Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Unit 04 Assignment 01

Research Log Entry 01
  1. What three periodicals did you choose?

    • Group 1: Time – AP .T37
    • Group 2: American Bar Association Journal – KB 1 A5
    • Group 3: Journal of Chemical Ecology – QD1 .J926

  2. Name three articles, one from each of the three journals you chose.

    • Time – America’s Next Top Model By: Kate Betts (Page 42)
    • American Bar Association Journal – The Ninety-Fourth: A Congress in Transition By: Bruce R. Hopkins (Page 65)
    • Journal of Chemical Ecology – Semiochemicals via Epoxide Inversion By: J.E. Oliver,

  3. R.M. Waters, and D.J. Harrison (Page 287)What are the major differences among these articles?

    The article from the Time Magazine featured colored pictures. The article was focused on a single subject (the style of President Obama’s wife, Michelle Obama). It was a short article that featured quotes taken during interviews, facts and information regarding Michelle Obama’s previously sported fashions as well as a description and analysis of her style sense.

    The article from the American Bar Association Journal was much longer & features several different subject headings under which the corresponding text described different Congressional achievements and failures throughout the years.

    The article from the Journal of Ecology featured three different sections – an Introduction, Methods & Materials, and Result & Discussion. Unlike the other two articles, this entry seemed more like a scientific journal – a record of the steps taken, followed by the results & an analysis/explanation of these results as they relate to the scientific experiment/procedure.

  4. What are the major differences among these periodicals?

    Time & the ABA Journal are similar in many ways – they are each publications which include advertisements as well as articles. The articles found in the ABA Journal seem to have been about government & politics. Although Time did feature articles about governmental issues and/or politics (i.e. the inauguration), it did not seem to have been written in as serious of a tone. Instead, it seemed to be written in a more expansive tone. However, the Journal of Ecology was extremely different from both the Time & ABA Journal. Like I mentioned before, it seemed more like a scientific journal covering a wide range of topics all of which are related to ecology. These topics include: biogeochemistry, ecosystems ecology, microbial ecology, physiological plant ecology, climate change, molecular genetics, mycorrhizal ecology, and the interactions between plants and organisms such as animals or bacteria. Obviously, you would not expect to find any articles about legislature in this periodical.


Research Log Entry 02


Database 01 - Britannica Online
  1. Which database did you choose for your first search?

    I chose to use the Britannica Online to conduct my search.

  2. What terms did you enter to conduct your search?

    For this search, I used the search term “pinhole camera.”

  3. How many results did you retrieve?

    The search returned eight different results.

  4. If there were more than about 100 results, how did you refine your search terms to narrow your results?

    Not Applicable.

  5. Once you got your results to around 100 (or fewer), how did you determine they were meaningful?

    I chose to use the first result because it was the only result which specifically mentioned pinhole cameras.

  6. Which article did you choose? Give the bibliographic information for that article.
    I chose to use an excerpt about pinhole cameras from an article titled “Optics.”

    • Authors: Encyclopedia Britannica T
    • Title: Optics
    • Edition: Britannica Online
    • Place of Publication: (Not Specified)
    • Publisher: (Not Specified)
    • Date of Publication: 2009

      http://search.eb.com/eb/article-37941

  7. How did you determine this article was meaningful?

    The article describes how a difference in the size of the pinhole can affect the outcome of the picture. It also goes on to compare a pinhole to an actual camera lens.


Academic Search Premiere

  1. What terms did you enter to conduct your search?

    First, I used the term “pinhole camera.” This returned 243 results. I then tried using the term “camera obscura.” This returned 332 results. Finally, I decided to use a combination of the two terms “pinhole camera” and “camera obscura” to conduct my search.

  2. How many results did you retrieve?

    After searching a combination of the terms “pinhole camera” and “camera obscura” I was able to retrieve 8 relevant results.

  3. If there were more than about 100 results, how did you refine your search terms to narrow your results?

    (Refer to Question 01)

  4. What differences did you note in how you needed to manipulate your search terms in this different database?

    (Refer to Question 01)

  5. Once you got your results to around 100 (or fewer), how did you determine they were meaningful?

    Since there were a small number of results, I briefly looked through each result & chose the result which I felt was most relevant to my topic.

  6. Which article did you choose? Give the bibliographic information for that article (I must be able to access this article).


    I chose to use an article titled “Successful Pinhole Photography”


  7. How did you determine if this article was meaningful?

    In the description, i    t said that this article would discuss the construction of a pinhole camera/camera obscura, the design of a pinhole lens, the construction of pinholes as well as experimental set up. Having a clear understanding of each of these components would be beneficial in helping one to understanf how a pinhole camera works.

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1 comment:

  1. AlineFebruary 19, 2009 at 11:39 PM

    Your periodicals comments are exactly right. These are differences among the various types of periodicals--popular, trade/professional, and scholarly/research. In your college career, you will likely use scholarly articles more and more.

    Britannica Online: You write: "I chose to use the first result because it was the only result which specifically mentioned pinhole cameras." If you opened all the results, you would find "pinhole camera" in every one of them; otherwise, the item wouldn't show up in the results. They may be listed in relevance order, but they all contain your search term. You might not see it in the result list because it may be too far down in the text of the article.

    Academic Search Premier: Good search strategy. Just keep working it until you get what you want.

    As for your evaluation, relevance is clearly an important criterion; however, also important are author credentials and the fact that these articles are all vetted by the journals and also the database providers.

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