During high school, I had to do a lot of research and write essays on them in my English class. I would go online to Google.com and search on my topics. I thought that was the best way to do research and get the most accurate information from. This is my first quarter at CSU East Bay and my first course in Library 1210. After attending the first week of class I realized that there was a lot more to research than I thought there was. And I also found out the sources that I used to think were scholarly sources they actually were just sources for general readers.
In the beginning of the quarter I thought I would not make it through this class because I absolutely had no idea of what was going on and what you were talking about. Some of the things were new to me. But as time passed by and I did assignments I was able to understand what was going on and what I have to do to score well in this class.
There were many things I learnt from this class. The first most important thing this class taught me was to interact with CSU East Bay’s Library. I became more familiar about finding books in the library, using their databases, using other reference books that I believe would be useful for my future courses.
Now when I go search on Google for information, I would limit my search by using the advanced search feature. Then after scanning through the website I would look for some background information of the website to make sure the information posted is creditable. I became familiar with this strategy when I did the first few assignments on exploring the web and evaluating the topic.
Now if I were to do a research on any topic the first thing I would do is create a Boolean and use the advance search feature which allows me to limit my search and would also give me lesser results which is relevant to my topic rather than a general search. Then I would use one of the library databases call JSTOR to located a journal or even try searching it on the Academic Search Primere. I prefer journals because they are recent, written by scholars, and is revised before it’s published. There were times when I had problems finding the bibliography, I would talk to people at the reference desk and ask them for help. Then I would use HAYSTAC, another database of the CSU East Bay library to locate books. After that I would take a look at the references resources where there are many encyclopedias located. I still remember the activity in class you gave us to go out and find books of on our topic. And I guess by using all the following techniques I learnt in class I am pretty sure that my research process is effective.
Overall, I feel I’ve learnt a lot from the in class exercises and the assignments, especially the research project. After the ten weeks of the library class I can confidently say that I have achieved better knowledge about doing research which gives me a feeling of being educated. I think this course was very useful to me and most important of all is that I know I will be secured while doing research for anything whether it is related to the courses in college or not. And definitely the knowledge I gain through this course about doing research is a lifelong treasure.
Thank you for everything. Hope you have a nice holiday!
1 comment:
You wrote: "In the beginning of the quarter I thought I would not make it through this class because I absolutely had no idea of what was going on and what you were talking about." I wish you'd asked! I would have been happy to review the material with you.
You covered a number of course objectives in some detail, like developing and applying appropriate search strategies, how to make effective use of traditional and new library resources and tools, and describing research processes. I would have liked you to cover the remainder of the objectives, though.
I hope that you can find time to continue working with information and searching on a regular basis. Now that you've developed some skills, I'd like you to keep growing in this field.
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