This week we'll concentrate on ways to find out more about topics --on
the range of sorts of sources, particularly in the tertiary and
quaternary literatures which are especially useful in the early stages of
exploration, when you're trying to gather background and understand
why something makes an interesting question.
We'll look at
- 'clouds' of terminology: handling what you're finding
- periodical indexes, general to specialized:
PAO, EAI, Lexis/Nexis, UnCover, FirstSearch, PubMed... and Science
magazine's online search facility, among others
- ways to interrogate
the World Wide Web
Tertiary and quaternary literatures are aimed at wider publics --at
non-specialist audiences-- and emphasize explanation using
language that goes beyond the code of narrow specialties. Tertiary
and quaternary are especially useful in the early stages of exploring a
subject.
All of these levels are important resources for a student of a subject,
and (1) finding and (2) evaluating appropriate and useful sources will
occupy a lot of our time.
Here's an example from Lexis-Nexis of a worthwhile
tertiary/quaternary source for one topic.