~ Current Information Research ~

A search strategy for finding information on current events and issues.

DECIDING  |  LOCATING  | THE NEXT STEP?

1. DECIDING 

• Brainstorm and discuss ideas with other students and teacher.

• Browse through topics and issues in general books such as

        

170 JEN	Jenkins	Contemporary moral issues
300 COU	Coupe	The Question is...
300 CON	Condon	Issues in General Studies
300 NEW		New Perspectives in social education (Bks 1, 2 & 3)
300.76 STO	Stowell	Investigating society - inquiries in social education (Bk 1 & Bk 2)
428 EDW	Edwards	Issues and responses

Having decided which issue, topic or event you are going to research, 

work out some focus questions and a range of key words and phrases 

to use as your search terms.

 2. LOCATING 

Newspapers, magazines and the Internet are obvious sources of information 

on current issues and events.
There are however some book series that present selected items 

from newspapers, magazines, government reports etc. on current issues............

BOOKS

Type in the series name in the Title search for Amlib. This will bring up a list of 

titles within that series - all of which are collections of newspaper and magazine 

articles organised into topics. This will indicate if any of these series include your 

chosen issue/topic.

• The Age reprints

• Australian Issues

• Issues in society

• Issues...Issues...Issues

• Points of view

• Viewpoints

Use the  keyword search on the Amlib library catalogue (not available outside school).  

This keyword search on Amlib will no doubt bring up other resources including videos 

and websites. However, you need to carefully check the publication date of anything 

you find, to ensure it is not out-of-date for your requirements!

NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES (may also referred to as journals or periodicals)

NOTE: We only subscribe to Time, Bulletin and New Internationalist. For articles from 

any other magazine you will need to go to the State Library*

The State Library has a wonderful free service where you can search for newspaper and 

magazine articles using their online periodical indexes - Ebscohost and Infotrac (which 

index many periodicals from around the world). You cannot do this from school or home, 

but you can email the full text articles you locate, to yourself - all for free!
 

You can make an appointment for a Newstext search. We have a password protected 
subscription to this database that includes the Advertiser, The Australian and other 
Australian newspapers.

Try this free searchable database of mostly full-text articles: www.findarticles.com  
using your key words

Clippings in the Vertical File may be less up to date than other sources, but these files 
also include pamphlets. 

Many newspapers and magazines are now available on the Internet. Not all have 
searchable archives.

Use these access points to lists of online newspapers and magazines........

Intranet - Australian newspaper links

Intranet - Overseas newspaper links

VICNET - ONLINE NEWS, MAGAZINES, BOOKS (Victorian, Australian and World periodicals)

http://www.students.trinity.wa.edu.au/library/subjects/english/media/newspapers.htm 

News & Periodical Resources on the Web (Library of Congress, USA)

CSS Internet News Resources

Online Journals

The Electronic Newsstand

Excite: Home > Career & Education Channel > News & Magazines

C&RL NewsNet Internet Resources

Photos: currents affairs pics etc

MagPortal.com

INTERNET DATABASES

• Doing a simple search on the internet will inevitably produce thousands of 'hits' for you to wade through. Make your search quicker and more relevant by using the following tips:
• Check the intranet subject index first
• Choose the right search tool - engine? directory? metasearch engine?
• Use the advanced search features of your chosen search too
• Anyone can publish anything on the 'net! So you must check that your source is authoritative and up-to-date. See Evaluating web sites.

  ORGANISATIONS
  

  People and organisations can often be very useful sources of current information. Many organisations have their own specialised libraries or can provide the latest brochures on an issue or topic.
  Use the Yellow Pages directory to locate Organisations, or the White Pages to locate relevant government departments.

   

  3. WHAT NEXT? 
  Finding the information is only half the job!
   

  • Having found some information and selected it as relevant and credible, you now need to record or note that information (and where you got it from!). You should try electronic note taking as you locate the information, to speed up this process.

  • The next step is to organise your information to answer the assignment. This will be much easier if you prepared for your search with a brainstorm organised into a 'concept map'

  • Once you have sequenced your bits of information, double check that there are no gaps and that you haven't repeated any information. At this stage you may need to go back and search some more to fill the gaps.  

  • How you present your information will probably be set by the teacher. Try here if you need help with essay writing or other forms of presentation.

  • Finally your completed assignment will be assessed by your teacher, but you need to assess yourself too! How well did you handle the different steps - deciding, locating, selecting and recording, organising and finally presenting. The way to improve is to realise where problems occurred and pay them more attention next time!