[nabs-l] research methods

Mon Nov 3 02:42:02 UTC 2008

Hi all,

The databases associated with EbscoHost (including Academic Search
Premier and Ebsco Edges) are very accessible. Others are moderately
accessible, but can usually be navigated after a certain amount of
trial and error.

I've been able to do most of my research papers using primarily online
sources, so I use the databases to locate journal articles and then
download the PDF's if they're available. Many PDF articles are
directly generated by Adobe so there's no need to run them through
Kurzweil; you can just open them right in Adobe and read them. Other,
scanned PDF's need to be recognized--with Kurzweil you can either put
them into  the virtual printer or just point to the PDF and select
"Open with" in the file menu.

I may be crazy, but when I'm first exploring a research topic I always
read the articles all the way from abstract to the end of the
conclusion. I read with JFW and take notes on my Braille Note, making
sure to write down the article title, author, source name and some
basic info from the abstract right at the beginning. (Sometimes I
forget to write down the reference information, and it's really a pain
to go back and look for it later!) I separate my notes for each source
by paragraph to avoid getting confused between sources. I'm not real
big on skimming any reading materials unless I know exactly what I'm
looking for--you just never know what might be there that's important
or interesting that you could miss by skipping over sections of the
text. Reading whole articles can be time-consuming, but the key is to
stay organized--have an outline of exactly  what you want to learn so
you can get the information out of the article the first time and not
need to re-read it. Once I've gotten into my topic I might skip
certain parts of articles that I know won't add much new information,
but I generally like to take time to read at least the full abstract,
introduction, conclusion and pertinent parts of the middle.

I have used librarians a little bit if I find an article in an online
database but the article itself is too old to be available in E-text.
Then I'll print out the citation info and give it to the librarian who
can help me locate the journal on the shelf and mark the pages where
the article begins and ends. I can then check out the hard copy, scan
it and bring it back. Of course, this can also be done with a reader.
But I prefer to do the initial citation searching independently
(online) and only use a reader when I have more detailed info about
the articles.

