LBSU 302: Difficulties in Electronic Resources Searching

I just want to make sure we are all on the same page about how to conduct a online database search using the Leatherby Libraries. First off the Leatherby Libraries page seems to be all over the place and in some cases distracts the user from finding information.

A Zero grade :(

I had to give zeros to some of you as a marker grade until the full assignment could be completed. The Leatherby libraries website is a bit confusing and several went into the library catalog in the middle of the page or the discover page. This usually leads you to a number of titles most of which are on the shelves in Irvine, CA. I sent out zeros to make sure everyone was on the same page as to how to access database materials, ebooks and articles.  In any classroom you can access online articles and for week 3 you could have also used google books if you did the Leatherby Libraries search first and didnt find what you needed. In some cases I still gave a grade if you did get to the databases first and then choose another location. While it is possible to access ebooks from the online catalog the regular books on the shelf in the actual library overrun and overpower your search results in sheer number. You are more likely to find relevant materials in ebsco than through the online catalog. The online catalog will not give you a full search of the material until you are in the database.

The Myth that is Google Scholar

The Myth that is Google Scholar

The Myth that is Google Scholar

As a class using a University database we are privileged to have such extensive, free to use databases at our disposal but the claim that a free to use database of full access articles is just around the corner can be tempting. What many of you have noticed when getting fed up with certain EBSCO search results and relying on the fail safe that is Google Scholar you find Pay Per View results. This is because many of the most relevant results are actually paying Google in some cases for privilege of position in search results.

If you step outside the realm that is our university library and into the public use, you would be better off using Google Advanced search by .edu domain than trying Google Scholar.

The only issue in our case as many are looking for their field attached to careers is in some cases you may find some of these results are not articles but rather how to obtain your degree and the .edu sites become different universities trying to show you BA's as a social Worker or BA's in Psychology.

Yes with Google Scholar the term free to use sounds great we find many free abstracts but will find many results with Full Text with the low low price of 39.99 for the day ;-[ 

Why do this when you have a University library databases free and at your disposal considering you did in fact pay for them being a Brandman Student?

My hope is that as students within the next few weeks you will find new actual scholarly journals and will venture outside of the bubble that is Google, Google Scholar and Wikipedia…

hope your research is going well,
Mr Mac

Turning in your weekly Assignments

LBSU 302,

Although you can continue to submit your assignments to me through email I would prefer that you submit the weekly assignments through blackboard by clicking on the weekly assignment title. It was not previously easy to find this spot to attach your files as the assignment title was in black.

All of the assignment tiles have now been switched to blue. By clicking on your weekly assignment title and then upload your file you can submit your weeks work via blackboard

thanks Mr Mac

Your weekly blog posts on blogger :0

I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page as to how to do your blog posts,

I have received many of the week 2 blog posts in blackboard as an assignment post rather than on your actual blog. This makes sense as it seems their might be a few duplications as to where to post.

As your instructor: Every week I will look to the class list to see who did their blog posts.
You have the option to post your blog URL link each week to me by email or blackboard but you do not have to! Just the actual assignment needs to be uploaded to blackboard.

Please make sure your actual blog reflection though is posted to you blog otherwise I will not be able to grade it and your classmates cannot see your work and reply on blackboard and therefore defeats the purpose. Also your blog should be a reflection of the work you did written after the work not the actual weekly assignment.
For those of you that have already posted your week 2 blog post to blackboard instead of your blog, please copy and paste your work back to your blog.

Creating a new blog post:

Make sure you are signed into the same gmail account that you used to create the blog (a little tricky if you have more than one gmail account ;| )
You should have the option when you sign into your gmail to create a new post at the top right of your blog when you view your page

Also you can create a new post using the compose button when you view your dashboard…

I hope this helps if there was some confusion before.

Thank you,

Mr Mac

John Macomber

LBSU 302: Lets Learn APA Format :)

All LBSU 302 Students,

Many of us are breaking new ground as we start to learn the nuances of APA format. For many of the class this new citation style is unfamiliar. To better understand this new style I would recommend each article you find through Leatherby you use the citation tool that is a part of your articles and ebooks. Please use these citations as a guide for your future citations and copy and paste these article citations into your assignments.

APA Examples:

Contributors' names (Last edited date). Title of resource. Retrieved from http://Web address for OWL resource

Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderlund, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). General format. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

If you have not used it before I would also recommend OWL Purdue.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Some of you had already used this resource before but if you have not this would be a great site to learn this new citation format from. A standard for citation writing OWL Purdue and it has great example of a APA sample paper. Since the assignments we are creating are mainly article and book review we will not need to use a full APA paper till week 8 which is the last week of class. In the meantime please use the citation tools in future for all assignment citations. This same format should be used for any websites found through the internet.

Please do not include the web link found at the top for any ebsco articles as this is an individual login URL for you username only and will not work for your instructor. Example

https://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=c5fdb8c4-0309-4610-b5a3-21160ad3724e%40sessionmgr4003&hid=4114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=110343142&db=aph

Instead please use the citation tool found on your article.

Thank you,

Mr Mac

LBSU 302 Posting a reply to a classmate

LBSU 302, I am sending out this step by step to completing a blog reply in your blogspot blogs.

This is from a blogpost from March of last year:

LBSU 302 online: Posting a comment through blogspot/ Classmate blog post

I have had a lot of student comments about how to post replies to another classmate. First of all make sure you are signed into your blogspot account by first signing into google.

The easiest steps to signing in and posting to another classmate can be accomplished in this order:

Go to http://libgentech.blogspot.com



At the top right of the screen will be the link to sign in. Sign into your google gmail account.

Once you are signed in scroll down to the class blog list. My hope is that you will select a class member who has not received a class reply rather than everyone responding to a single person. Spread the wealth and around! Hopefully this will also generate more class discussion…

Click on the button below their post and click "no comments" or "4 comments"

You will not see a reply button only a link to click that states no comments or will list how many comments. Make sure you are signed into your Google account or this link will not be visible. 

Hope this helps! Good luck and email me if it does not work!

Creating your Spring 1 Research blog

How to Create a Blog

Go to Mr Mac’s LBSU 302 Research blog or blogger.com.
Sign in using your gmail account. If you do not already have a Google account sign up for one.

For our first week we are setting up our research blogs on the website blogger.com

This site will be used for our reflection posts after you finish your weekly assignments. For week one please send me your new URL through email which should look like

http://libgentech.blogspot.com/

When setting up your blog you have the option to choose your blog name before the title blogspot.com

You will add your title and add the URL name for your new blog.

To make sure you are signed into your site confirm that your email account is listed in the top right of the screen. From here you can see the link for new post or on your blog desktop click the orange pencil compose button to add a new post and complete this weeks first assignment.

You will receive credit 60 points this week
30 points for your website

30 points for your first post

Good luck, Mr Mac.

after you send me your blog links by email I will add them to the list here on the blog..

Setting up your new LBSU302 research blog

Hello LBSU 302,

I have added some extra information for setting up your Week 1 blog on blogger.com.

Mr Mac research blog
http://libgentech.blogspot.com/

Also for google support on Blogger visit
https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/1623800?hl=en​

Make sure to email me your new web address when you have finished to receive credit for the week one assignment