Primary sources: Original materials on which other research studies are based and they report a discovery or share new information.
They present first-hand accounts and information relevant to an event and are presented in its original form, not interpreted or condensed or evaluated by other writers
Eg: eyewitness accounts, financial reports, government documents, archeological and biological evidence, court records, laboratory report etc
Secondary source of information is one that was created by someone who did not have firsthand experience or did not participate in the events or conditions being researched.
They describe, analyse, interpret, evaluate, comment on and discuss the evidence provided by primary sources.
Eg: Biographic works, commentaries, criticisms, dictionaries, histories, journal articles (depending on the discipline, these can be primary), etc.
Tertiary sources consist of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources.
Generally, they are not considered to be acceptable material on which to base academic research and they are usually not credited to a particular author.
Eg: indexes, bibliographies, OPAC, dictionaries and encyclopedias, Wikipedia and similar user-contributed online 'encyclopedias‘ etc
The major places one can access information sources: human sources, archives, libraries and Internet.
Human sources include communication with peers and colleagues to obtain credible information.
The benefit of it is that human sources are readily available. If the right person is contacted, quality
and up-to-date information will be obtained.
The benefit of it is that human sources are readily available. If the right person is contacted, quality
and up-to-date information will be obtained.
Archives are a good place to find primary sources, both unpublished materials and those that have been published.
- Materials housed in the archives are unique, usually one of a kind items.
- Archives store, preserve and make accessible records of enduring value that have not been produced in great quantities for the general public for research and understanding.
- Archival materials are rare and irreplaceable and therefore they are not loaned out to users.
- The Internet is a global system of networked computers that allow user-to-user communication and transfer of data files from one computer to another on the network.
The Internet is a global system of networked computers that allow user-to-user communication and transfer of data files from one computer to another on the network.
- The World Wide Web (WWW) provides the technology needed to navigate the Internet.
- The WWW is a path-way of accessing information over the Internet via Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or web address.
The Internet contains all kinds of information sources including:
- Bibliographic information such as library catalogs
- Multimedia- Audio, video and graphical sources of information
- Reference sources such as Encyclopedia, Dictionaries, Handbooks, and others
- Journals, Newspapers, Magazines and Databases
- Subject related gateways
- Reports /Grey literature
- Movies and videos
A library is a collection of sources of information and similar resources, made accessible to a defined community for reference or borrowing.
They provide access to resources such as full text journal and magazine articles, periodical indexes, and online encyclopedias in a wide variety of formats.
School Library: These are libraries found within a school and they are often accessible to only students, staff, and parents.
Collections of school libraries may consist of printed works such as general reference books, and those that can be taken on loan.
The content of the library materials depends on the various educational levels.
Services Offered by school libraries may include reference and lending services.
Academic library, also known as a college or university library serves the curricular needs of students, faculty and staff of the parent institution.
The main function of the academic library is to support teaching, learning and research.
The services provided by an academic library may include: lending, reference, Inter-library Lending Service & Document Delivery, Electronic Support Service, Reprographic Service and User education.
Special Libraries are found in government institutions, industrial, research, commercial and business organizations to provide for the information needs of their staff.
The collections of special libraries include general reference materials, relevant books and periodicals both in print and non-print formats.
Services provided by these libraries may include: Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI), Abstracting Service, and indexing services
A public library is set up to provide service to all members of the community regardless of age, citizenship, occupation, economic status educational level etc.
Public libraries are funded by government and are sited in cities, towns or villages so that users can have easy access to their facilities.
Collections include popular reading materials for children and adults, basic reference sources, classics and resources specific to the local economy and culture.
Services provided by a public library may include:
- Reference Service
- Lending Service
- Reprographic Service
- Extension Library Service (to prisons and hospitals etc)
- Storytelling sessions for the infants etc
- Provision of community meeting rooms and study areas for quiet study for students and working professions,
- Support for Book Clubs to encourage appreciation of literature and reading in adults
National libraries are specifically established by the government of a country to serve as an outstanding repository of information for that country.
The main goal of a national library is to ensure the bibliographic control of all books and other materials published in that particular country and about that country.
National libraries offer general reference service, Inter-library Loan, and Document Delivery at national and international levels
Functions of a National library include:
- Legal deposit
- Compilation of the national bibliography;
- Storage of numerous valuable works and rare books;
- Practical training of library personnel;
- Conducting research as a consultancy service for individuals and on the nation
- Management of ISBN and ISSN system;
- Cooperation with foreign libraries and international exchange of materials
All the types of libraries discussed could be grouped into three forms:
Traditional, Digital/electronic and hybrid libraries
Traditional libraries have most of their operations (activities) done manually and without the aid of computer technology.
In addition, almost all the library’s resources are in print format.
Advantages of Traditional Libraries
- Stable collection
- Free and universal access to the collection
- Can be used without electricity
- Documents can easily be photocopied.
- No computer expertise is required on the part of the library staff.
Disadvantages of Traditional
- Limited access points.
- Centralised management
- One way interaction.
- Individual objects not directly linked with each other.
- Slow evolution.
A digital library has all information resources in digital form and access to such resources is through the use of digital technologies.
Advantages of digital libraries
- Direct access and use of the information.
- Quicker access to information.
- Access to content in different and more appealing forms.
- Digital library collections can be delivered on CD-ROM to users with inadequate network connectivity.
Advantages of digital libraries
- Information can be accessed anywhere and at anytime.
- Information is more easily shared with other digital libraries.
Disadvantages of Digital Libraries
- Difficulty of knowing and locating everything that is available and differentiating valuable from useless information.
- Job loss for traditional publishers.
