Help me learn to do research?

[FredStembottom]

Hi folks,

This is a vague question, I admit.

But.... is there some kinda handy trick people use to get at specific stories as they unfold? Ways to "track" them without paging thru thousands of posts here at DU (and elsewhere) each day?

Doesn't "the Google" do something like that?

I have tried the DU search many, many times and basically don't get it. I get vastly different results as I fiddle with the drop-down menus that I don't understand.

(you know, "reflexively cursive children's archives" and such).

Sorry to be dense..... never got to college.:blush:

Any help appreciated.

Mods: Oops! Did I put this in an inappropriate forum? Move it if you know a better place. Thanks.

[jefferson_dem]

1. Three simple links to begin your research...

GOOGLE NEWS --> http://news.google.com/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=

BLOGPULSE --> http://www.blogpulse.com/

WIKIPEDIA (pay special attention to the "references" and "external links" --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

[FredStembottom]

7. Thank you very much!

I appreciate it.:hi:

[bananas]

2. You can google some stuff on DU

You can restrict a google search to s specific website by including "site:example.com" in the search string.

So if you wanted to search for any DU discussion of mean-time-between-failures of nuclear power plants, you could type into the google search box:

site:democraticunderground.com nuclear mtbf

and you get this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=opera&rls=en&hs=lRU&q=site%3Ademocraticunderground.com+nuclear+mtbf&btnG=Search

Web Results 1 - 2 of about 5 from democraticunderground.com for nuclear mtbf. (0.38 seconds)
Tip: Save time by hitting the return key instead of clicking on "search"

Democratic Underground Forums - Printer friendly page, topic ID ...who said that it could not be from a Russian nuclear power plant because the models they had showed a MTBF for such plants of 10000 years " ...
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard. php?az=printer_friendly&forum=115&topic_id=49887 - 13k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

Democratic Underground - Once again you prove that nuclear ...If the 10000 year MTBF was correct, then with 441 reactors the catastrophic failure ... We stopped the Shoreham nuclear power station from coming on line. ...
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard. php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=49658&mesg_... - 24k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages


In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 2 already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.

[FredStembottom]

8. I will print this one out and "practice".

Thank you, bananas.:hi:

[kestrel91316]

3. College doesn't necessarily help with searches on computer.

I have a doctorate, but there WERE no PCs when I was in college. We did searches in the card catalog and RGPL in the library (you know, the place with books made of paper?).

Google searches usually leave me cussing.

[FredStembottom]

9. I definaately have C.I.C.

College Inferiority Complex :blush:

Interesting to hear that aspects of a college edumacation have an "expiration date"!:wow:

[TheBaldyMan]

16. Dubya has an MBA from Harvard Business School

and he is as dumb as a rock. College doesn't automatically make you smart.

Degrees definately have a sell by date. Fast moving fields can be OOD in 18-36 months, that means completely retraining on the job every 3 years.

[Henny Penny]

4. Try newsnow to keep track of news as it breaks...

You can select a news feed, the hot topic searches are quite good.

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/

Having trouble with google searches pulling up a lot of junk???

Try google scholar or try using logical operators to filter the results more effectively.

For some reason google scholar is tucked away behind more and even more but here's the link.

http://scholar.google.com/

Once in you can go to advanced scholar search to pick a subject area. Not at all bad for academic journals etc.

Using the compound operators means words like AND or OR and NOT etc.

Try reading this presentation.

http://www.googleguide.com/power_select.html

[FredStembottom]

10. Excellent, H. P. !

I have never eveb heard of Google Scholar.

I'll take a look ASAP.:applause:

[martymar64]

5. Some helpful hints

Drill down to the original source whenever possible. Anything you read, go to it's source. That source? Go to it's original source as well. And on and on untill you can't drill deeper. Commentaries on sources can be useful but they can slant the original source, even if inadvertently.

The Internet is a wonderful tool for researching, but don't forget libraries. Much of the information and original sources may not yet be in a digitized form, but luckily most library card catalogs are available online so you can at least go to the library armed with the names of the sources.

Take full of advantage of being close to a university if you can. Go to their various libraries. You don't need to be a student to pull a book from the shelf to read it there. Copiers are generally available to take home some relevant docs for further use.


Try some of these methods and you can't go wrong. I took a class on how to do research when I was an undergrad. I also took a course in Legal Research during my only year in Law School.

[FredStembottom]

11. I know what you mean......

I have had the experience of going to an original source after reading a commentary on it and feeling like I don't exactly agree with how the commentator framed it.

Not so much that the commentator was flat-out wrong, so much as feeling like their commentary angled off from the source somehow. That the writer's understanding is X degrees away from what I think the source is saying.

I live near the ginormous U of Minnesota libraries. Shows you what I know: I thought I wouldn't even get past some electronic gate (whooping, flashing lights, gates locked) without a student ID! So I have never gone to these various libraries.

:crazy:

[martymar64]

13. As for university libraries

You can access the books, you just can't check them out. That's when xerox can be your friends. Just remember to bring your quarters and dimes.

[bananas]

14. University of Minnesota Libraries - Services for Visitors

Here you go! Library hours, maps, etc on this web page.

http://www.lib.umn.edu/site/visitors.phtml

Services for Visitors

Libraries resources are available to all users from workstations located within a University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus library. Guest work stations are provided to support research, study , and professional activities of non-University users. Visitors to the University Libraries have access to all of our licensed indexes and databases while using library computer workstations. Visitors are expected to abide by University Libraries policies.

<snip>

[FredStembottom]

15. Dang! Looks like I can walk right in.......

....sit right down!

Danke!

[eppur_se_muova]

6. http://news.google.com/ does "something like that".

http://news.google.com/

Better than just The Google.

[FredStembottom]

12. Good. Excellent! Thank you.

I think I will try this one first.

:hi: