Election 2004 Online Search Plan

If you right-click on the links on this page and click on Open in New
Window, you can refer back to this page for directions.
 

I. Question

    C. Assignment : Use the Information Management Process to find information to answer your essential question. The product you make depends on your teacher's specific assignment.
 

II. Locate Resources

    A. Keywords : List important words to use to look up your topic in an index or electronic resource.

    B. Resources :

        1. Encyclopedias (print and online) Use encyclopedias only as a beginning point, for background information on your topic.

            Grolier Online: Use the Prince William Public Library System Databases http://www.pwcgov.org/library/ When the PWPLS page opens, click on Electronic Resources on the right. Click on one of the encyclopedias (Encyclopedia Americana, Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, New Book of Knowledge, or New Book of Popular Science). Enter your PWPLS library card number. Once you're logged in, use the search box at the lower right-hand corner of the page to do a full-text search on your keywords. Evaluate the list of results to find articles that help answer your questions. Remember to write the bibliography citation as an online database article! (See the colored links below.)

        2. Online Subscription Databases These are collections of magazine, newspaper, and encyclopedia articles, as well as many other excellent resources. They are worth the money that they cost because they are professionally selected from reliable sources.

            *SIRS Knowledge Source ® http://sks.sirs.com/ See the OPHS library  for username and password. From the SIRS homepage, click on Election 2004 for lots of political resources. SIRS Discoverer ® http://discoverer.sirs.com/ has articles that are easier to read and can be sorted by reading level. In October the Spotlight of the Month will be on Elections.

            Prince William Public Library System Databases http://www.pwcgov.org/library/ Click on Electronic Resources in the left column. Click on a database in the right column. Type your public library card number to access the databases. You might need to choose the database again from a list. You have access to the CQ Electronic Library from Congressional Quarterly, which includes an amazing amount of information about issues.

            FindItVA http://www.finditva.com/ Choose Prince William County, and use your public library card number to access these databases.

        3. World Wide Web Sites These are a real variety, hopefully balanced. Be very careful evaluating them, especially for bias, before using.

             ABCNEWS.com : Politics 2004 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/Vote2004/politics2004_subindex.html .

             Black Youth Vote: National Coalition On Black Civic Participation http://www.bigvote.org/byv.htm .

             CNN.com Specials  http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/ .

             C-SPAN: 2004 VOTE http://www.c-span.org/ . From the Featured Topics column on the left, click on 2004 Vote.

             CBSNews.com: Campaign 2004 http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/politics/main250.shtml .

             Congress.org: Elections, Candidates, Issues http://congress.org/congressorg/e4/ Sponsored by the League of Women Voters, this site can tell you the candidates for election in your districts.

             Conservativepunk.com http://www.conservativepunk.com Conservative punk rock viewpoint.

             Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections http://www.uselectionatlas.org/ . Great for statistical analysis and polling information.

             *Election 2004 http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/election2004/ . From Scholastic Publishing, for teens and kids.

             FOXNews.com - You Decide 2004 http://www.foxnews.com/youdecide2004/ .

             Initiative and Referendum Institute http://iandrinstitute.org/ . This site from the University of Southern California deals with ballot issues other than candidates.

             League of Independent Voters http://indyvoter.org/ Not affiliated with the Independent Party.

             League of Women Voters http://www.lwv.org/ The League of Women Voters has been known for years for their even-handed information about voting and candidates. The state branch is League of Women Voters of Virginia.

             MSNBC - Politics Front Page http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/ .

             MTV.com - Choose or Lose http://www.mtv.com/chooseorlose/ .

             New Voters Project http://newvotersproject.org/ This is a grassroots organization devoted to registering young voters.

             NPR : Election 2004: Hot-Button Campaign Issues http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1599678.html National Public Radio includes lots of political commentary in their programs.

             *Project Vote Smart http://vote-smart.org/ . Good info about candidates. Type in your zip code on the left to find your representatives for all of your districts.

             Punkvoter.com http://www.punkvoter.com Liberal punk rock viewpoint.

If you need more Web sites, try Google http://www.google.com Remember that Google is a search engine, not a source, and should not appear in your citation at all.

        5. Periodicals (print magazines and newspapers)  Periodical articles found on the WWW should be cited as Web sites.

           OPHS Periodicals Online http://booklady9.home.comcast.net/perioweb.htm (Links coming soon!) Many of the magazines and newspapers that we subscribe to are also available online.

        5. Books (For a topic this current, books are mostly used for background information and history.)

            Use the library catalog at school (click on Osbourn Park Library Catalog in the Novell-delivered Applications window).

             Boyers, Sara Jane. Teen Power Politics. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century Books, 2000. This book is a good introduction for teens on how to influence things with the democratic process.

        6. Interviews

             If you know someone who is an expert on your topic, you can get research information from interviewing him or her.
 

III. Evaluate Resources

After you evaluate your resource, before you start taking notes,

WRITE YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY CITATION.

IV. Record and Analyze

V. Synthesize