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/openspacephilippines

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Acknowledgements!
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UPLB MAIN LIBRARY

The Learning Commons

We would like to thank Professor Garry Jay S. Montemayor,

Chairman of the Department of Science Communication, College
Of Development Communication, University of the Philippines Los
Baos for the things he taught us in DevCom 150: Scientific and
Technical Information Processing. Many of our ideas and
examples are from Sir Garrys class and handouts.!

We would also like to thank UPLB Main Library for their support
and for letting us use their facilities.!

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Finally, to you who are willing to learn, thank you.!
!
Please feel free to share this to others.!
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OPEN SPACE PH
knowledge for free.
knowledge for all.

an encore shop-talk on effective internet searching

Like us on Facebook to help us free knowledge:!

facebook.com/openspacephilippines!

If you have any queries, just send us an contact us at:!

openspace.ph@gmail.com!
+639174653272

Page 1 of 11

I.

On-line Searching: Searching and Retrieving Information

using the Internet!

Why the need to study this?!

1. General browsing using simple keywords and following
recommended links is the most effective way to waste your
time.!
2. Aimless and unplanned browsing is another route to
frustration and lack of usable results.!
3. Living in an illusion that everything is searchable in the
internet by just a mouse click, and that web searching is a
commonsensical skill, makes on fall into the trap of doing
unplanned, trial-an-error research.!

Key points in web searching!

1. What are you looking for? - Think about and carefully analyze
your topic to be certain you know what it is you are looking for
and why you believe that internet should be searched.!
2. What words and phrases describe your topic? - List the
distinctive words and phrases that describe your topic. Search
for synonymous or equivalent terms. Avoid common verbs,
adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions and propositions.!
3. How is your topic classified into levels from general to
specific? - identify the keywords for the right level by
classifying your search terms into families of terms using 5Ws
and 1H.!
4. Where do you need to start your search? - Pick the right
starting point for your search. Multi-subject directories for
specific topic, Search engines for an obscure topic.!
5. How can you use symbols to maximize your search terms? Formulate the words and phrases into a logical set of search
statements using logical operators.!

Page 2 of 11

Internet Searching Tips!

When youre searching online, your goal is to narrow down billions

of unrelated search results into a handful of links that are directly
related to what you want to know."

1. Identify topic descriptors.!

Write down all the words and phrases which can be used to
describe your topic!
Identify terms that have too many meanings to avoid obtaining
too many irrelevant results!
Used general topic descriptors if you want to do a general
search!

!
Suppose you need information about Sickle-cell anemia.!
!

A blood-related disease where red blood cells become sickled, or

C shaped, causing the RBCs to get stuck in blood vessels and
block the blood flow.!

!
Identify closely-related keywords/concepts:!
!
Blood disease

Anemia

Sickle

Blood cells

Blood disease

Red Blood cells

Sickle-cell disease

Hemoglobin

SS disease

Hemoglobinose S

C-shaped red blood cells

Drepanocytosis

2. List down unique identifiers for the topic!

Write down any unique words, phrases, acronyms, and
synonyms by which your topic and its related elements can be
identified!

Make lists of your terms: those that will either narrow or broaden
your search!

Narrow

Broaden

Sickle-cell disease

Blood

Hemoglobinose S

Sickle

SS disease

Red Blood cells

Drepanocytosis

Hemoglobin

C-shaped red blood cells

Blood disease

Sickle blood

Anemia

3. Identify people, organization and associations related to the

topic!
List any key people, organizations such as research centers,
and associations which are connected with your topic. If you do
not know of any, come back to this step once you have found
some during your search.!

4. Use statement strings!

Write down the statements you will use for your search using
math symbols and Boolean operators. Use your list of terms to
construct statements. Here are some common functions you
can use in your search using common search engines.!

Page 3 of 11

!
!

Boolean operators and strings!

a. AND (conjunctive intersection) [+] (i.e. wildlife
+philippines)"
- terms in both sides of this operator must be present
somewhere in the document in order for it to be identified
by the computer as a result!
b. OR (additive union) [OR] (i.e. wildlife philippines OR
indonesia)"
- terms on either side of this operator are sufficient to be
identified as a result!
c. NOT (subtractive) [-] (i.e. wildlife -amphibians)!
- documents containing the term after this operator are
rejected from the results!
d. Use of Numrange [..] (i.e. wildlife 2010..2014) !
- instructs the search engine to display all documents in
the database that bear the numbers within the specified
number range!
e. Use of [site:] (i.e. amphibians site:wwf.org)!
- instructs the search engine to search the term/s located
only within the specified site!
f. Use of quotation marks [] (i.e. Philippine wildlife)!
- instructs the search engine to search the terms in exact
order as a phrase!
g. Include file types [filetype:] (i.e. wildlife filetype:pdf)!
- instructs the search engine to display all documents in
the database that are formatted based on the specified file
type!

For updated Google Search Operators and!

Punctuations & Symbols, visit google search help:!
Google Search Operators - https://goo.gl/nt1Frs!
Google Punctuations & Symbols - http://goo.gl/KHdrLA!

5. Find directories to be searched!

Make a list of directories which you will search; if you have few
results, use your list of terms to broaden your search.!

6. Find search engines to be searched!

Make a list of search engines which you will use for searching; if
you have few results, use your list of terms to broaden your
search!

7. More advanced options!

You can narrow down your complex search using advanced
search screen on a search engine if there is one. Advanced
search options will limit search results according to your
preferences based on search operators.!

Page 4 of 11

!
II.
!

Discovering Academic Sources in the Internet!

The Internet is a different world. You can get lost in it. You must
know where to start your search to help you save time and effort.!

!
!

On-line Catalog - Enables the users to view the holdings of a

library, online!

Local Libraries!

Catalogue
Institution (Library)

Website

UP Diliman

ilib.upd.edu.ph

UP Los Baos

ilib.uplb.edu.ph

UP Open University

library.upou.edu.ph

IRRI

ricelib.irri.cgiar.org

Ateneo de Manila University

rizal.lib.admu.edu.ph

De Las Salle University

lib1000.dlsu.edu.ph

University of Sto. Tomas

ustlib.ust.edu.ph

DOST-STII

webdb.stii.dost.gov.ph

On-line Union Catalog - Enables the users to view the holdings

of or collections of a group, or a consortium, of libraries!

Catalogue
US Library of Congress!

Website
loc.gov/z3950

Provides access to individual

OPACs of thousands of
universities in US
WorldCat!

Provides OPAC access to about

71,000 libraries in 90 countries, all
of them participating in the Online
Computer Library Center (OCLC)
global cooperative

Page 5 of 11

worldcat.org

Philippine e-Lib!

Website

elib.gov.ph

LibraryLink!

librarylink.org.ph

Project of National Library of the

Philippines, DOST, DA, CHED; a
million bibliographic records, 25
million digitized Philippine
materials, 29,000 full-text journal
articles

Provides access to Filipiniana

resources/collections of more than
50 libraries in the Philippines

!
Other notable union catalogs!
!
Catalogue
OhioLINK!

Website

ohiolink.edu

COPAC!

copac.ac.uk

Karlrsruher virtueller catalog!

ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/hylib/en/
kvk.html

Access to OPAC of colleges and

universities in Ohio

Allows unified search on OPAC of

major universities in Britain and
Ireland

OPAC of most European libraries

and some National Libraries

Internet Directories!
Academic and professional directories
- created and maintained by professional librarians in academic
institutions!
Commercial directories
- do not usually index academic topics and therefore not all of
their links are research sources; rely on advertising to generate
income; almost all may have his/her own website indexed!

!
Internet Directories: Libraries!
!
Directory
The Library Index!

Website

libdex.com

National Library Catalogues

Worldwide!

library.uq.edu.au/ssah/jeast

Library search by country

Directory of National Libraries (by

country); hosted by University of
Queensland

search.theeuropeanlibrary.org/
portal/en/index.html

Directory of European Libraries;

also a union catalog
Libraries in the Philippines

!
Internet Directories: Portals!
!

