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Need some really good sources

Malak

Malak

Lifer
Doing a research paper on evolutionary theory. Since everyone here is an expert biologist, know any good books, articles, or papers?
 
BoomerD said:
True dat, BUT, they often quote some good sources for their articles.
While wikipedia itself should never be used...it can be a good starting point.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I've used Wikipedia sources as sources a handful of times. I've also used the Wikipedia article to help decide what sections to include in my paper.
 
BoomerD said:
True dat, BUT, they often quote some good sources for their articles.
While wikipedia itself should never be used...it can be a good starting point.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. But the list of sources concerning this topic is rather... long. That's why I'm asking if anyone has any favorites. I already have a few but I do recall some links popping up here and there in previous discussions.
 
BoomerD said:
True dat, BUT, they often quote some good sources for their articles.
While wikipedia itself should never be used...it can be a good starting point.
Click to expand...

As a tool of last resort.

OP, ask a librarian. That is their job, it isn't to shelve books or to tell you to be quiet.
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
As a tool of last resort.

OP, ask a librarian. That is their job, it isn't to shelve books or to tell you to be quiet.
Click to expand...

No actually their job is to shelve books and keep people quiet. Librarians should not be expected to know the best books of any random field. They do searches in their computer systems, something I can do myself from home.
 
Malak said:
No actually their job is to shelve books and keep people quiet. Librarians should not be expected to know the best books of any random field. They do searches in their computer systems, something I can do myself from home.
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I'm sorry but, you're clueless. Their job is to direct research and suggest areas of knowledge and or sources that may help you.

Just like any field, there are good ones and bad ones but, I find that anyone doing honest to goodness research quickly gets the best they have to offer. Kind of a backlash to people who think everything they need is online somewhere.

You do know that the majority of human knowledge is not online or even mentioned online right?
 
Malak said:
No actually their job is to shelve books and keep people quiet. Librarians should not be expected to know the best books of any random field. They do searches in their computer systems, something I can do myself from home.
Click to expand...

Um, no.

Librarians (at universities) tend to be subject specialists. They are expected to know their subject area PLUS all the resources for their subject area.

There are also a number of aspects to doing searches. For instance, in my area I have about 40 different databases I use depending on what the topic is and the type of materials requested. I know which ones are better for different topics. I also know HOW to search each of those as each supports different search options and ranks its search results in different ways. I am also familiar with which resources are NOT available online, which happens to be most of them. Oh, and I also have a private catalog of about 12000 items specific to the field.

And no, biology is NOT my subject area.
 
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MagnusTheBrewer said:
I'm sorry but, you're clueless. Their job is to direct research and suggest areas of knowledge and or sources that may help you.

Just like any field, there are good ones and bad ones but, I find that anyone doing honest to goodness research quickly gets the best they have to offer. Kind of a backlash to people who think everything they need is online somewhere.

You do know that the majority of human knowledge is not online or even mentioned online right?
Click to expand...

Yes I do know that. Hence why my original post makes absolutely no reference to the internet, and requests "books, articles, or papers." All of my current sources might be referenced or found fully on the internet, but were not originally on the internet.
 
Malak said:
No actually their job is to shelve books and keep people quiet. Librarians should not be expected to know the best books of any random field. They do searches in their computer systems, something I can do myself from home.
Click to expand...

No.. you're a complete idiot.

As someone who's first real, paying job was working in a library... the Librarian's job IS to help users find the best book in a random field.

They use the computer system to locate the shelving location of a particular subject, as libraries still use the Dewey Decimal System. The computer system also shows them checkout frequency for any particular title... When it was last checked out, etc.. From this, they can make an educated guess that a particular item, which may have been checked out 150 times over the last 3 months, MAY BE more useful than an item which had been checked out once over 9 months.

Libraries use PAGIES to shelve and organize the books on shelf. This free's up Librarians for actual customer assistance.
 
Malak said:
Yes I do know that. Hence why my original post makes absolutely no reference to the internet, and requests "books, articles, or papers." All of my current sources might be referenced or found fully on the internet, but were not originally on the internet.
Click to expand...

So, what's the problem with asking a librarian?
 
Malak said:
No actually their job is to shelve books and keep people quiet. Librarians should not be expected to know the best books of any random field. They do searches in their computer systems, something I can do myself from home.
Click to expand...

the department librarian will be able to help you, if you're at a university.
 
Malak said:
Wikipedia is not an acceptable source by any school.
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When researching, looking up information in an encyclopedia/Wikipedia is perfectly fine. What isn't fine is citing it as a source for a paper.

The wikipedia isn't evil for research, and the whole "Avoid it like the plague" attitude that many schools take is annoying.
 
guyver01 said:
They use the computer system to locate the shelving location of a particular subject, as libraries still use the Dewey Decimal System. The computer system also shows them checkout frequency for any particular title... When it was last checked out, etc.. From this, they can make an educated guess that a particular item, which may have been checked out 150 times over the last 3 months, MAY BE more useful than an item which had been checked out once over 9 months.
Click to expand...

You just proved my entire point. They don't actually know anything on the topic, they just use their computer system and do a search.

Well I got all the answers I need, thanks.
 
Malak said:
You just proved my entire point. They don't actually know anything on the topic, they just use their computer system and do a search.
Click to expand...

Again, no. Every college of any size uses subject specialist librarians that both know a subject area AND the resources for that subject area.

But go ahead and ignore my posts explaining that.
 
Malak said:
They don't actually know anything on the topic, they just use their computer system and do a search.
Click to expand...

and you came here asking ATOT for assistance. They have more reliable information than you do.. and can make and educated decision if they do not know about the subject at hand.

Expecting one person to know every subject available, and the thousands of items available... is asinine.
 
guyver01 said:
No.. you're a complete idiot.

As someone who's first real, paying job was working in a library... the Librarian's job IS to help users find the best book in a random field.

They use the computer system to locate the shelving location of a particular subject, as libraries still use the Dewey Decimal System. The computer system also shows them checkout frequency for any particular title... When it was last checked out, etc.. From this, they can make an educated guess that a particular item, which may have been checked out 150 times over the last 3 months, MAY BE more useful than an item which had been checked out once over 9 months.

Libraries use PAGIES to shelve and organize the books on shelf. This free's up Librarians for actual customer assistance.
Click to expand...

Malak said:
You just proved my entire point. They don't actually know anything on the topic, they just use their computer system and do a search.

Well I got all the answers I need, thanks.
Click to expand...

That is a tiny example, horrendously over simplified, of what they do. Obviously working in a library wasn't time well spent for guyver01.

Look, I'm not a librarian but, my education and personal interest has taught me the value in what they do. To dismiss the knowledge and experience of a librarian is foolish at best and will get you hopelessly pwnd by someone who does know their worth.
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
Obviously working in a library wasn't time well spent for guyver01.
Click to expand...

it actually was quite well spent... but also a public library 20 years ago as well... the only universities that had public accessable libraries back then, had worse book stocks than the public library.
 
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guyver01 said:
it actually was quite well spent... but also a publick library 20 years ago as well... the only universities that had public accessable libraries back then, had worse book stocks than the public library.
Click to expand...

That sucks for you. I was fortunate in growing up surrounded by some truly great libraries and I credit them with helping me educate myself since school was seriously lacking.
 
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