Anyone who desires to use all or part of information derived from an external source-- a book, a journal, the Internet, a video, another person, etc.--needs to know how to effectively and ethically extract desired information. The more refined skill is the extraction of relevant information. The quintessence of the scholar is the accurate documentation of the source.

Copying Information

• Making copies and taking notes with a pen or pencil
• Making photocopies of print materials
• Making print copies of digital materials
• Making digital copies of digital materials

When we think of copying by hand, we envision a cloistered monk with a quill pen copying an ancient manuscript. Most of us don't have the time--or don't want to take the time--to copy much of anything with a pen or pencil. But it certainly is still "technologically possible" if you have the right equipment: a writing instrument and paper. It can even be the quickest way to capture short passages when photocopying or printing is remote or immediately unavailable. In some cases, such as when using rare or fragile print materials that cannot be photocopied, copying by hand is the only way. So it is wise to always have a pen or pencil and paper when doing research.

In addition to sometimes being the fastest or even the only way to capture information, the process of writing the information helps in the intellectual processing as well. You become more selective about what you write, which means you are reading and evaluating the content more carefully. Rather than copy everything word for word, you will do more summarizing and paraphrasing, a process that helps with your conceptual understanding of the material. This critical thinking about what you are reading and writing will help you to stay focused.

Extracting information in this manner means you must be extra careful to link whatever is copied to a complete bibliographic citation so you will know later where the information came from. This attention to detail helps you in case you want to find the information again, and it helps validate the information when you use it. Always put exact words in quotation marks as you copy them. Then you will know later which words are yours and which are words taken from the source. But remember, even if you paraphrase or summarize, you must document the source of the information. Therefore, note page numbers as you go, so you can cite the information correctly later.

Making photocopies of print materials

There are also disadvantages to photocopying. First, making photocopies can be expensive if you copy everything. If you take time to scan materials and select carefully, you will reduce not only your cost but the amount of paper you have to shuffle later. Second, the act of securing photocopies can lull you into a sense of accomplishment. You take home the stack of paper and put it aside to read later. You are merely putting off what needs to be done. That is, you still must read the material and sort out what is usuable and what is not.

A real problem is that you may be in such a hurry to photocopy everything, you fail to check for documentation data. If you copy one or a few pages from a book, you should make sure that you will know later the title of the book, the author, the place and date of publication, and the name of the publisher. In addition, the section you copied may be an article in the book with its own title and author. Most periodicals today have the name, volume number and date on each page, but not all do. And unless you copy the first page of the article, you may not get the name of the author or the title of the article on your photocopy. Students often realize later when they are using the information, that they do not have the complete information to document the source. The time to get documentation data is at the time you make the photocopies!

Back to "Copying Information" menu.

You must also check to see if the documentation data is present on the printouts. In addition to the standard elements needed to cite the source, you may need the name of the database or the URL of the Web site and the date you retrieved the information. If the complete source information is not on your printout, you must write on the copy any citation element that is missing. You will need it later if you decide to use the information.

Printing part of a Web page

Some Web sites can have several sections and be quite long. Rather than print the entire page, you may decide to print just the portion that you need.

In Netscape you:

1. Click on File.
2. Click on Print Preview, which will show you the page numbers.
3. Click on Next Page until you get to the page(s) you want to print.
4. Click on Print.
5. Type in the page numbers you want to print.
6. Click on Close.

In Internet Explorer, you:

1. Highlight (hold down left mouse key and move cursor over) the section you want to print.
2. Click on File.
3. Click on Print.
4. Click on Selection,
5. Click on OK.

Once again, remember to write down any data missing on the printout that you will need later to cite the Web page accurately. This detail is especially important when taking a section from its Web page context.

Printing in McWherter Library.