Arielle

On 10/31/08, Ashley  Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Tell me some about the skim feature.
> What chunks of text does it go through?
> Is that available in Openbook 7?
>
> Being able to skim large articles like sighted people do is a challenge.
> Over experience as a senior in college I've realized that the intro method
> and results portion are more important.
>
> I know I have to use books for my paper so really there have to use readers.
> So not all sources will be electronic.  So advice on guiding readers to info
> is needed.  So far I ask them to read headings, table of contents and look
> in the index.  For instance i had a paper on india schools for communication
> and asked my readers to look up primary schools and curriculum in the index.
> Then they started reading the first page referenced.  Do you ask readers to
> skim for key terms
> and let them decide to read if they see that info you're describing?
>
> Ashley
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dezman Jackson" <jackson.dezman at gmail.com>
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 6:59 PM
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] research methods
>
>
>> Ashley,
>> In OpenBook there is a feature call the freedom Import printer that is
>> analogous to the virtual printer for converting PDFs in kurzweil.
>> Basically, just pull the file up in Adobe then select to print the file
>> and then you select freedom import printer from the list of printers and
>> hit print. Ther is also a skim reading feature available in OpenBook, but
>> I don't recall the exact steps for using it at the moment but just look
>> through the menus. Hope that helps.
>>
>> Dezman
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ashley  Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net>
>> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 7:54 AM
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] research methods
>>
>> Corbb,
>>
>> I like your idea to read the first few paragraphs and last few paragraphs
>> of
>> the article.  I've done that with a reader.  I know jaws can go by
>> paragraph
>> in word as well.  I think I'll use your strategy of one document
>> for each source.  My note files are big and then I often don't know what
>> notes came from wich source even though I label it on top before writing.
>> Its just that when reading further down in the document I forget what
>> source
>> it is.  If its named at the top of the document maybe this will help.
>>
>> I don't use Kurzweil but do have Openbook.  Is there a similar feature in
>> it?  If so how do you use it?  Many database files are in PDF.
>>
>> Ashley
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Corbb O'Connor" <corbbo at gmail.com>
>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 9:54 AM
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] research methods
>>
>>
>>> This will be brief because I am running to class in a moment. If you
>>> use Kurzweil, I open the articles in Adobe Reader, then print to "KESI
>>> Virtual Printer"--installed when you install K1000. The page numbers
>>> then appear at the top or bottom of the Kurzweil pages, as those are
>>> printed on each page of the journal. There's an option in K1000 to
>>> "review" or "skim" or something like that -- basically it reads the
>>> first sentence of each paragraph. I read the first few paragraphs of
>>> the article, the last few paragraphs of the article, and the first
>>> sentence of each paragraph. That usually tells me whether the article
>>> will be helpful -- if so, then I find parts that seemed of use and
>>> read those.
>>>
>>> I use a magnification program, not JAWS, so I am not sure about
>>> database accessbility.
>>>
>>> I am trying a new strategy for notes -- a new Word document for each
>>> source, and then later blend those together into an outline of quotes,
>>> paraphrases, etc. Then it's writing time!
>>>
>>> Good luck.
>>> Corbb
>>>
>>> On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 2:09 AM, Serena <serenacucco at verizon.net> wrote:
>>>> I used the library data bases.  Proquest Direct and Ebscohost are pretty
>>>> accessible.  If the articles were relatively short, I read them all the
>>>> way
>>>> through with Jaws, but if they were really long, I used readers.  The
>>>> librarians often helped me find books.  That often helped, so I wouldn't
>>>> have to use readers for that.
>>>>
>>>> Serena
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ashley Bramlett"
>>>> <bookwormahb at earthlink.net>
>>>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:14 PM
>>>> Subject: [nabs-l] research methods
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> I wanted some more ideas on this.  Then I'll have a sheet with ideas
>>>>> for
>>>>> myself and others wo ask me.  I am about to begin a big research paper
>>>>> for
>>>>> my senior class.  All seniors do this to demonstrate critical thinking,
>>>>> organization and writing skills.  Research has been quite challenging.
>>>>> I
>>>>> use readers a lot but its hard to communicate what I am looking for.
>>>>> Much
>>>>> research is at the library and books and some other matterial is not
>>>>> accessible.  So my questions.
>>>>>
>>>>> Do you use your school's databases?  What ones are jaws friendly?  Its
>>>>> been my experience that databases are not very accessible.  There are
>>>>> lots
>>>>> of boxes and info before jaws reads the titles of articles.  In an
>>>>> article
>>>>> I'm sure you read the abstract first to determine relevance.  I do as
>>>>> wel.
>>>>>
>>>>> How do you skim the article for relevant info?  Or perhaps you read it
>>>>> all?  Scholarly articles are big, about twenty pages long on average
>>>>> from my
>>>>> experience. With jaws or a reader, skipping info is hard since I don't
>>>>> know
>>>>> what I'm looking for exactly.
>>>>> How do you cite pages?  Does someone read you the page numbers as well?
>>>>> This has been problematic for me.  I write notes but don't know later
>>>>> what
>>>>> page it was on and cannot skim the article for that info.
>>>>>
>>>>> Have you used the librarians for help?  If so, what role did they play?
>>>>> Did you ask them to search for you and they read you the titles of
>>>>> articles/books?  I have used them and they pointed me to the right
>>>>> databases
>>>>> and card catalog for books but also served as a reader sort of as we
>>>>> gathered info.
>>>>>
>>>>> I find research frustrating when you think something sounds great and
>>>>> read
>>>>> it but then its not so good.  I think this happens to all students, but
>>>>> since it takes longer for us its more frustrating.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any ideas are appreciated.
>>>>>
>>>>> Ashley
>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
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