- Library patrons should have the technical know-how before he or she can access information in such a library.
Hybrid library has its information resources in both print and non-print formats.
It also means that some of its operations or services (such as acquisitions, cataloguing and circulation) are performed with the aid of computer technology.
Thus, users of a hybrid library have access to physical collections as well as digital collections (electronic resources) like full text on-line journals, e-books, audio books and full text databases on CD - ROM etc
Sub 5
How to Access the libraries
A library catalogue is a list of materials in a library arranged according to a recognised order and containing specific items of bibliographical information for the purpose of identification and location of the material catalogued.
- Eg: Card catalogue, Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
- UHAS’ OPAC can be accessed through www.library.ug.edu.gh
Access point is a code, term, or the like through which an entry in an information system (eg. a bibliographic record) may be found.
- Essentially, access points are doorways or windows that can be used to trace a material in a catalogue or database.
- They may include call number, author, title, or subject (subject headings) etc.
Class number is a code assigned to the various subject areas. Eg. WY100 represents materials relating to nursing.
- The call mark is a number, letter, symbol, or combination of these, indicating the specific location of a work in a library, especially the combination of the classification symbol and the designation for the author.
- It is the number that is usually put on the spine of the books on the shelves (eg. QV4.R14)
Classification schemes help in the generation of call marks. Eg are the National library of Medicine Classification Scheme, the Library of Congress Classification Scheme.
Author is the person(s) or corporate body responsible for the intellectual content of the item.
- It is the person or body that is responsible for creating the item.
- It is the person or body that is responsible for creating the item.
- This means that editors, corporations, government agencies, or meetings can also be considered authors. Some items have more than one author.
- If you know any author of the item you need, you would use that as your access point.
- In the UHAS catalogue, users are required to enter the last name of the author first, then a comma (,) before the rest of the names. Eg. Fred Binka becomes, Binka, Fred
The title is the identifying name of the intellectual work (book, play, journal, article, video, audio recording, ).
- When you are searching by title, do not include insignificant words or definite and indefinite articles such as "the", "an", "a", at the beginning of the title.
- Always separate the main title from the subtitle with a colon “:”
The subject or subject heading is a word or phrase that describes the intellectual content of the item.
- Some items will be about more than one subject or more than one aspect of a subject.
- This some means that records often have more than one subject heading.
- If you want an item about someone, something, or somewhere you would search by subject.
- Librarians select the subjects using a tool called Subject Headings.
- The Subject Headings are hierarchical list of controlled vocabularies to describe a material.
- Examples of Subject Headings Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), Sears List of Subject Headings.
- UHAS library uses both the LCSH and MeSH
Coverage:
Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, Allied Health, Social Sciences (African literature), Nutrition, Biomedical Sciences, and all other disciplines taught in the University.
Access: http://library.ug.edu.gh
Slide 87 diagram
Users can search using any of the displayed search fields (Access points). You can also select your library (UHAS Main Library) from the system of libraries
Types of searches
- BASIC SEARCH
This is where you use a single search field or access point to search for a material
Eg. Searching for a material with either the title or author field
- ADVANCED SEARCH
Here several search fields or access points could be combined to retrieve a material
Eg. Searching for a material with the author, title, date of publication etc.
Advanced search
- This interface allows patrons to combine one or more access points through the use of Boolean Operators (“AND”, “NOT” , “OR”) to expand or limit their search results in order to achieve relevancy, specificity and precision.
- Reference Sources/Materials are authoritative works that provide specific answers or information and are used to find information about topics, locate facts, and answer questions.
- Eg: Atlases, dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, directories, almanacs, manuals, biographies, and handbooks etc. Each type is available either in print, on CD-ROMs and the Internet.
- Reference information sources can be general or subject specific. For example, The Encyclopedia
Britannica is general while The Encyclopedia of Stem-Cell Research, The Encyclopedia of Pain,
and The Gale encyclopedia of Medicine are subject encyclopedias.
- Periodicals/serials are publications such as journals, newspapers, or magazines published on a regular basis (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, yearly, etc).
- Common examples of periodicals include popular magazines (or general interest magazines), professional and trade magazines, scholarly journals, newsletters, and newspapers.
- Popular magazines are periodicals of non-specialist nature with articles are usually
- written by staff writers, and chosen by the editor of the publication.
- Magazine articles are usually shorter, written in non-technical language, and designed for the general population.
- Articles in popular magazines are reviewed by one or two members of staff of the organization where they are published.
- Trade Magazines present information about a profession or a particular trade.
- They are written for members of a specific business, industry or organization and usually cover industry trends, new products or techniques, and organizational news.
- Scholarly Journals are written by experts or specialists in a particular field/discipline and geared towards other scholars.
- The purpose of scholarly publications is to report research or advance knowledge.
- The writing style is more complex and the language may be technical.
- These articles go through peer review process.
- A monograph is a scholarly piece of writing in form of an essay or book on a specific, often limited subject.
- It is a nonserial publication complete in one volume (book) or a finite number of volumes. Thus it differs from a serial publication such as a magazine, journal, or newspaper
- To locate monographs in a library collection requires using the library catalog and most libraries now have Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC)
4.Abstracts and indexes provide citations to papers dealing with specific topics in a field of knowledge.
- Indexes provide the essential bibliographic information needed to identify an article or other publications and usually include information about the author of the work, the source journal or other publication, volume, issue, and pagination
- 5. Drug information sources cover the fields of pharmacology, pharmacy and toxicology.
- There are as many drug information sources as there are various specialties.
