Public Transit

My topic for the final was Public Transit. Because this is such a broad subject, I decided to narrow it down to the transit available in the Bay Area: the BART. This is my essay on the subject and what I learned.
The first thing I did was go to the Academic Search Premier, being the database I am most familiar with. I looked up the word “BART” and “public transit.” From this I got only one result. Fortunately, this was very helpful. The article was called How to get Around Busy Cities by Harriet Baskas. It was taken out from the USA Today and written on October 14, 2004. The article talks about public transportation in different cities and how it can be a nuisance. I learned that besides the BART, other transportation cable cars, historic streetcars, buses, trolleys, and light rail, which is different than the BART.
Next I went to a disciplinary database. For this database I used the Business Source Premier. This time I typed in the words “BART” and “Bay Area” to see how many results I would get. I used this database because I believed the BART plays a major part in the Bay Area’s economy, giving the area a lot of business and money; however, this was not so, as I found out in the article, Without Full Funding, Bay Area's Rail Extension at Standstill by Jackie Cohen from the 358th volume of the Bond Buyer, published on November 15, 2006. The article states that there is a $5.8 billion shortage of funds and, without those funds it impossible to extend the Bay Area Rapid Transit as far as San Jose. This makes it hard for business because they cannot extend the BART to San Jose, which would make it a lot more profitable for the business.
After that, I went to the World Wide Web, and who else gives you more results than Google? So I went to Google. First I put in “BART.” The first result was the official site for the BART. I tried typing in “BART” and “public transit,” but it gave me the same results. I decided to go into the website, since it is the best place to learn about the BART. In the website, I found all the places and times where/when the BART stops. There was also a section where it shows you how to purchase your tickets. I thought this was of some help, since the first time I went on the BART I had no idea what to do or how to purchase a ticket. I also found out that as of January 1, 2008, there will be new fares and schedule. Last thing I found out is that on December 22, 2007 all kids twelve and under ride free, thanks to Kaiser Permanente.
Lastly, I went to the Catalog. I found a book where that talks about the history of the BART. The book is called A history of the key decisions in the development of Bay Area Rapid Transit : BART impact program. It was located in the oversized stacks of the library. Its call number is HE4491.S49 M37. This explained how the decisions of the BART idea came to be back in 1946. It gave the history of the BART in a timeline manner, according to the decisions that were made.
Throughout my search there were times when I did not find anything or I did not find what I wanted to find. This happened to me particularly when I was looking under different disciplinary databases. Some databases showed zero results, no matter how much I changed my words. Other times, all I had to do was add or take away a word to give me the results I wanted. Other times, like when I looked on Google, it gave me the same results, and none of them stuck out. I would continue my search by asking the following questions:
· How did the BART system help expand the Bay Area?
· How will the State come up with the $5.8 billion needed to expand the BART system?
To find this out, the two databases I would use would be:
· America: History and Life
· Britannica Online

Self-Assessment Essay

This class has been a very helpful one. I was able to recognize and articulate information needed by doing all the homework exercises. In each of the homework assignments, we had to look for new information on a certain topic. In my case, I chose a very complex subject: Socrates; However, thanks to this, I was able to formulate a research question. This was not always easy because the information I found on Socrates was repetitive, but I always did my best by asking a new question every time I found something new. By formulating a research topic, I was able to develop and apply appropriate search strategies. These include putting in search terms relevant to the subject, not putting in conjunction words (such as “and,” “in,” etc.), and using different databases and search engines. Depending on my results, I was able to evaluate strategies and results, and revise them. Many times I found myself changing my search terms and databases. These databases are found in the Library section of the university’s website. This I found very helpful when searching ceratin topics. Something that I found somewhat difficult was to describe research processes and communicate results. It is very hard to do this because when searching for something, I usually do not keep track of what I do. Communicating results is really not hard at all, if you find what you are looking for. What makes this hard is that I think that some of the information is not worthwhile, so I discard it. Lastly, it is important to understand and apply principles of information ethics. This will help us find information a lot easier in the future, not just in school, but in life as well.
Like I said before, some things were particularly hard for me. I think this is partly because I had a complex topic. I also did not know what I wanted to find out, which was my mistake; I knew I wanted to find out about Socrates, but I did not know what I wanted to find out about him. For this reason, I kept finding the same information, and most of my blog entries had the same information. Another mistake I made was to keep researching the same search terms all the time. If I wanted better results, I should have changed my search terms around.
For the most part, this is a very good class that I think is very helpful. Though I knew many of the things that were discussed, some of the things were new to me. I know this class will stick with me throughout my years in college. Even now I find myself going into the school library databases and searching terms for my other classes. The database that has helped me the most has been the Britannica Online and the Academic Search Premier. I go into those all the time now, instead of just using Google. I will continue to grow because, after all, it is a life-long process. The most important thing that I learned in this class is not to give up searching, just change my search terms a little bit. I also learned not to “discard” any information because any information is important. Overall, I learned researching a topic is harder than anyone would think!

November 19, 2007 Log

1. Though I was absent on Friday, I was told that citations were discussed, both in MLA and APA format. Professor also went over the review that was due the day before. She also talked about what "subject headings" are under the HAYSTAC catalog.
2. A difference between MLA and APA format is that in MLA you write out the author's complete name, unlike in APA format where you only write the last name and first name initial. Another difference is that the most important thing in APA format is the year because it is important that the information is relevant; in MLA format, the year is not so important.

