so.

The search terms that I entered into the library catalog were: Califoria fisheries law and I only got eleven results. I changed the terms to California fisheries and got 128 results. According to the tiitles from my results all of them were relevant. From the results I choose The fisherman's problem ecology and law in the California fisheries, 1850-1980.

Next I went to CQ Weekly and my search terms were: California fisheries law and got 91 results which is around 100. The results were all relevant to fisheries law, however none were specifc to California. Next I opened a few articles and found that they are all from Washington D.C.; the articles all were about the whole country then, but that includes California. From the results the article I choose was Fishing Rewrite Proves Slippery.

Next I went to Academic Search Premier and my search term re: California fisheries law and I got no results. I changed the terms to fisheries in California and got fourteen results. Academic Search Premier doesnt have many results for my topic so fourteen results were as much I was going to get. Next I evalute my results and 12 0f the 14 results were revelant. From the results I choose was Inverse regional responses to climate change and fishing intensity by the recreational rockfish (Sebastes spp.) fishery in California.

Next I went to GeoBase and my search terms were: California fisheries drift nets and I got only one result. I changed the terms to California fisheries net and got sixteen results. Next I evaluted my results and they are all relevant. From the results the source that I choose was Gillnets and cetaceans, incorporating the proceedings of the symposium and workshop on the mortality of cetaceans in passive fishing nets and traps.

For my last source I looked on the World Wide Web under the Yahoo database. My search terms were: California fisheries drift nets and I got 115,000 results. I narrow my results by changing the search terms to: California's law on fisheries and drift nets, and got 44,000 results. From the first page of results I find a very relevant site, http://www.fishsniffer.com/dbachere/032301banpelagic.html.

Here is all the bibliographic citation information for all of my five sources:

The Fisherman's Problem Ecology and Law in the California Fisheries, 1850-1980, by Arthur F. Mcevoy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Fishing Rewrite Proves Slippery, by Manu Raja, Washington,D.C., SAGE Publications, 2006.

Inverse Regional Respones to Climate Change and Fishing Intensity By the Recreational Rockfisk (Sebastes spp.) fishery in California, by William Bennett, Canadian Journal of Fisheriesand Aquatic Sciences p.2499-2510, 2004.

Gillnets and Cetaceans, Incorporating the Proceedings of the Symposium and Workshop on the Mortality of Cetacea, by Perrin W.F., International Whaling Commission, Cambridge, 1994.

http://www.fishsniffer.com/dbachere/032301banpelagic.html, Recreational Fishery Groups Press for Federal Ban on Pelagic Long Lines, by Dan Bacher, copyright 1997-2001, 2001.

The two sources that I will evalute the content are: http://www.fishsniffer.com/dbachere/032301banpelagic.html, and The Fisherman's Problem Ecology and Law in the California Fisheries.
The Fisherman's Problem is an EBook with 250 pages that contain detalied information about calironia fisheries, the fisherman and the changing enviroment around them. Overall the content is great and is relative to my first topic.
My source from the World Wide Web is an article that contains information about pelagic longlines and how people feel they should be banned because of the unwanted fish that are also caught that get killed. This was a great article that is relative to my secound topic.

Here are the two reasearch questions about my subject:

1. How is global warming and the chaning climate going to affect the future of fisheries in California?

2. What are the consequences of using drift nets and how would the California fisheries market
be different if they were legal in California?

Two additional databases that I would use to search for more information would be GeoRef and Britannica Online.

Here is a brief descripiton on my research topic (fisheries in california):
Fisheries in general are industries that catch, process and sell fish. There are different rules and laws for fisheries depending on what state they are in. In california drift nets are illegal nd many Californian fisheries want nouthin to do with drift nets. Fisheries in California have declined over the years. Overal Fisheries in California are great industries that provide jobs, reneuve, and have many rules and regulations like all other industries.