Some eg. are:
- Greenwood Village, CO: Thomson MICROMEDEX. Accessible
online at http://www.micromedex.com - Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. Stockton, CA: Therapeutic
Research Faculty, Accessible online at: http://www.naturaldatabase.com
- Databases are systematically organized collections of information covering different subject matters or specialising in one given subject or topic.
- A digital database is a computer program that organises, describes, and indexes information.
- It allows the user to search for specific types of information, depending upon the selected search parameters (access points).
- An academic database can either be:
- Bibliographic databases or Full-text databases
The above diagram shows that the line of difference between data and information is very faint.
Once information is distributed/shared, it becomes input/data for further analysis and new derivatives can result.
It illustrates a need to communicate information to aid decision making and furtherance of knowledge.
The need to communicate results or transmit information from one unit of processing to another necessitated computer networking.
Notice how the elements of the information system are represented in the information processing cycle. People (end users) are central to the cycle, from data input to communication of results human users are involved. It is also intriguing to notice that taking out people, the rest 5 elements constitute the computer system which is a subsystem of the information system and also that at each stage of the processing cycle, hardware and software (computers) are involved.
Network – a communications system connecting more than one computer and other electronic gadgets for resource sharing, data exchange or electronic communication.
Nodes: Computers on a network
- Hosts
- Clients
- Peers
Computer Networks
Computer network or just Network is a communications system that connects more than one computer for resource sharing, data exchange or electronic communication. Computers can be interconnected using copper wire, infrared, communication satellites, fibre optics, and microwaves, among others. Computers on a network are referred to as nodes or workstations. Computers that allocate resources are called Servers or Hosts, those that request resources are Clients. However computers can be interlinked without any of the nodes acting as a server. This type of arrangement is described as a peer-to-peer network. The Client/Server model is
fundamental to most computer networks. One server can take on several clients.
Network Types
- Personal Area Network (PAN)
- Local Area Network (LAN)
- Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
- Wide Area Network (WAN)
Types of Networks
Computer networks are often categorized by their geographical scope.
Personal Area Network (PAN): A computer network used for communication among computer devices, including telephones and personal digital assistants, in proximity to an individual's body. A PAN may typically operate within a few meters such as a room.
Local Area Network (LAN): Connects computers and other devices to communicate and share resources within a restricted space often a few metres apart, such as an office building or home. LANs are privately owned.
Metropolitan Area Network (MAN): A large computer network that covers a large campus or township, ranging from a few blocks of buildings to an entire city. A MAN connects LANs.
Wide Area Network (WAN): Is a much larger network spanning a whole region, country, continent or the whole world, interconnecting several LANs and MANs. The Internet is the largest and most popular WAN.
Purpose of Networks
Resource sharing
Collaboration
Data Exchange
Internetworking
Internetwork: A collection of interconnected computer networks. It is often shortened as internet.
The Internet is the worldwide system of interconnected computer networks; the global network of networks.
Internetworking
Internetworking describes the art and science of linking together several computer networks using communication devices such as routers, bridges or gateways, to form larger networks to facilitate communication among people and computers located on separate networks. A collection of interconnected computer networks is called an internetwork or internet. The Internet is the worldwide system of interconnected computer networks; the global network of networks.
Characteristics of the Internet
- No centralized control
- Lack of strong authentication
- Borderless
- Interconnects personal computers
- Ubiquitous
- Facilitates instantaneous multimedia interactive communication
- Anonymity
- Dynamic
- Republication
- Ease of Accessibility
Characteristics of the Internet
Neutrality – The Internet treats equally all the information that flows across it without discrimination on the basis of source, destination or type of content.
2. Open Architecture – Any network at all can be joined to the Internet using TCP/IP.
3. Public Access – Anyone with a device capable of connecting to the Internet can do so with no restriction whatsoever once they have the means to connect. No one owns the Internet.
4. Global network – It is available world-wide.
Further Characteristics of the Internet - No centralized control
- Lack of strong authentication
- Borderless
- Interconnects personal computers
- Ubiquitous
- Facilitates instantaneous multimedia interactive communication
- Anonymity
- Dynamic
- Republication
- Ease of Accessibility
Internet Applications/Services
- World Wide Web
- Telnet
- File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
- Electronic Mail (E-mail)
- Instant messaging (IM)
- Blogging
- Social Network Sites
- Multimedia Streaming
- VoIP
Internet Features/Applications/Services
World Wide Web: The most widely used service on the Internet; comprises electronic documents called Web pages that are developed using the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Web pages contain multimedia elements (text, graphics, audio, video, etc.) that may have built-in connections (hyperlinks) to other Web pages or parts of the same page. A hyperlink may be detected by hovering the mouse pointer over any element of information on a Web page. The mouse pointer changes from a normal select pointer
link pointer (hand with a poked-out finger).(arrow-head) into aHyperlinks facilitate non-linear information access and retrieval. A group of related Web pages form a Web site. Browsers are needed to access and view Web pages. A browser is a software or program that connects a user’s PC to the Web. Examples include Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Torch, etc.
Telnet: Remote login. Telnet applications allow users to log on and to operate remote computers as regular/present users. It is a user command and an underlying TCP-IP protocol for accessing remote computers. Through Telnet, an administrator or another user can access someone else's computer remotely. HTTP and FTP protocols allow users to request specific files from remote computers, but not to actually be logged on as users of those computers. With Telnet, one can log on as a regular user with whatever privileges you may have been granted to the specific application and data on that computer.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP): Rules regulating data upload and download. FTP specifies the format of data files exchanged over a network.
Electronic Mail (E-mail): By far the most popular Internet application since ARPANET. It is a service that allows persons as far apart as either end of the globe to send and receive messages almost like regular post, but electronically and therefore faster.
Instant messaging (IM): An Internet service that allows users to communicate in real-time. IM applications, often called messengers or instant messengers, notify users when one or more contacts are online and then allow them to exchange messages or files (including text, voice and video) or join a private chat room with them. To use IM you install software from an instant
messaging service. Skype and Facebook Messenger are among very popular IMs.
Blogging: Blog, short for Weblog is a web-based publication holding articles that are periodically updated. Blogs are maintained principally by individuals to share opinion and record a timeline of activities they are involved in. Institutions also use blogs to communicate to their stakeholders about specific subjects periodically.
Social Network Sites
Web-based services that allow individuals to:
1. construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system,
2. articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and
3. view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.
The requirement for an individual to articulate and make visible their social networks enables individuals to meet strangers through latent contacts, however, most social network sites provide privacy policies to enable an individual regulate who can access their profile. LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are popular social network sites.
Multimedia Streaming
Streaming and Downloading are the two main ways to deliver multimedia content online. Streaming means playing multimedia (video or audio) directly online as soon as your client PC receives data, without making a local copy. Downloading, on the other hand is when media files are first copied to the local machine and then played back even when you are offline.
VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a form of communication that allows you to make phone calls over a broadband internet connection instead of typical analogue telephone lines. Basic VoIP access usually allows you to call others who are also receiving calls over the internet. Interconnected VoIP services also allow you to make and receive calls to and from traditional Landline, and mobile numbers Education, Governance, Business, Banking and nearly any human endeavour can be mediated by computers and communication networks. This unlimited transactional capacity of the Internet has yielded such concepts as e-Learning, virtual classrooms, virtual libraries, e-Governance, eBanking, among others.
Connecting to the Internet
- Internet Service Provider (ISP) / Internet Access Provider (IAP)
- Wireless Service Provider
Connecting to the Internet
Internet Service Provider
Internet Service Provider (ISP) / Internet Access Provider (IAP) and Wireless Service Provider (WSP) are business organizations, usually telecommunications companies that own Internet infrastructure and provide individuals and organizations access for a fee. These correspond to the two main technologies deployed in digital communication (wired and wireless).
ISPs typically provide Dial Up and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connections to consumers while WSPs provide wireless Internet access with wireless modems to consumers. The type of Internet connection subscribed to is also called Internet Account.
Internet Account Types
ISPs provide Internet access using two broad technologies namely Narrowband and Broadband.
Narrowband, short for narrow bandwidth, describes technologies that delivery low data rates and hence limited Internet speed. The most popular example is the Dial up connection.
Dial up
This connection uses the regular analogue telephone line known as the twisted pair, with a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) modem. A modem (a modulator/demodulator) is a device that converts digital data generated by a computer into analogue data so it can be transmitted over a telephone line (modulation) and again converts analogue data transmitted over a telephone line into digital data that can be read by a computer (demodulation).
A major drawback on dial up connection is that once the line is dialled up for Internet use, no voice calls can be sent or received through that line. Connection quality is also hampered most times. An Internet connection is established when a user clicks on the telephone access icon and the computer dials the phone number provided by the ISP.
Broad bandwidth (Broadband) technologies are capable of high data rates and use multiple channels to deliver multimedia content over the Internet. They provide an “always on” connection to the Internet. Examples are as below:
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
DSL also uses the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) like the Dial up. Unlike the dial up, however, DSL is broadband and provides an “always on” connection and there is no need to dial a telephone number to establish a connection with the ISP. It also does not obstruct telephony.
Different forms of DSL connection exist, common among them, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). This type of connection is so named as it does not support equal data rates for upstream (upload) and downstream (download) traffic. Download speeds are higher than upload speeds.
Cable
Two major forms of cable transmission are the Coaxial and Optic fibre. With the use of cable modems, users can have broadband connection to the Internet over cable television ines (coaxial). Cable Internet is capable of higher data rates than the twisted pair.
Fibre optic provides the highest speed of data transmission and works on the properties of light. The optic fibre consist of high quality glass or plastic as thin as human hair. At one end it emits light rays while on the other end the beams of light are detected and converted into electrical data, thus data in optic fibre is transmitted as light.
Wireless Internet Access
- Wireless technologies provide “always on” connections to the Internet using radio frequencies that are transmitted through the air. Through the use of a wireless modem a user can connect to the Internet as long as they are within network coverage area.
- Wi-Fi is a popular WLAN. Wi-Fi is often deployed in populated areas such as airports, hotels, and other public areas known as hotspots, which are in high demand for on-the-move wireless Internet access.
Wireless Internet Access
Wireless technologies provide “always on” connections to the Internet using radio frequencies that are transmitted through the air. There are no physical or visible connecting lines between a user’s device and the network site. Through the use of a wireless modem a user can connect to the Internet as long as they are within network coverage area.
Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) is a popular wireless Internet connectivity designed to extend the coverage of Local Area Networks by providing Internet access wirelessly. It is therefore a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). Wi-Fi is often deployed in populated areas such as airports, hotels, and other public areas which are in high demand for wireless Internet access,
known as hotspots. All a user needs is their Wi-Fi adapter turned on, and a security key (in the case of proprietary hotspots) and they can access the Internet on their mobile devices. Hotspots provide avenues to travellers to access Internet applications on the move.
Wireless Internet has helped to overcome the access drawbacks on wired technologies. Remote dwellers as well as hard to reach urban populations can be connected using wireless technologies.
How Web Pages are Organized
The commonest way to logon to the Internet is via the World Wide Web. The Web is presented as pages that interface the Net user and the Net resources. A group of interrelated Web pages is called a Website. Browsers are applications that connect a user to the Internet via the WWW. Common ones are Firefox, Internet Explorer, Torch, Opera, Safari, Chrome, etc.
