PROVE IT! competition briefing 2013

1. Prove it!
Presented by Roy
Manager
NUS B.A (Merit)
NTU MSc (Info Studies)

2. Pros of Internet
 Free of charge (NLB - 3 cents per minute)
 24 / 7 available (unlike library closes at 9 pm)
 Lots of information
 Easy to use
 Good for current info (news) & general info
 “Good Enough” e.g. find food, maps, etc
 WWW - World Wide Web

3. Cons of Internet (80/20 rule)
 Reliability? Who does quality control?
 Con-man (evaluate internet scams)
 Authority?
 Not so good for Scholarly, Specialized info
(Good stuff is there but must dig deeper)
 WWW - Wild, Wild West
Cat joke

4. PW Link?

5. Website evaluation
Which one is the best?
.gov .net .edu
.org .mil .com
What does .com stand for?

6. Team Members

7. 1) Ivan Chew - Project Sponsor
2) RoyWon - Project Manager
3) MichelleKwok - Dy Project Manager
4) Rohayah Mohd. Lani- WR rep
5) Audrey Chng - WR rep
6) Joycelyn Kee - CR rep
7) Soon Huat - NR rep
8) PeterChan - NR rep
Team Members

8. Bonsai Kitten

9. From Factiva Database

11. Over-reliance on Net has students floundering in media literacy test
A CERTAIN species of octopus in the Pacific north-west lives in a tree.
Sounds ridiculous?
Well, 34 out of 35 Singapore students who read the bogus website http://
zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ believed such a creature actually exists.
The students, aged 13 to 19, were unable to distinguish fact from fiction in a Straits
Times test of media literacy among youth.
The spoof site, set up as an online hoax in 1998 but now used by institutions to test
Internet literacy, fooled nearly all the 35 local students into thinking the tree
octopus story was 'well-supported by scientific research' and 'factual'.
From Factiva Database

12. Evaluating Resources
Criteria Questions to ask
Authority • Who published the material?
• Are the author’s and publisher’s qualification documented?
• Can they be contacted (via email or other method?)
• Where does the document originate – is it from an
educational institution, a government or a company?
• Is there a bibliography?
Accuracy • Are there any factual errors, or outdated facts?
• Is the information cited correctly?
• Are there any errors, inconsistencies or slip-ups in the
references?
• Are there any language errors?
Importance of citation – language of academia
– international standard – common language

13. Currency • When was the information published?
• When was the material last updated?
• Were the links still current?
Objectivity • What is the purpose of the document – was it created
for commercial, educational or other reasons?
• How much of the content is opinion based?
• What are objectives of the author?
Coverage • If there are links, are they evaluated in any way (i.e.
short write-up) and are they complementary to the
information on the site?
• What is the balance between textual and graphical
information?
• Is there any historical/geographical bias in the sources
used, and the treatment of the subject?

14. Wikipedia®
Should not be quoted in academic
research, DO NOT CITE IT!
But useful starting point to
authoritative sources/references

15. Straits Times - 1 Apr 2007

17. Get keywords, ideas, background
info but do not trust 100%

18. Do your own
evaluation & assess

21. NLB
eDatabases

22. How to score A? Story
Use a varied and wide range of reliable sources:
-Books (available at all libraries)
-Newspapers (Factiva, NewspaperSG)
-Encyclopedia (Britannica)
-Historical Info (History Database Centre)
-Geographic Info (World Atlas)
-Journals (Ebsco, Proquest, JSTOR)
-Websites (credible sites)

23. Accessing NLB eResources
eResources.nlb.gov.sg

24. Accessing NLB eResources

25. Registration through Internet

26. Accessing NLB eResources
Select Secondary Schools

27. Accessing NLB eResources

30. Factiva
 Global newspapers
e.g. The New York Times,
The Australian
 Local content
e.g. The Straits Times, Today, The Edge, Lianhe Zaobao, Shin Min
 Full access only from the library
 Has Straits Times from 1989 to present Day (at libraries only)
 Limited access from home due to copyright (Factiva $$$)
 Internet usage at libraries is 3 cents per minute ($1.80 per hour)

31. Interface from home
- Limited Access

32. search operators
 “ ”: to search for phrases, use quotation marks
Eg “dog ate my homework” – Decrease hits
AND: results will contain all the words or phrases
Decrease hits
OR: results will contain one or more of the
words or phrases
Increase hits
NOT: results will not contain the word or phrase
after: Decrease hits
* Wildcard - Toilet*

33. AND – Decrease hits
Lee Kuan Yew AND Singapore

34. AND – Decrease hits
Lee Kuan Yew
Singapore
AND

35. 11,874 hits

36. OR – Increase hits
Lee Kuan Yew OR Singapore

37. OR – Increase hits
Lee Kuan Yew
Singapore
OR

38. 381,518 hits

39. NOT – Decrease hits
Lee Kuan Yew NOT Singapore

40. NOT – Decrease hits
Lee Kuan Yew
Singapore
NOT

41. 1,598 hits

42. Toilet

43. 5,859 hits

44. Toilet*
Wildcard - *

45. 8,573 hits
Synonyms for toilets?

47. Always cross check your sources

49. NewspaperSG

55. From Home
Has SPH
watermark
Why?
Copyright
From Library –
no watermark

56. Encyclopedia Britannica
 a general English language encyclopedia
 widely regarded as the most scholarly of encyclopedias
 good source to check for facts and information

58. History Database Centre

61. World Geography and Culture

63. 63

64. 64

65. 65

66. 66
Singapore is ranked 18th
in the World
Spends 4.9% of GDP on
Defence

67. EBSCOHost
Provides full-text for over 4,500 publications, including
full-text for more than 3,600 peer-reviewed journals in
subject areas such as biology, chemistry, engineering,
physics, religion, arts and sociology.

68. Risks of Casinos – good
for business, bad for
society?

69. Teens and Aids
and Singapore

70. Automatic citation

72. Proquest

73. Click to see full text

74. What is a person who
cannot smell called?”

80. Advisory Service:
Some questions asked by users
 When and why was chewing gum banned in
Singapore? Will I be arrested if I consume
chewing gum??
• Why doesn't superglue stick to it's tube?
I am looking for newspaper articles on
MOE’s “Teach Less, Learn More.”
• What is does JK in the author’s name J
K Rowling stand for?
Quote Expert