November 14, 2007 Review Part II

The first research tool I used was the Brittanica Online. I was going to use the Academic Search Premier, typing in the same words, but the information there was all old and already used. Besides the Academic Search Premier is more for articles and there are no articles on Socrates. Next, I went to the World Wide Web because I did not know at the time where to find a database in a discipline or specific subject. I searched the same terms as in Brittanica Online and found information on Socrates that was published by the Washington State University. I used the search terms “Socrates,” “Philosophy,” and “Greek.” I used these words because they are all related to what I am trying to find out.
Towards the end of my search I added the words “Ancient” and “Plato.” I did this because I found that most results had Plato in it anyway, and it is thanks to him that we know about Socrates. This also narrowed down my search somewhat.

My research sources, along with their bibliographic information, is in the “part I” of the Review.

I learned that before becoming known as a philosopher he worked as a sculptor and became extremely wealthy doing that. I also learned that when he served in the Peloponnesian War he was 40 years old! Lastly I learned that the Sophist were against him. This is ironic, since he was known as a sophist to some people.

Questions
Socrates says, “I only know that I know nothing.” This is a very famous quote. Why does he say he does not know something if he truly does?
In Plato’s famous playwright, Crito, Crito tries to convince Socrates to escape so he will not be executed. Why does Socrates refuse to escape?
Another Database I would use would be would be the library catalog. I think it is the easiest way to find information that cannot be found online. Books are the best way to really find good information.

November 14, 2007 Review Part 1

Because the information on my topic is so vague, a lot of the information is repeated or is in dialogue form. Even so, I tried to get as much information as I could. I started out using the Brittanica Online for my first database. I typed in the words “Socrates” AND “Greece” AND “philosophy.” I came across the article, “Ethics: Ancient Greece.” The Bibliography is:"ethics." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 13 Nov.2007 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-252521>.
In this article I found out that:
The first philosophers were known as the “Seven Sages,” beginning with Plato, not Socrates.
Socrates was considered a sophist, the early word for philosopher, or a teacher of rhetoric and argument.
Next I went to the World Wide Web. I went to google.com and typed in the same thing “Socrates Greece philosophy.” On the very top on the page I found an article called, “Greek Philosophy: Socrates.” The year it was published was 1996 by Richard Hooker from the section “world civilizations” of the Washington State University home page. I did this search on November 13, 2007. From this article I learned:
Socrates was the teacher of Alcibiades, who persuaded Athens to send a huge force to Sicily in an attempt to take over some of the cities there.
Scholars are not sure whether or not the information about Socrates that came from Plato’s works is true.
Then, I went to was the library catalog. Like I said before, the information on Socrates is so vague, that it all repeats; however, I did find a book that I checked out and used it to get more info. The book was “Socratic Citizenship” by Dana Villa and it was published in 2001, found on November 9, 2007 by me. I used pages 311 to 319. The book did not really talk about Socrates, but rather compared and contrasted Philosophy and society. It explained how philosophy plays a major part in our world today.
Lastly I went to a discipline database and found nothing really relevant or new about Socrates. This was particularly hard to find because I did not know where to find a discipline database. However, like I said, the information was very irrelevant.

November 8, 2007 Log

1. a) Books Stacks:
TITLE: Six questions of Socrates : a modern-day journey of discovery through world philosophy
b)Reference Stacks:
TITLE: Philosophy : a guide to the reference literature
2. Bibliographic info:
a)BJ1521 .P45 2004
b)B51 .Y259 2006
3. (A) On Friday, I found a book that was really interesting on Philosophy. So instead of looking under "words" in the Catalog, I looked under titles, and I found it. The other book, I had to go in "words." This gave me a lot of results, but I put the more words I put, the narrower the search became, which helped a lot when it came time to picking a book. (B) I did not really encounter any problems. The only problem I had was when I went under "words;" I made the search too narrow when I made the "location," "material type," and "year" specific. (C) I learned I should start with a wider search and then try to narrow it and search for specific things. If I start with a narrow search, it will be much harder to find results.

November 5, 2007 Log

1. In the previous class, we discussed how to use the University's Catalog. We learned different ways of using the catalog, such as finding things that we are looking for according to words, titles, and authors. We learned how to find a book according to how it is kept in the shelves, suing the periodical locator. We learned about a certain website that helps us do a timeline so we are able to turn in something in time. Lastly, we learned that we are able to check out books from different universities, not just CSUEB.
2. "Words" is when you type a word(s) and you get results of everything with that word or group of words in it, articles and titles. "Subject headings" are when you type in a word or a group of words and and they come up in the title, which then helps you see if the article is worth reading.
3. The disadvantage of using the "word" is that it will give you all the results of everything in the library with that word in it. The advantage of "subject headings" is that the words you type in are only in the title, which makes it easier to see if the rest of the article/periodical will be useful. An advantage of using "word" is that you can broaden or narrow the search using "language," "location," and "material type." A disadvantage of "subject heading" is that depending on the search terms used, the search will either be very broad or very narrow.