Major Features of a Webpage
Common Webpage Features
- Home page
- Address bar
- Navigation bar
- Search bar
- Tabs
- Hyperlinks
- Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
Home page: Also known as the index page or landing page, is front page or the first and main Webpage of a Website that contains links to other pages/sections of the Website.
Address bar: The narrow space located in the header of a Webpage that displays the URL of the current Webpage and also accepts URL input to navigate the user to another Webpage.
Navigation bar: A set of links to the main sections of a website. It can be located on the top or at the sides of the homepage.
Search bar: Also known as the search field or query box, is the narrow text field where users enter their queries or search statements for submission to the Website’s search engine. The search bar is capable of a single line of input and is usually followed by a tab labeled Search, or in lieu, the picture of a magnifying glass which could also be located inside the search bar at the right-end.
Tabs: Exclusive bars identifying various Webpages in a multitasked window. They serve to demarcate multiple open Webpages in a single browser window. The New Tab link can be used to open a blank page for URL input.
Hyperlinks: Strings of text that refer to other parts of a Webpage or to an entirely new Webpage that deals with the concept represented by the link in greater depth. The texts that contain hyperlinks are called hypertext. They usually appear in blue colour and when the mouse pointer hovers over it, it changes into a “hand” and the text shows an underscore.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL): The Web address of an online resource (i.e. Website or document). URLs are typed into the address bar of a Web browser; for example:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3875283/pdf/GMJ4703-0128.pdf
Parts of a URL
Parts of a URL
There are 3 basic parts of a URL. These are the Protocol, the Host Name and the Resource Identifier.
Protocol: Rules for data communication between a client and a server. The most popular protocol is http (hypertext transfer protocol). Its variant https (hypertext transfer protocol secure) is used by sites requiring sensitive user information such as passwords and credit card information. The https indicates that data transferred by the server to the client machine is encrypted. It is the first part of the URL that comes before the double slash (//). Less familiar protocols include:
ftp – File Transfer Protocol;
pop – Post Office Protocol;
smtp – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol; and
imap – Internet Message Access Protocol.
Host Name: The host name or server name identifies the remote server on which the requested resource is located or stored. It comes between the double slash (//) and the first single slash (/). Contained within the Host name is the Domain Name which identifies the organization or individual who owns the resource. The domain name may have subsidiaries indicating the hierarchy of the creating institution but always end in a three-letter or two-letter extension that shows what type of institution created the resource. This ending three-letter / two-letter extension is known as the Top Level Domain (TLD). Common Top Level Domains include:
.com – commercial
.org – non-profit organizations
.net – a network
.edu – an educational institution
.mil – military (US military)
.gov – government (US government) agency
.int – an international treaty-based organization such as WHO.
If the TLD is two-letter, it often identifies the geographical location (country) of the server. Examples include .uk (United Kingdom), .gh (Ghana), .ca (Canada), .za (South Africa), etc. Resource Identifier: The resource identifier or path shows the file name and any other directories or subdirectories in which the specific file or resource is located. Each category or subcategory of the resource identifier is separated by a forward slash (/). The last resource identifier (after the last slash) is the name of the specific file requested. The file name usually ends with a three-letter or four-letter extension that shows the file type. Some examples are:
.htm or .html – for a standard Web page
.jpg or .gif or .tiff or .png – for common graphic files
.pdf – portable document format
.ppt – PowerPoint presentation
.doc – Word document
Common TLDs
.com - commercial
.org - non-profit organizations
.net - a network
.edu - an educational institution
.mil - US military
.gov - US government agency
.int - an international treaty-based organization
Country codes e.g. .uk, .gh, .de, .ca, .za
Types of Webpages
- Advocacy
- Business and Marketing
- News
- Informational
- Personal
- Entertainment
- Types of Webpages
Advocacy
Advocacy webpages seek to influence opinion. They often solicit donations to sponsor a charity course or ask for support for a candidate in a competition in terms of votes. They are usually not-for-profit non-governmental organizations. Their URL often has .org domain.
Business and Marketing
These are online business platforms. They are set up to promote certain products and/or services and often give a catalogue of their products/services accompanied by specifications and price quotes. Their URL definitely ends in .com. Examples of business webpages are: tonaton.com, gresswell.com, alibaba.com and amazon.com.
News
A news webpage delivers journalistic services. It provides first-hand information current happenings and also features articles on specific areas of interest such as health, entertainment and sports. Their URL mostly ends in .com. Examples include myjoyonline.com, ghanaweb.com and bbc.co.uk.
Informational
Informational webpages provide factual information. This includes reports of research findings, statistical and demographic information, a directory of names and business, and library catalogues. Their URLs have .edu or .gov domains. For example: uhas.edu.gh, who.int, etc.
Personal
A personal webpage is created by an individual for his/her own personal need. The URL usually has a tilde (~) which mostly comes after the first forward slash (/) after the domain to introduce the user name of that individual. The rest of the path leads to the location of the resource on the personal computer of that individual.
Entertainment
Entertainment webpages provide leisure activities including music, video, games, etc. give users pleasure.
Online Search Tools
- SUBJECT DIRECTORIES
- Hierarchical subject indexes that reference several Web sites.
- Organized and maintained by human indexers.
E.g. Open Directory Project (http://dmoz-odp.org/)
An index is a list of words or phrases ('headings') and associated pointers ('locators') to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document or collection of documents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_(publishing)
E.g. Back of the book index; Everything Search (desktop app).
Several tools for locating online information resources exist.
