in class blog #7

I used PsycInfo. This database is similar to Academic Search Complete in the formatting. I used many terms to search in this database. Mostly I used "gun control and background checks" but I did use "firearms and background checks". I found lots of good information researching the new laws on background checks and ability of mentally ill patients to own firearms. I would use this database in looking for information that has been studied and has lots of time in research done over the subject.
The other database I used was Criminal Justice Periodical Index. The layout is very different from Academic Search Complete. This database had less research type entries than PsycInfo. This database had news articles about things that are happening in different places in the United States. I searched "gun control and background checks" but that yielded no usable results. So I tried "right to carry". These results were better than the first terms I tried. I would use this database for support of my claims in my paper. I could do my own analyzing of this type of information.
The filters were very similar. I do prefer to use PsycInfo.

I think that bubble filters are bad. I agree with the Ted talk about it limiting our views. It keeps us in a tight bubble and doesn't allow our minds to expand or be challenged. Filter bubbles could inhibit my research by limiting what I'm exposed to. If the filters affect what I can and can't see, I might be missing something that could be important to my topic. I could also receive irrelevant results which do not help at all. I like the filter bubble suggestions. I think they are very useful and can help me make my results more relevant. I have already tried some of the suggestions and I believe that they have helped me search for better things and help me expand my mind. I hope the rest of the suggestions will help me even more as I continue my research.

1. Journals are one type of information source. You can find very up-to-date information in the journals. They are likely to have some research in them. They are published periodically. This is a scholarly source because it contains a great deal of useful information. I could use this to answer a research question because the information is current and reliable.

2. Books are another type of information source. Non-fiction books are very useful in searching for fact about a person or place. They will have some degree of research in them to be facts and statistics. They are usually published once and only once but sometimes there are different editions of books to be found. Non-fiction is a scholarly source because of the research and intelligent information. I could use this type of source when researching the history of guns and background checks. This could also help when looking for people who could represent my topic.

3. Magazines are another type of information source. The information is current but has little to no research behind it. They are published periodically. This is a popular source because of the color pictures, little to no research, and the easy to read language. I could find minimal information to use in my research from magazines.

4. Interviews are another type of information source. The information is first person and can be useful. It probably has little research behind it. It is usually published once. This can be both scholarly or popular. I could use this information if it is scholarly and uses research.

Research Question

My research question is "What are the background check laws and how do they affect gun ownership?" This question relates to my group topic of gun control. I developed this question kind of based off my major of nursing. However, not much with nursing and gun control went together. So I thought of mental health checks for gun ownership, but I could not find much on that. I did find quite a bit of stuff on background checks before a gun purchase. I found out much more information on my presearch that helped develop my research question. The two positions I can take on my research is the pros and cons of background checks or I can take on the laws and the effects of the law before it was in place and after it was in place. I think this is a good question because I can find a lot of information on the laws and the effects of the laws on how and where many people buy their guns. Some felons may have friends that can buy them guns even if they know it is illegal. I have a lot of hope for my topic and my question.

I will be able to take the scholarly research into my field of study which is nursing. I can use this to help me develop new techniques to helping patients and assisting doctors. I can research new ways to help people. Research can also benefit me in learning how to better understand my patients and co-workers. There are new medical advancements everyday especially in the field of nursing. I hope to show my patients my caring attitude, and my abilities to keep their care as comfortable and efficient as possible. I can also use the evaluation criteria when doing research in my nursing classes to help me determine good sources for my research for my patients' care.
I can take plagiarism into all of my academic classes to help me not plagiarize. No college professor wants their students to plagiarize anything because it is dishonest. Also I could get kicked out of school for plagiarism. This is a big deal in all classes and is taken very seriously.
I can also take logical fallacies into my English classes because when writing a paper, I don't want to use one of these and be discredited for my work. I hope to never encounter that. Logical fallacies can apply everywhere and I hope to keep them out of my work.

Annotation Feb. 6

Hemenway, David. Private Guns, Public Health. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004. Print.

This book talks about how guns affect our lives in many aspects. It also has statistics about gun use in different environments and by different people. This source is credible because it is moderately recent, all of the cited sources are credible, and he is a credible person. The information is relavant to my topic, and very useful. This helps me answer my question by providing information about guns and health. It talks about how guns affect the public health system and individuals that has psychiatric illnesses.

In class Blog #4

My experience with the UWG catalog was much different than my experience in high school. There are many more books in the library at this college than in my high school. I went to a fairly small high school so there were not many books to choose from in the catalog called Safari. The keywords bring up different things as well. With more books, you can use many different keywords. This has been one of the biggest differences. The UWG also has more features to narrow your search down to find books that better suit your topic or what you're looking for. At a public library, they have many books but still not as many as UWG. Their system of looking up books is also different from UWG and high school.

I did have trouble finding books on my specific topic. Since gun control is so new, it was difficult to find information about mental health and guns. I really didn't find any new tricks to use that could help me very much. I really hope to learn more about this system for finding books in the UWG library.

Two Books

I found two books in the library that seemed like it could fit my topic of gun control and mental health. However, I found one book to be very unhelpful. The first book I looked at was Can Gun Control Work? by James B. Jacobs. This book was mostly about gun control and not really related to mental health. This book had much more to do with gun laws than mental health. I found this book to not be useful for my topic.

The second book I found was Private Guns Public Health by David Hemenway. This book had some information about suicides and homicides which can tie into mental health. However, this is not exactly what I was looking for. I could use this information to answer my research question by using some of the statistics. It has some information about what types of people commit suicide the most. People with psychiatric issues and drug abuse issues are most likely to commit suicide. This information is very useful in determining if guns should be sold to individuals with these such issues. It's a very controversial topic.

The evaluation criteria I used was the relevancy of the information in the book to my research question. If the information didn't give some light into answering my question then I determined the book was irrelevant. Some of the information I found was very irrelevant.

Library Ethnography Project