Research Log Entry 2: Information Ethics

1. A balance can be achieved between protecting privacy and meeting the needs of national security by meeting the needs of national security without violating people's privacy and only going against a person's privacy in extreme cases of national security; otherwise privacy should be protected and national security should have limits that balance them both out.

2. I read a few books from the list like, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Golden Compass, and I was very suprise to see them on the list. I feel that all books should be freely availble, because people have the choice not to read them if it goes against their belief. People that are not offended by a book shouldnt be denied it just because it offends someone else. Therefore I believe no books should be banned; if people have a problem with a book then they just dont have to read that book.

3. My overall ideas about information ethics have remained the same after completing this unit, since I already knew most of this information and I'm a strong beliver respecting copyright and other things related to information ethics.

Research Log Entry 1: Information Ethics

1. Te author, the publisher, the faculty member, the library, and the students can be accommodated by making sure that everyone gets what they need. The author needs to make a profit, the publisher needs to publish 1000 copies, the faculity member and the library need to use the book or parts or it in a classroom setting for a resonable price, and finally the students need the information for free or a little charge. All of these things need to be met to accommodate everyone.

2. An arrangement that would be fair to everybody would be to sell textbooks for students that wish to purchase them, then sell a few copies to the library, and a copy to the faculity member. This is fair since the author will make money from textbook sells, the publisher should publish enough books, the library and faculity member will have the book, and students can choose to buy the book or go to the library.

3. The challenges in making a fair arrangement for everybody is acess for everyone, money and getting enough books published. An example would be that in my arrangement above I didnt make it so that the book would be available online at the library, because even though acess would be easier, the author would make less and the publisher would publish less. The main challenge is meeting all the requiements.

Research Log Entry 1: Subject or Discipline-Based Databases

1. The main subject for my question is The origin of homosexuality. My question is, is there a gay gene?

2. The subject guide that I used was human development, is was the only subject guide that was relevant.

Databases

1. Academic Search Premier was the first database that I used.

2. The terms that I used were, homosexual genetic code.

3. No results were found with the search terms that I used above.

4. I had no results so i need to broaden my search terms. The new search terms that I used were, homosexual gene. This yielded eight results. This database appears to not have a lot of articles that are relevant to my topic.

5. All but three of the eight articles contained the words gay, and gene or genetics. The ones that didnt contain those words at least seemed to be about homosexuality. Therefore even though my results were few, all the articles were very meaningful.

6. Here is the article that I chose: Genetic Basis to Homosexuality, Robert M. Donaldson, of Haymarket Media.

7. I determined that this article was meaningful by clicking on the title and reading the abstract of the article, which mostly all focused on the gay gene.


1. The secound database that I used was JSTOR.

2. The search terms that I used were, homosexual gene.

3. This gave 1398 results.

4. I needed to narrow my results by a lot so I entered new search terms, homosexual genectic code which gave 563 results. Next I entered homosexual genectic code origin and got 282 results, however now the results all looked irrelevant. So I just entered homosexual genectic code again with a lot of results over 100, however the articles all looked more relevant.

5. I had a lot of results so I just skimmed through most of them. The results looked meaningful, because almost all of them dealt with homosexuality and a good 3/4 of them dealt with homosexuality with genectics.

6. Here is the article that I chose: The Ethics of Genetic Research on Sexual Orientation, by Udo Schuklenk, Edward Stein, Jacinta Kerin and William Byne, reproductive Health Matters, Vol. 6, No. 12, Sexuality (Nov., 1998), pp. 134-143, Published by: Reproductive Health Matters

7. The article was only about ten pages and I was able to look at it, so I just skimmed through the whole thing and found that it is very meaningful and contains just information about the gay gene and nouthing else.

Research Log Entry 2: Periodicals and General Databases

For my search in HighWire Press

1. The database that I choose for my first search was HighWire Press.

2. The terms that I entered were: Homosexual rights in the U.S.

3. I received 6561 results

4. I had a lot over 100 results so I made that I typed in ealier even more specific. The new terms that I typed were: homosexual rights in the U. S. including the military, marriage and adoption.