- Subject directories
Subject directories are hierarchical subject indexes that reference several Web sites. They are organized and maintained by human indexers. Web sites referenced in a subject directory depend on the human indexers and their selection policy. Subject directories are good if a searcher has no specific topic in mind. It is a good place to begin your research as it helps you to
browse from general subjects through subcategories until you narrow down to a specific topic.
Some subject directories function as homepages. These are called portals. The WHO-managed
UN Research4Life programme Health Inter Network Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) is a portal.
Selective Directories
- Librarians’ Index to the Internet (http://www.ipl.org/) - general subjects.
- AcademicInfo (http://www.academicinfo.net) - academic sites on a wide range of subjects.
- Scout Report Archives (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/archives/) - academic resources.
Selective directories index only Websites that are adjudged best in their subject category.
- SEARCH ENGINES
- Individual Search Engines.
Examples include Yahoo, Google, Bing, Ask and Gigablast.
- Metasearch engines.
Examples are MetaCrawler, and Dogpile.
Search Engines
These are computer programs known as spiders or Webbots that crawl the Web for new webpages periodically and add (index) keywords and phrases from those pages into a large database which is then made accessible to information seekers.
Types of Search Engines
There are two types of search engines, Individual and Meta search engines. Individual Search Engines compile their own searchable databases on the Web. When you use an individual search engine therefore, you are searching only that search engines database of
indexed Web sites and Web resources. Examples include Yahoo, Google, Bing and Ask. Meta Search engines do not compile a database of their own. Instead, they search the databases of multiple sets of individual search engines simultaneously. Examples are Dogpile and MetaCrawler.
Some Health-oriented Search Engines
Entrez (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gquery).
Alternatively (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
Omni Medical Search (www.omnimedicalsearch.com).
GoPubMed (http://www.gopubmed.com).
WebMD (http://www.webmd.com).
Nextbio (http://www.nextbio.com).
- DATABASES
Databases are electronic filing systems that arrange documents in a well-structured manner to aid easy access and retrieval.
A database organizes information into fields (columns), records (rows), and files (tables). A field is a single piece of information; a record is one complete set of fields; and a file is a collection of records.
Databases
Databases are electronic filing systems that arranges documents in a well-structured manner to aid easy access and retrieval. A database organizes information into fields (columns), records (rows), and files (tables). A field is a single piece of information; a record is one complete set of fields; and a file is a collection of records.
Database Types
Bibliographic Databases
- MEDLINE/PubMed
- Illinois Bibliographic Information Service (IBIS) a collection of databases including Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Social Sciences Index, PsychINFO, ERIC, Art Index, Current Contents, etc. IBIS is only accessible to affiliates of institutional subscribers.
- Library Online Public Access Catalogues (OPAC).
Types of Databases
Bibliographic databases provide information about print and electronic journal articles or
articles in periodicals. The types of information found in bibliographic databases generally
include title, author, abstract, and very often, links to full-text content. Examples are
- MEDLINE (PubMed provides free access to MEDLINE),
- Illinois Bibliographic Information Service (IBIS) a collection of databases including Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, Social Sciences Index, PsychINFO, ERIC, Art Index, Current Contents, etc. IBIS is only accessible to affiliates of institutional subscribers.
- Library catalogues – Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs).
Full-text Databases
- HealthSTAR (Health Services, Technology, Administration, and Research) covers clinical topics with emphases on the evaluation of patient outcomes and the effectiveness of procedures. It includes Journal of Clinical Investigation, Lancet, etc.
- Core Biomedical Collection (CBC)
There are also Numerical and Hybrid databases
Full-text databases hold content of information resources described by bibliographic databases
and are often linked to them. They are mostly fee-based. Examples are
- HealthSTAR (Health Services, Technology, Administration, and Research) which covers clinical topics with emphases on the evaluation of patient outcomes and the effectiveness of procedures. It includes Journal of Clinical Investigation, Lancet, New
England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics Science, etc. is produced jointly by NLM's National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/nichsr.html) and the American Hospital Association (AHA) (http://www.aha.org/aha/index.jsp) - .Core Biomedical Collection (CBC), Emerald, Project Muse, ProQuest, and JSTORE are full-text databases.
- There are also Numeric and Hybrid
- ONLINE LIBRARIES
- IDEAL - contains all 175 Academic Press journals. Abstracts and tables of contents are presented in HTML while full-text articles are delivered in Adobe Acrobat format.
- Wiley Online Library
- My iLibrary by ProQuest
Online Libraries
These provide electronic access to library collections made available online. Electronic books, journals and other forms of information resources can be accessed exactly as in the print library. In the online library environment, All ethical and legal restrictions remain in force. The digital availability of information resources does not mean they are open access. There are usually restrictions on the number of pages of a book that can be downloaded in tandem with fair use, however the entire content can be browsed, searched or read and notes made by the user.
- DIGITAL ARCHIVES
Various agencies, governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental have developed searchable online archives of health related publications. Examples are:
- Governmental: g U.S. National Institutes of Health’s PubMed Central (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/)
- Inter-governmental: g. World Health Organization’s Institutional Repository for Information Sharing (IRIS) http://apps.who.int/iris/
- Non-governmental: POPLINE (https://www.popline.org/)
- UGSpace, University of Ghana’s customized version of DSpace.
Digital Archives/Institutional Repositories
Governments, academic and research institutions, and not-for-profit organizations are adopting institutional repositories as publishing mechanisms to provide open access to their knowledge base. Most academic institutions now have institutional repositories for showcasing their research output and other cultural heritage. The WHO publishes a lot of books, reports and conference proceedings which are made available for free through their Institutional Repository for Information Sharing (IRIS). The US Government’s online national archives (https://www.archives.gov/) is also a good example.