Online Computer Library Center (OLC): iclc.org

- By 2000, it claimed over 34,000 member libraries around the
world; by 2007, it claimed to have 1.1 billion catalogued items;
access for a fee!
OVID: ovid.com
- Specializes in medical technology; used by librarians and
experienced searchers; access for a fee!
EBSCOHost: ebscohost.com
- Subscription provider of libraries; include reference sources
journals, books, indexing services, etc.!

!
On-line Databases!
!

- A database of encyclopedias and reference sources!

ProQuest Database: il.proquest.com/en-US/products/brands
- A database of scholarly materials focusing on health and
medicine, sciences, agriculture, social sciences, etc. !
Web AGRIS: fao.org/agris/search/search.do
- Covers agricultural sciences and technologies!

!
Electronic Databases!
!

Education Resources Information Center (ERIC): eric.ed.gov

- Mostly bibliographies and index, but also provides full text!
paarl.wikispaces.com/Libraries

Librarians internet index: www.lii.org!

Open Directory Project: ww.dmoz.org!
SocSci research network: ssrn.com!
Research Resources for Social Science: socsciresearch.com!
webring.com

Page 6 of 11

Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL): gale.cengage.com

The European Library!

Bibliographic Networks!

The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (LanTEEAL)

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- available at UPLB Main Library

- Off-line database of journals focusing on agriculture,
aquaculture, food science, microbiology, rural development,
veterinary medicine, etc.!

Other Databases!

Indexing and Abstracting Databases!

If you need something

about:

Then you may use:

Agriculture

AGRIBUSINESS USA, AGRICOLA,

AGRIS, AGROCHEMICALS
HANDBOOK, CAB ABSTRACTS,
USDA/CRIS

Applied S&T

COMPENDEX, ENERGYLINE

Social Science

ERIC, LISA

News and Popular

LIterature

NEWSEARCH, NEXIS

Science

AGRICOLA, BIOSIS, LAN TEEAL

Medicine

MEDLINE, EMBASE

Patents

PhilPat

!
Statistical Sources (Philippines)!
!

National Statistics Office (NSO)!

National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB)!
Social Weather Station (SWS)!
NationMaster!
DA-Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (DA-BAS)!
Most Department websites provide sectoral statistics!

Page 7 of 11

OCLC Article First - social sciences, humanities, pop culture!

ISI Web of Science - social sciences, humanities, science!
Scopus - all subjects!
Periodicals Contents Index (PCI) - humanities and socsci!
CSA Illumina - all subjects!
Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) - all subjects!
The International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS)!
Zetoc - all subjects (British librarys electronic table of contents)!
Infotrieve - all subjects!

!
Search Engine Updates!
!

searchenginewatch.com!
searchengineshowdown.com!

!
[Other notable] Alternative search engines!
!

qwika.com!
cluuz.com!
exalead.com/search!
iseek.com!
factbites.com!
scirus.com!
wolframalpha.com!
gopubmed.com!
faganfinder.com!
tineye.com!
taggalaxy.de!
picsearch.com

Meta-search engines!

Journals (full-text, for a fee)!

beaucoup.com!
dogpile.com!
metacrawler.com!
ixquick.com!
clusty.com!
turboscout.com!
info.com!
goshme.com (meta meta search)!

Blackwell Synergy (blackwell-synergy.com)!

Ingenta Connect (ingentaconnect.com)!
JSTOR (jstor.com)!
Elsevier Science Direct (sciencedirect.com)!
Oxford Journals Online (oxfordjournals.com)!
Sage Journals (online.sagepub.com)!
SpringerLink (springerlink.com)!
Taylor and Francis (tandf.co.uk/journals)!

Directory of Open Access Journals: doaj.com!

Go to Scholar.Google.Com!
Go to library.uplb.edu.ph/index.php/journal!
See EBSCOhost, Gale, and Project MUSE; SpringerLink,
FreeFulltext.com, and Questia!

amazon.com (search inside the book! feature)!

books.google.com!
gutenberg.org!
ebrary.com (for a fee)!
oxfordscholaship.com (provides book abstract)!
free-ebooks.net!

!
Directories/Databases for Scholarly Journals!
!
!
Journals (full-text)!
!

!
!

swetswise.com!
highwire.org!
scholar.google.com!
libprints.open.ac.uk!
accessmylibrary.com!
findarticles.com!

!
e-Books (full-text/limited view)!
!

!
Science and Technology Related (Local Sources)!
!
Science.ph

- first online access to S&T resources in the Philippines;

directory of scientists; science news!
DOST ScINET PHIL (scinet.dost.gov.ph/union/index.php)
- union catalog of 21 DOST agencies!
DOST-STII (stii.dost.gov.ph)
- local science news; starbooks; scientists bios!
OSIST.dost.gov.ph
-information about local inventions for marketing/technology
transfer!

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Page 8 of 11

Social Bookmarking Services!

and Reference Managers!

citeulike.org!
connotea.org!
zotero.org!
delicious.org!
mendeley.com!
colwiz.com!
jabref.sourceforge.net/!
citationmachine.net!

!
!
HOW TO CITE REFERENCES?!
!

PURDUE EDU!
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/!

University of the Philippines Los Baos!

JOURNAL SUBSCRIPTIONS!

ACM Digital Library!

(Access: On campus)!
A vast collection of citations and full text from ACM journal and
newsletter articles and conference proceedings, also available in Print.!

EBSCOHost Research Database!

(Access: On campus and Remote Access)!
A powerful online reference system that offers a variety of proprietary
and popular full text databases ranging from general reference
collections to specially designed, subject-specific databases for public,
academic, medical, corporate and school libraries. The databases
includes : Academic Search Complete, ERIC, GreenFile, Library
Information Science & Technology Abstracts, MAS Ultra School
Edition, Military & Government Collection, Funk & Wagnalls New
Encyclopedia. This also includes EBSCO Filipiniana eBooks.!

Emerald Management e-Journals!

(Access: On campus)"
Provides access to over 100,000 high quality peer-reviewed articles from
more than 230 journals and 24 management subject areas. Access
provided by the National Library of the Philippines!

IEEEXplore!
(Access: On campus, UP System)"
An online delivery system providing full text access to the world's highest
quality technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science,
and electronics. IEEE Xplore contains full text documents from IEEE
journals, transactions, magazines, letters, conference proceedings,
standards, and IEE (Institution of Electrical Engineers) publications. This
also includes collections of IEEE-WIley eBooks. Funded by the
Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for the Engineering
Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) Program.!

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Page 9 of 11

JSTOR!
(Access: On campus)!
Offers high-quality, interdisciplinary content to support scholarship and
teaching. It includes over one thousand leading academic journals
across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as
selected monographs and other materials valuable for academic work.
Journals are always included from volume 1, issue 1 and include
previous and unrelated titles. As of 2011, current issues for more than
150 journals are available on JSTOR as part of the Current Scholarship
Program. Additional collections include valuable primary source content
complementary to the academic journals and monographs. The entire
corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes
high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and
references. The content is expanded continuously with a current
emphasis on international publications as well as pamphlets, images,
and manuscripts from libraries, societies, and museums. Access to this
database is provided to us by the International Network for the
Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP)-Philippines.!
!

Scopus!
(Access: On campus and Remote Access)"
The largest abstract and citation database containing both peerreviewed research literature and quality web sources. With over 18,000
titles from more than 5,000 publishers, Scopus offers researchers a
quick, easy and comprehensive resource to support their research
needs in the scientific, technical, medical and social sciences fields and,
more recently, also in the arts and humanities.!

