INTERNET RESOURCE GUIDE Jimmy Breakall ENGLISH 202C Section 035
Table of Contents Preface... 2 Content... 2 Audience... 2 Assumptions... 2 Organization... 2... 2 Database Indexes... 4 IEEE Xplore Digital Library... 4 Engineering Village... 5 Journal Publication... 6 Computers in Industry... 6 Government Publications... 7 Catalog of U.S. Government Publications... 7 Statistical of the United States... 8 General Websites... 9 Google... 9 Reddit... 10 Page 1 of 10
Preface Content This guide contains several indexes and resources that will be able to help any undergraduates in the IST field. The guide has abstracts on websites, indexes, and journals that will be able to explain what these resources are good for and how you can use them. The tips sections contains little known tips that enable the user of this guide to pinpoint what they really are looking for. This guide covers and encompasses multiple fields of study and will be able to help the user of this guide search for both primary sources of information and secondary sources of information. The resources in this guide will always have up to date materials. Audience The audience this guide is intended for is undergraduates in the Information, Science, and Technology Fields. The information contained in this guide can be useful for the freshmen just joining the program all the way to the graduating senior. Some of the resources in this guide will even help non IST students as well however that help will be limited. Assumptions This guide assumes that you are moderately trained and knowledgeable about computers and information systems. This guide also assumes that you have read up on forums and bulletin boards and know how to navigate and figure out if the information posted on these boards are accurate. The information used in this guide will be more accessible to you if have a Penn State account or the equivalent to access some of the indexes on this guide. A computer and internet access is required. Organization The organization of this guide is made out so that the most scholarly sources of information and references are listed first. This will make it easy to find easily cited-able information that can be used in a research paper or presentation. The guide contains a table of contents that will allow the reader to quickly look for what sources of information they want to use. The sections is this guide has is Indexes, journal, government publications, and general websites. Each section contains location of the reference, an abstract, and tips on how to use the reference. The abstract is particularly useful since it briefly describes what the reference is and how it might be useful. The table of contents will be able to direct you to any reference you are looking for. It will be useful to have a web browser. It will be useful to have word, libreoffice, or openoffice to open word Page 2 of 10
files. It will be useful to have adobe reader or its equivalent. If you don t have a Penn State account then half of this guide will be useless to you. Page 3 of 10
Database Indexes IEEE Xplore Digital Library https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xplore/home.jsp Must use through Penn State Library IEEE Xplore is a database that stores and documents technical content that is published by the IEEE and partners. The content that this database holds contains over 160 journals, 1200 conference notes, 3800 technical standards, over 1000 ebooks, and over 300 courses. The scope of the database encompasses documents in electrical engineering, computer sciences, and anything electronic in nature. The information that the database holds contains documents on computer systems, network systems, emerging technologies, social and legal concerns about information technologies, and market information relevant to information technologies. This database is an essential tool for research, especially for peer-reviewed journals and articles. If you're google-fu is strong then it should be easy to find information on this database. Type something in the search bar and wait for the site to make suggestion on what to search Use the filter bar on the side to refine your search Click on a document that you like and on the ribbon bar select either references, cited by, keywords, and similar to search though more documents that you might be looking for. Page 4 of 10
Engineering Village https://www.engineeringvillage.com/search/quick.url Must use through Penn State Library The Engineering Village is an index searches though a variety of technical document and patent databases. Engineering Village has over 12 databases to choose from containing over 3800 journals, 1988 publishers, 117 trade magazines, and over 80000 conference proceedings. The index contains a multitude of information from over 190 engineering and science disciplines. This index is another essential tool used for research. The peer-reviewed journals and articles will round out the information that is published by the IEEE. The index search engine is versatile and once again if your google-fu is strong you should have no problem finding information though the databases. Use asterisks to search for words that begin with the same letters. o Ex: Info* Asterisks can also be used to replace any number of characters internally. o Ex: Wom*n Browse the author look-up index to select all variations of an author's name o In the Refined results bar select the boxes to limit and filter your search If you see a document that you like, select the detailed link and look though its terms and Inspec classification codes Page 5 of 10