Basic or Simple Search: a single keyword or key phrase representing a concept is used to retrieve documents from a database or indexing system. This is usually a broad or unfiltered search used when the information seeker knows the exact result(s) being sought for.
Advanced or Systematic Search: involves a combination of multiple key phrases targeted at various fields of a database usually using Boolean logic and other search strategies. Advanced search is used to narrow results to fewer most relevant ones.
Pearl Growing or Snowballing: also known as “following a thread”, involves reading from a general informative literature to learn about your topic and following the references from your current source to other scholarly sources that address your topic more specifically. Some observable trends may include bibliographic coupling and co-citation of sources that increase your confidence in the materials consulted.
Orientating yourself and Focusing your Topic
You can start your literature search by collecting background information in order to:
- get an overview on the topic,
- direct yourself to the most important issues and controversies;
- gain an understanding of how the topic area relates to other topics; and
- introduce yourself to the vocabulary or jargon relating to the topic.
An encyclopaedia would be a good place to start. Newspapers and professional journals are useful for familiarising yourself with current developments and opinions. Both books and review articles provide an introduction and overview of various aspects of the topic. They contain more comprehensive information than scientific research papers.
After reading some background information, you can begin to narrow your focus. One way to do this is to turn your research focus into a question. The 4W+H questions are a great way to start.
Example 4w+H Questions to Focus the Topic: “Religious and social influences on health-seeking behaviour”
For the above example topic, drag each list of examples (right) to the appropriate question (middle) in the 4W+H figure below.
Developing a search strategy. HINARI Basic Course: Module 2. Internet searching and website evaluation. Retrieved on 06 June 2018 from
http://www.who.int/hinari/training/Basic_Course/en/
Example (Steps 1-4)
- Ask: What health problems are associated with water pollution?
- Need: scholarly primary research
- Main Concepts: health, water, pollution
- Select terms:
- Broader terms: ‘health’, environmental degradation’, ‘agricultural management’,
- Synonyms:
health, illness, disease, etc.
water, rivers, lakes, sea, domestic water, etc.
pollution, ‘oil spills’, chemical, biological, toxicity, etc
- Alternative spellings: none
- Plurals: river(s), lake(s), disease(s)
- Capitals: g. name of a specific lake, disease, region
Step 1: Ask
Question Development Strategies
There are useful mnemonics to guide question formulation. These mnemonic are not rigid and not every element must be present in every question. The mnemonic of choice is also dependent upon the type of study being conducted (refer to slide note).
PICO - Population, Intervention, Comparator/Control and Outcome
PICo - Population, Intervention/phenomena of Interest and Context
CoCoPop - Condition, Context and Population
PIRD - Population, Index test, Reference test and Diagnosis of interest
PEO - Population, Exposure of interest and Outcome or response
PCC - Population, Concept and Context
For effectiveness studies, use: PICO - Population, Intervention, Comparator/Control and Outcome
For qualitative studies, use: PICo - Population, Intervention/phenomena of Interest and Context
Types of Sources
Select a Source (Step 5)
Tertiary Sources
ADVANTAGES | DISADVANTAGES |
Easy access | Lag Time |
Ease of use | Outdated |
Concise | Incomplete information |
Relatively inexpensive | Incorrect interpretation |
Secondary Sources
ADVANTAGES | DISADVANTAGES |
Rapid access to the primary literature | Lag time |
Generally high standard journals | Command language varies |
Ability to perform complex searches | Proficient search skills are needed |
Routine updates on selected topics (alerts) | Can be expensive |
Primary Sources
ADVANTAGES | DISADVANTAGES |
Original data | Large volume data |
Unbiased information | Time consuming |
Search Construction
Construct a Search Query Using Appropriate Commands and Best Practices
When searching, enter one term/phrase at a time; keep terms in separate concept sets; combine search terms with OR first; then with AND.
Concept sets are alternative keywords that can be connected using the OR operator. Enclose concepts sets in brackets when building a systematic (advanced) search query in which more that one of the Boolean operators are used.
The Boolean Search Operators
- 3 main operators: AND, OR, NOT (always UPPERCASE)
- Are used in online information retrieval systems that use search engines.
- Inserted in a search box. AND and NOT are processed before OR.
- Connect search terms and locate records containing matching terms.
- Are processed in a left- to right sequence.
- AND operator narrows results to records only records in which the combined search terms occur.
- NOT operator is used to exclude records that contain search terms placed after the operator thus narrowing results to just the term to the left.
- OR operator acts as the union of all search terms it is used to combine. It cause the search engine to retrieve records that contain any or all of the search terms and thus broadens the search results.
Example Boolean Search
Topic: Malaria prevention in Ghana
Database: PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/)
malaria AND prevention = 19,861
malaria AND control = 29,510
malaria AND prevention OR control = 3,621,878
malaria AND (prevention OR control) = 30,565
malaria AND prevention AND control = 18,810
malaria AND prevention NOT control = 1,052
malaria AND ghana = 1,282
malaria AND prevention AND ghana = 332
malaria AND control AND ghana = 562
malaria AND prevention AND control AND ghana = 308
malaria AND (prevention OR control) AND Ghana = 586
malaria AND prevention NOT control AND ghana = 24
Note:
Whenever the OR operator is used in conjunction with other operators, the ORed search terms which constitute a concept set must be enclosed in brackets to indicate to the search engine that it must be processed separately before its results are combined with other operators for the ultimate result. This is done automatically for the NOT operator by most search engines.
