Research Journal Part 2

The following information was located in the Cannell Library Book Catalog.
Search Term: Privacy Act
Citation: Jasper, Margaret C. Privacy and the Internet: your expectations and rights under the law. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 2003.
Subject Headings:
Data protection -- Law and legislation -- United States-- Popular works.
Internet -- Law and legislation -- United States-- Popular works.
Privacy, Right of -- United States -- Popular works.
Is this a Circulating Book or and E-Book?: Circulating Book
Location and Call Number for the Book:
Location: Second Floor
Call Number: KF1263.C65 J38 2003
ASAP criteria:
Age of the book is within 6 years and after the turn of the century
Sources: legal almanac series with bibliographical references
Author: Jasper has written numerous articles regarding law and how it affects different aspects our lives such as small businesses, children, copyright, healthcare, and identity theft. These offerings are entirely published through Oceana Publications, a company dedicated to international law.
Publisher: Oceana Publications is a company devoted to exploring internation law using legal, scholarly, and research tools.

The following information was located in the Summit Catalog
Search Terms: Privacy Act
Citation
Author: United States. Dept. of Justice.; United States. General Services Administration.;
Office of Citizen Services and Communications.
Title: Your right to federal records: questions and answers on the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act.
Publisher: Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Justice: GSA Office of Citizen Services and Communications, Federal Citizen Information Center
Publication Date: 2006
Subject Headings:
Public records - Law and legislation- United States
Privacy, Right of - United States
Freedom of information - United States
United States. - Freedom of Information Act
United States. -Privacy Act of 1974
Location and Call Number: No location or call number given, however there is an OCLC Number: 135299083.
Book Credibility: Since this book came from a sourch which needs to be extremely reliable, I felt the credibility was high. This is a national government publication and the source of information to citizens who need answers regarding current laws. The e-book was quite current since it was published in 2006. The sources seemed thorough and accurate with the backing of government information.
This search differed from Library Book Catalog:
This search seemed more centered on government documents that might assist citizens in exploring a subject. There were no specific author names, only government agencies. In fact, it seemed quite odd to list an author as "United States." Some also listed several different departments as authors. There were a number of ways to get a document copy including the ability to download the documents, view them digitally, or order them from Summit. I appreciated how all the information on the Library Book Catalog was set up in one shorter area, rather than have to scroll down the page in order to get all the information in one viewing. No location or Call Numbers were listed on the page.

Books 24x7- IT Pro Collection
I did not find using this tool very difficult. Once you enter a work in the search box, you have several choices in the field boxes. This seemed to narrow the choices down considerably. Under "SEARCH", you can choose from Content: Full Text or Code Listings ; General types of searches under the subcategories of title, ISBNs authors and speakers, publishers, and an all inclusive category. The Using field seemed similar to other database search engines by asking if you want
the Exact Phrase, Any words, Words in proximity, All Words, or Boolean.

Under "additional fields" your choices were to include "all or any" of the criteria entered. Beside a Content box with the same information choices as above regarding specific areas to search within, it also asks if you want these choices to contain any of the extra words that can be entered into the field beyond it. A person also has a choice whether to have the copyright year set at "like, before, after;" folder choices such as whether or not to put them all a folder or send them to a default location. This program seemed particularly detailed and and easy to use. It will be good for advanced searches and times when many options are needed.

Having never used this tool before, I found it to be a easy process but it did not yield many resources for my subject. I do others may find it valuable in research.

Google Books:
Search Term: Privacy Act of 1974
Citation Information: Rule, James B. Privacy in Peril. New York: Oxford University Press. 2007
Credibility: There were several reviews for Rule's book, and authority was given to him by several people because of what they considered insightful information. I could find no clues on the limited view of the book or in the Preface. It wasn't until I went into the Oxford University Press website that I found Rule's creditials. He is considered a Distinguished Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California, Berkley. He was a part of the Advanced Study program in Behavioral Sciences at Standford University and has wond awards and recognition for his work. He seemed to carry the creditials needed to be able to speak on this subject with credibility. This book is also written in 2007; recently enough that it can speak with some authority regarding the current privacy issues before our nation.

Summary:
Since I have used Summit, Google Books, and the Library Catalog in the past, I was familiar with these tools. I appreciate the ease of the Catalog and the immediate results I get when I use both the Catalog and Google Books. Before today, I have not found Summit to deliver the kind of reports I have looked for in the past. For this subject, however, I appreciated the technical information from direct government sources which could shed light on my questions regarding privacy. In this way, Summit delivered better technical resources than the other three applications, while both Google Books and the Library Catalog seemed to provide sources more suited to a layperson. I am very unfamiliar with IT Pro and it took some time to make sure all the fields were filled in in order to have a thorough search. At this time, I probably would not lean toward using this tool, but it may be because of my unfamiliarity with it and the fact that I did not produce any results that I thought were useful for my topic when I experimented with different combinations of words. Since IT Pro seemed to have the most search options, I do see its value in that, if it is used properly, a person could yield a number of different and specific results that might be beneficial to a research project.

If the interfaces changed tomorrow, I believe I have enough experience using these tools that I could adapt to them. Most of my research was done by trial and error in the beginning of my college career, and I found I could make use of any kind of tool that was provided and still yield results. I do believe that these interfaces will probably change over time as our understanding of how to sort, store, and retrieve information increases.