databases

For the next five weeks in our english class we will be working on a research paper on a topic of our choice. Not only will we learn about the topic we chose but we will also learn how to use databases and how to gather information from other sources. This week we are exploring different databases. The first database I explored was the SIRS Issues researcher. My topic of research is depression. They have a whole section on mental depression. It has the latest debates on things depression related. Currently one debate is over whether or not children with depression should be medicated.

After researching four of the Salt Lake City Public library databases, I've found a few that I would use for future research. The Historical New York Times database was especially helpful. I felt as if it was the easiest to navigate, and presented many relevent and interesting points regarding my research topic: same-sex marriage. I found articles from way back in 2007 that hinted at the legalization of same-sex marriage, or at least the attempt to legalize it. The other database I found helpful was the Utah Digital Newspapers.

The Historical New York Times is helpful in finding news stories that have been published. One interesting article discovered was that Apple found no forced labor in South China but that some codes were being breached pertaining to labor. These immediately were remedied. FoxConn a supplier of Apple was found to have living spaces that were far too close and asked FoxConn to change the situation. (Apple uses 15% of their workers) Apple also hired Verite to supervise the disciplinary conditions at this factory as there had been two cases of workers being punished by standing at attention.

Introduction

The Research Process is a complex one that is frequently misunderstood and abused as it is often intuitive to many people and they do not understand the steps that need to be taught to students for them to adopt an organized process.  This post attempts to at least explain the divide between authentic research and why it doesn't necessarily coincide with how research is done in school settings. 

That being said, how do we break down this "How to answer a question" process down to understandable steps?  Thankfully, there are many such processes which in Library circles are Information Literacy Models.