It can be costly if you have to pay for printing. In McWherter Library, computer printouts cost the same as photocopies. If you want to print in the library, first note the name of the computer you are using--each computer in the library has a unique name. After you hit the "print" key on the computer, you will soon see a message on the screen telling you the print server received the "print job" request. Go to the Copy Center on the first floor and identify your computer and print request on the touch-screen kiosk in front of the Copy Center window. Then you insert either your U of M ID or a copy card which has enough money on it. Follow the instructions on the screen. If you need help, ask the Copy Center attendant. When you have completed the kiosk procedure, the attendant will get your copies from the printer and give them to you.

Making digital copies of digital materials

Downloading

You can copy (download) information from a computer file or a Web site, which may have a combination of different kinds of files, onto your computer hard drive or to a disk. Once you have the file or web page you want on the screen, use the following procedure to copy the entire document:

1. Click on File.
2. Click on Save As
3. Choose where you want to put the copy. If you want it on a diskette, insert the diskette in the A drive and then select 3 1/2 Floppy (A:) in the Save As window.
4. If you wish, rename the file.
5. Choose the file extension. If you are saving a web page, the default extension is html. If you want to save it as a text file instead of as a web page, choose .txt as the extension. (A text file can be converted into your word processing format later.)
6. Click on Save.
7. Make sure your "Save" includes the citation data. If not, add it to the document. The disk may be yours, but the document is still the property of its creator.

Copying and Pasting

Whether you are copying portions of a document you have downloaded or directly from the source, this procedure should raise a RED FLAG:You are electronically "lifting" information from the source. If you subsequently paste that information into a document you are creating without acknowledging the source, you will be guilty of plagiarizing, a very serious offence. Because it is so easy to copy and paste, you may unintentionally plagiarize. Therefore, when you copy a segment from an electronic source, you should immediately make a link to the source citation. If you wait until later, you may forget or you may not have the citation data available. With this in mind, use the following procedure to copy and paste:

1. Holding down the left button on the mouse, drag the cursor over the part of the file or web page you want to copy. The selected portion will be a different color (highlighted). Release the mouse button.
2. Click on Edit.
3. Click on Copy.
4. Create a new word-processing document or open one you have already created. (Note: the computers in the library do not have word-processing programs. However, you can use Notepad: Click on Start, then Programs, then Accessories, then Notepad.)
5. Click on Edit.
6. Click on Paste. The material you copied should now be in your own document.
7. Type the citation data for the source in the "Works Cited" list and insert an appropriate reference notation in parentheses at the end of the copied text. You should also put quotation marks at the beginning and end. (You can alter the format later. Even if you transform the exact words--a quotation--into your own words--a paraphrase--you need to cite the source.)
8. Click on File, then Save (when adding to a document) or Save As (when making a new document) If you are using Notepad in the library, you can only save to a disk.

E-mailing

Another way to make a digital copy of a file or web page is to capture it and send it to yourself as an e-mail document. Then you can retrieve it through your e-mail system. Use the following procedure to e-mail a web page:

1. Click on File.
2. If you are using Netscape select either Send Page or Send Frame (In which case, you should have the cursor in the frame you want to send.)
3. At the word To, type in your e-mail address.
4. Click on Quote.
5. Click on Send.

Many web-based periodical databases, such as Expanded Academic Index, have built-in systems for e-mailing search results, which can include the full text of articles in periodicals. These systems make it really easy: Simply click on "e-mail" on the menu and type in your e-mail address. You can even include a message to yourself, which would be a good place to make notes to yourself about your use of the document. The e-mail message should include the name of the database and the full citation for the document. Databases and e-mail systems do differ, however, so if you see that all the citation data is not included in the e-mail message, you will have to send that information to yourself with the text.

When you cite an article you retrieved through a database, you have to include the name of the database and the date you retrieved the article. Do NOT include the URL for the article. The APA style manual recommends giving the URL for the database, though this is of questionable value unless the database is free and open for all. If it is a subscription database, as most are, a more useful recommendation, as made by the MLA style manual, is to give the name of the library which provided access.

In sum, if the information doesn't fit the need, move on. Searcher, discipline thyself.