Journal Publication Computers in Industry https://www.journals.elsevier.com/computers-in-industry/ Must use through Penn State Library Computers in Industry is an application oriented research journal. The publishers publish new trends and options for the use of Information and Communication technologies. They make an emphasis on integrating different technology fields and application areas in the computer industry. They cover unique applications of business processes ranging from design, engineering, manufacturing, production, and supply chain management. They also demonstrate new or existing technologies. Most of the journal is now published on-line and they have a huge archive of information and previous journals. The website that hosts the journal will not have journals ready to view. You have to go through the Penn State Library to access the latest journal. The bibliography information used is a good way of finding more articles that are similar to the article you are looking for. Page 6 of 10
Government Publications Catalog of U.S. Government Publications https://catalog.gpo.gov/f Free to use The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications is a tool to find federal publications and literature. Since 1996 the government has been publishing most of their literature online in order to better catalog and retain information and data. The index contains more than 500000 records going back all the way to 1976. It has information relevant to IST by posting and publishing documents from the Department of Homeland Security, various senate and house committees and subcommittees, and finally various agencies and departments. The search engine that the index use is like any other search engine you would find for an index. Use the Catalogs to your advantages On the top bar there are specific catalogs to look through The search engine uses normal search methods like AND OR, and NOT Many publications about IT systems are from House and Senate committees, make sure you filter those out unless you are searching for them specifically. Vetting the Security of mobile applications https://purl.fdlp.gov/gpo/gpo44506 Free to use Exmaple This is an example of what you can find from the Catalog of U.S Government Publications. This document is a one of hundreds that the index contains just about computer security. Most of their publications though are about congress committees and subcommittees. This publication is to help organizations and agencies to understand the process for vetting security of apps on mobile platforms. Page 7 of 10
Statistical of the United States https://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ Free to use The Statistical of the United States is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on social, political, and economic organization of the United States until October 1, 2011. The data stored on this database comes from the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and other Federal agencies and private organizations. The information contained in the has 30 sections, over 900 pages, and covers over 200 topic. Topics of note is the section of Information and Communications. This section contains various information on revenue and expenses of industries, internet usage, internet access, and other assorted information. Useful for historical analysis but not current since the government stopped publishing the abstract I got to be straight up, without current information this index is of little use. Example Usage Step 1: Go to website provided Step 2: Ignoring the warning stating the termination of the abstract, click on Information & Communications on the side bar Step 3: Scroll down to Telecommunications at the bottom and select the PDF download link on 1149 Cellular Telecommunications Industry Step 4: Gather any relevant information about the Industry Page 8 of 10
General Websites Google https://www.google.com Free to use The Google Search Engine should be your first step in researching any problem. The uses for this search engine is inexhaustible. Google has been able to spider through most of the visible Internet and they even been able to catalog and index information on the deepweb and documents that don't exist in digital format until they went through it. The information available to Google is staggering. Another reason why Google should be your first step in researching any problems is that the engine itself has extremely useful commands that allow it to sort though it's information. These commands allow you to filter and bring up results that you seek. The art of using Google is called Google-Fu, and the act of finding information from sources like Google is called Open Source Intelligence or OSINT. There is literally too many tips to list completely in this guide for using google. What I will do is post the most useful and some cheat sheets for google. https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?rd=1 o A quick and dirty info sheet that google made up for their search engine o Take note of the site: operator this is one of their more useful tools for searching https://www.googleguide.com/ o A site with a list of tips and tools that google has o https://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html Reference guide for more operators Page 9 of 10
Reddit https://www.reddit.com Free to use Reddit is a social media site that is helpful for finding information from people that might be trained or have knowledge of an area of expertise. The site has subreddits organizes the content of peoples submissions to the site. The users then are able to vote whether or not the content is worth your time. This site enables you to get into contact with experts in the field and allows you to read information that is current in the field. The site is similar to forums and bulletin boards. Usually subreddits will have useful information in the sidebar of the subreddit that can lead to links or other subreddits that can help you in your research. Boolean operators are supported by the search engine that Reddit uses Since content is organized by boards or subreddits search for a broad term and find a few subreddits that includes what you re are looking for. Look at users posting in subreddits, they will have a history of comments and posts they made Sidebars will have FAQs and other useful links Reddit is a great way to talk to people and find information but don t use it as a source for research papers Page 10 of 10