Boolean Search Results
NB:
- The shaded regions represent the search engine’s response to the Boolean logic used in the search statement. The size of the shaded region, though to a large extent is reflective of the number of hits or quantity of results retrieved, is not necessarily meant to illustrate the quantum of results retrieved but to demonstrate the search engine’s inclusion and exclusion criteria based on the Boolean parameters.
- Search engines use the Boolean logic whether or not the searcher puts them there.
- Search engines vary in default Boolean operator. A searcher must therefore know whether a search engine of choice uses OR or AND by default before doing a natural language search.
- Also note how increase use of the AND operator narrows results increasingly. An abuse of the AND operator can lead to zero results retrieved.
- The OR operator should only be used to combine synonyms or terms that are used interchangeably in the scholarly literature.
Other Search Functions in Search Engines
Exact Phrase Search: use inverted commas (double-quotation marks) to restrict search results to records that contain the exact quoted phrase. E.g. “malaria prevention”
Truncation (* or $) suffixed to the root of any word form will find various words emanating from that root. E.g.
elect* will yield results containing elect, elected, election, electric, electricity, electrician, etc.
Wild cards (?) can be placed anywhere within a word to retrieve records in which alternate spellings of the word are used. E.g.
lab?r will retrieve records containing labour or labor.
Search (concept) sets
("immigra*" OR "citizenship") AND econom*
The search engine would first search for: "immigra*" OR "citizenship" and the results of these ORed terms would then be ANDed with econom*
Precision & Recall
Measuring the relevancy of retrieved records to a search query.
Precision also known as Positive Predictive Value (PPV) refers to the number of records retrieved that are relevant to the search query. In other words, it is the fraction of all retrieved records [True Positives (TP) + False Positives (FP)] that are relevant [True Positives (TP)].
The Relevancy ranking in most search engines, however, is boosted when the search terms appear in the title of the records or are capitalized.
Recall also known as sensitivity refers to the ability of an information retrieval system to find all the records in a database that are relevant to a search query, and it is expressed as a fraction of relevant records retrieved [True Positives (TP)] compared to all existing relevant records [True Positives (TP) + False Negatives (FN)].
Koehrsen, W. (2018). Beyond Accuracy: Precision and Recall. Retrieved June 8, 2018, from https://towardsdatascience.com/beyond-accuracy-precision-and-recall-3da06bea9f6c
Wikipedia. (2018). Precision and Recall. Retrieved June 8, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_and_recall
Precision & Recall Infographic
Journal databases spanning MEDLINE, HINARI, BioMed Central, EBSCOhost, Health Source, Royal College of Physicians, Wiley Online Library, Biology Image Library, American Journal of Science, Cochrane Medical Library, CINAHL, ScienceDirect, etc.
Coverage: Medicine, Nursing, Public Health, Allied Health, etc.
Access: http://library.uhas.edu.gh/
CatalogueèOff CampusèLogin:
User Name: ask your librarian for
Password: username and password
HINARI
HINARI (Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative)
Capacity: Over 7,000 journals
Coverage: Biomedical and Health literature
Access: http://www.who.int/HINARI
Subscription: User name: ask your librarian for
Password: username and password
HINARI, as it is commonly abbreviated stands for Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative. It was set up by the World Health Organization and major publishers to enable developing countries to access collections of biomedical and health literature. There are over 7000 journal titles available to health institutions in 109 countries. HINARI is part of Research4Life, the collective name for four programs - HINARI (focusing on health), AGORA (focusing on agriculture), OARE (focusing on environment), and ARDI (focusing on applied science and technology). Together, Research4Life provides developing countries with free or low cost access to academic and professional peer-reviewed content online.
The HINARI program, and the other programs, have recently been reviewed and the publishers involved have committed to continuing with it until at least 2015.
WHO
Coverage: Health and general wellbeing.
Access: http://www.who.int/
PubMed (Public MEDLINE)
Capacity: 23,000,000 citations.
Coverage: Biomedical literature, life science journals and online books.
Content: Abstracts, links to full-text from PubMed Central and publisher websites.
Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
Alternatively – pubmed.gov or pubmed.com
Subscription: Free
Cochrane Library
Coverage:
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Cochrane
Reviews)
- Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE)
- Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)
- Cochrane Methodology Register (Methodology Register)
- Health Technology Assessment Database (HTA)
- NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED)
Access: http://www.cochrane.org
http://ww.thecochranelibrary.com
FREE E-Book Sites
- http://www.welovelmc.com
- http://www.freebookcentre.net
- http://www.e-booksdirectory.com
- http://www.freebooks4doctors.com
- http://www.m.freebooks4doctors.com(mob. Ver.)
- http://www.medicalstudent.com
- https://www.gutenberg.org
Ethical Use of Online Information
The online availability of information does not preclude intellectual property rights or copyright. It is important to explore the copyright or licence status of a piece of information to inform use in order to avoid copyright infringements or plagiarism. The Creative Commons organization offer 4 types of open licence that provide 6 combinations all of which are based attribution (i.e. crediting the owner of the original work even when used in other varied forms.)
Standard 3: Evaluation of information resources
“Is this story true ?”, “I am skeptic about the information provided in that report”, “The results reported in that study are interesting but I need to cross check”.
People judge the information they receive based on the degree of trust they give to that information and how they are going to behave with that information.
Information is a crucial component of any decision making process.
In the medical field, decisions based on wrong information can lead to life threatening and fatal consequences.
It is therefore important to evaluate the information needed for the purpose of decision making.
Some information are already evaluated. Eg. Electronic databases acquired by libraries, books in libraries, but you are the sole evaluator of information on the Internet