Proquest Databases!
(Access: On campus and Remote Access)"
A complete online database package which consists of the following
databases: ABI/INFORM Global, Academic and Research Library,
Nursing & Allied Health Source, ProQuest Agriculture Journals,
ProQuest Biology Journals, ProQuest Computing, ProQuest Education
Journals, ProQuest Medical Library, ProQuest Science Journals,
ProQuest Social Science Journals, and the U.S. National Newspaper
Abstracts. For remote access login here.!

Science Direct!
(Access: On campus and Remote Access)"
The world's largest electronic collection of science, technology and
medicine full text and bibliographic information. It contains over 25% of
the world's science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic
information. [Subject Collection: Chemical Engineering, Computer
Science, Decision Sciences, Engineering, Materials Science,
Mathematics. Funded by the Department of Science and Technology
(DOST) for the Engineering Research and Development for Technology
(ERDT) Program. For remote access, registration is required. Just click
here and fill up the needed information.!

Page 10 of 11

SpringerLink!
(Access: On campus access only at UP Diliman, for article request,
please email us at library@uplb.edu.ph)"
Covers more than 1,250 peer-reviewed journals, book series, eBooks
and other media materials totaling to more than 600,000 individual
documents. Subject categories include:!

Mathematics | Computer Science | Engineering | Physics & Astronomy |

Chemistry & Material Science | Earth & Environmental Sciences |
Biomedical & Life Sciences!
Medicine | Business & Economics | Humanities, Social Sciences & Law
| Behavioral Sciences!
Funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for the
Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT)
Program.!

Swetswise!
(Access: On campus, To directly access UPLB subscriptions, please
click "IP Authentication" link in the Swetswise page.)"

Includes journal titles in the following subjects:!

Development Communication | Agronomy-horticulture | Animal science |
Entomology | Food Science | Biology | Genetics | Chemistry | Statistics |
Arts and Humanities | Social Science | Economics and Management |
Engineering | Forestry | Education | Community Development |
Veterinary Medicine | Environmental Science | Human Ecology!

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Taylor & Francis!

(Access: On campus)"
Have been publishing academic research since 1798 and on an open
access basis since 2006. We offer a broad range of author options,
enabling authors to publish their material in quality open access journals
with a high degree of peer review integrity.!

Sage Journals | Sage Online Collections!

(Access: On campus)"
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and
electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets.!

The Economist!
(Access: On campus)"
Offers authoritative insight and opinion on international news, politics,
business, finance, science and technology.!

Almost all subjects are available.!

Annual Reviews!
(Access: On campus)"
Since 1932, Annual Reviews has offered comprehensive, timely
collections of critical reviews written by leading scientists. Annual
Reviews volumes are published each year for 41 focused disciplines
within the Biomedical, Life, Physical, and Social Sciences including
Economics.!
Annual Reviews is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide
the worldwide scientific community with a useful and intelligent synthesis
of the primary research literature for a broad spectrum of scientific
disciplines. Annual Reviews publications are among the most highly
cited in scientific literature as indexed by the Thomson Reuters Journal
Citation Reports (JCR).!

CABI!
(Access: On campus)"
Encyclopedic, mixed-media tools that integrate diverse range of
validated science-based information. It is use by various audience extension officers / researchers / quarantine officers / policy makers for training, decision support or knowledge expansion.!
Crop Protection Compendium!
Forestry Compendium!
Animal Health and Production Compendium!
Aquaculture Compendium!
Invasive Species Compendium!
!

Page 11 of 11

References:!

Chowdhury, Gobinda. (1999). Introduction to Modern Information

Retrieval. London: Library Association Publishing.!

Hart, C. (2001). Doing a Literature Search: A Comprehensive

Guide for the Social Sciences. Great Britain: Sage Publications,
Ltd.!

Katz, W.A. (2002). Introduction to Reference Work [8th ed].

Boston: McGraw-Hill.!

ODochartaigh, N. O. (2002). The Internet Research Handbook.

London: Sage Publications, Ltd.!

ODochartaigh, N. O. (2007). Internet Research Skills. London:

Sage Publications, Ltd.!