5. I got down to 404 results from the new terms. This was as close to making it to 100 results as I could. Then I started to look at the results and saw that they were meaningful, because most of the titles of the articles were very relevant to the terms that I entered.

6. The article that I chose was: Identities and Politics: Toward a Historical Understanding of the Lesbian and Gay Movement, Mary Bernstein, 2002, Social Science History Association.

7. I actually opened up the article and skimmed through the sections and fond that it was very meaningful, because it covered all of the things that I was searching for.

For my search in Academic Search Premier.

1. The terms that I entered were: Homosexuality ethics.

2. I recieved a total of only six results, however all but one article looked meaningful.

3. My results were narrow enough.

4. I noticed that this database has less articles than the first one I used, thus the search terms that I entered had to be more broad as opposed to more narrow from the first database.

5. I determined that the articles were meaniful by looking at their title and seeing how it related with my search terms.

6. The article that I chose and its information is: Homosexuality, Ethics and Identity Synthesis, Yarhouse, Mark A., Virginia Beach, Taylor & Francis Inc.

7. I found that this article is very meanigful, because I looked through the article and everything in it focused on the ethics of homosexuality.

Research Log Entry 1: Periodicals and General Databases

1. The three periodicals that I chose were: Newsweek, from dec 8, 2008; American Bar Association Journal, year 1995 from Jan-Jun; and The Journal of Comparative Psychology, year 1941 from Feb-Jun.

2. The article i chose from Newsweek was "No God And No Abortions". by Lisa Miller; the article that i chose from the American Bar Association Journal was "Double Cross", by Henry Reske; and the article that I chose from The Journal of Comparative Psychology was "Hypothesis in Rats", by H. A. Witkin.

3. The main differences of the articles is the type of information; "Double Cross" is legal based, while "Hypothesis in Rats" is science based and finally "No God ANd No Abortions" is opinion based on current events.

4. The main differences of the periodicals are: Group 1, like Newsweek, are magazines that come out weekly; Group 2, like the American Bar Association Journal, are journals that contain articles with various factical information; and finally Group 3, like the Journal of Comparative Psychology, are volumes of journals with articles involving research.

Research Log Entry: The Library Catalog, the Information Cycle, and Reference Works

I added two new questions since I changed my topic from religion to homosexuality, and they are: What are the religious aspects of homosexuality; and is homosexuals born that way?

1. The question that I tried to answer was: What are the religious aspects of homosexuality?

2. The exact terms that I entered into the keyword search were: homosexuality and religion.

3. Homosexuality Religious Aspects is the subject heading that I used.

4. The book that I choose was Religion and Sexuality; I choose this because it was the most
relevant book and fell under the subject heading of homosexuality religious aspects.

5. Hillstrom, Kevin, ed. Religion and Sexuality. View Points Series. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2008.

6. The quote that I choose was: “How do you even reason with people who believe that, when something bad happens to gays, it’s God’s wrath, but when something bad happens to straight people, it’s God’s pop quiz?” – Dan Savage. I choose this quote, because I found it very interesting and goes along great with the question I asked.

7. What makes the book I choose a reference book is that it is a volume to a series, it has a bunch of articles from many people in there and the book is meant to glance at only some of its sections as opposed to a book from the book stacks were you read the whole thing.

8. Even though the book was published in 2008, I would have to say the information comes from a range of years staring from 1994 to 2006. I base these years on the information found in the books bibliography.

B. Research Log Entry: The Library Catalog

1. A keyword search gives out very brood and numerious entries, as opposed to the subject heading search which gives out specific and fewer entries.

A. Research Log Entry: The Library Catalog

1. Topic: Homosexuality, got 912 results. (I changed my topic from my old topic which was about religion)
a. Amherst
b. Homosexuality : debating the issues
c. no edition given
d. N.Y.
e. Prometheus Books
f. 1995

2. Location: Book Stacks; Call number: HQ76.3.U5 H673 1995; Status: on self.

3. Subject headings: Homosexuality -- United States, Homosexuality – Moral and ethical aspects, Homosexuality – Religious aspects, Gays in the military – United States, Gay rights – United States.

4. Homosexuality - Moral and ethical aspects; 120 items showed uo in the index.

5. I got 10 resluts
a. I have fewer entries with my subject heading search than my keyword search.
b. The resultsare more on target than the ones with the keyword search.
c. The subject heading search is more of a specfic search than the keyword search, so it yeilded less entries and since it is more specfic than the keyword search, the subject heading search gives entries that are more related than the brood entries of the keyword search.

Research Log Entry: Topic Development

1. a. Religion, my broadest topic
b. Monotheism religions, a set of similar religions, my next broad topic
c. Christianity, a type of a monotheism religion, my staring topic
d. Catholic, a branch of Christianity, my narrower topic
e. The Old Catholic Church, a district branch of the Catholic church, my narrowest topic

2. a. What other branches of Christianity are there than Catholic?
b. How old is Christianity and how was it founded?

2. Research Log Entry: Exploring and Evaluating the Web

1. a. Delicious is a useful website that a person can use to list and organise thier bookmarks (favorite websites).
b. The advantage of using Delicious is that you can organize your bookmarks and give descriptions for them. You can also see all the people that have bookmarked the same sites as you and you can look at all of their bookmarks to find new sites.
c. I have just created a Delicious account and therefore think that it will be very useful to me, because I have a lot of sites that are bookmarked and it is a pain to go through them all, Delicious will help keep my bookmarks organized.

1. Research Log Entry: Exploring and Evaluating the Web

1. The question that I tried to anwser was, "Who invented the pythagorean theorem?"

2. The terms that I selected to begin were, pythagorean theorem invented.

3. The search engines I used were: Goggle, Yahoo, and Gigablast.

4. a. The search terms that I used were, pythagorean theorem invented.
b. The search techiques that I tried were: adjacency ("pythagorean theorem invented") and nesting ("pythagorean theorem" invented).

5. a. I evaluated my results by using both of my search techiques for all three search engines. The adjacency techique yielded less results so I stuck with that
b. I concluded that Goggle, Yahoo, and Gigablast were simular and different. Yahoo yielded 380 results, which was higher that the 145 results of Gigablast and the 115 results of Goggle. Gigablast was the plainest of all three search engines with fewer options. Yahoo provides a "also try" option and Goggle has an advance search option. The search engines all had different features but gave around the same number of results.
c. I think the search engines acted the way they did according to the techique of adjacency that I used and how much material was in each of their databases.

6. Other questions that came into my mind while doing this execise were, Why have I never heard of Gigablast and who founded Goggle and Yahoo?

II. Research Log Activity and Entry

1. The question that i tried to answer was, What is the origin of pop music in North America?

2. The search engine that i used was Yahoo.

3. The search terms that i used was, North American pop music, and i got 9,680,000 results. I then used the terms North America or pop music and got 18,100,000 results. I got more results when included or in the search terms and that set was bigger, because then the results were of both North America and pop music, instead of just a combination.

4. The questions that i used to evalute my resluts were, what is the web site's currency, relevance, depth and info type. the site that I ended up choosing was, http://www.onlineradiostations.com/music-genre/teen-pop/teen-pop-is-targeted-towards-teenagers-and-preteens.html. The site had a decent value since it had relevent information and info type, however it would have had more value if it had greater depth.

5. The questions that come into my mind after doing this research activity are, how valuable was the web site that I have just been to, and is there more than one answer to my question. I could use both of theses questions to explore more of the search engine.

I. Research Log Entry

1. a. Some of the concepts that I already knew were the concepts of sets, venn diagrams and that specific terms are to be used for different search engines.

1.b. Some of the concepts that are new to me is that George Boolean mainly invented the techinque of seaching by combining sets of words by and and or.

2. Three important evaluation elements that need to be considered for a search include: currency, authority and relevance.