Safari
Section 6: Organising information
The Safari website has now been updated to provide links to more up-to-date
information and activities on digital and information literacy.
This document contains the original content of the website. Please note that this is
several years old and only provided here as a reference. Some of the material may
be out-of-date.
This document will not be updated. At the time of publication, all links were checked
and working.
For more up-to-date material, please refer to the OU Library Being digital website.
Being digital is a collection of short, easy to follow activities. They cover the skills
we all need to be effective online, whether it’s searching efficiently, critically
evaluating information, communicating and sharing online, or selecting the right
online tool for your needs.
Being digital can help you develop essential skills for study, work and lifelong
learning.
Safari: Section 6: Organising information
Copyright © 2014 The Open University
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Contents
Safari .......................................................................................................................... 1
Section 6: Organising information .............................................................................. 1
Topic 1: Introduction ............................................................................................... 4
Topic 2: Why organise? .......................................................................................... 5
Activity ................................................................................................................. 5
Activity: Incomplete sources ................................................................................ 7
Some ‘golden rules’............................................................................................. 9
Topic 3: Ways to organise .................................................................................... 10
Sue.................................................................................................................... 10
Sandra .............................................................................................................. 11
Matthew ............................................................................................................ 11
Topic 4: Social bookmarks .................................................................................... 12
Setting up folders in Internet Explorer 8 ............................................................ 12
Setting up folders in Mozilla Firefox 31.0 .......................................................... 12
Scenario ............................................................................................................ 13
Topic 5: Citing references ..................................................................................... 14
Activity: Why cite? ............................................................................................. 14
When do I need to cite? .................................................................................... 15
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A final comment about citations ........................................................................ 18
Topic 6: Bibliographies ...................................................................................... 19
Activity: Finding a book ..................................................................................... 19
Activity: Finding a journal article and referencing a web page .......................... 20
Referencing the web ......................................................................................... 22
How should my references look? ...................................................................... 23
Activity ............................................................................................................... 23
Tool to help you................................................................................................. 27
Activity: Writing a reference list ......................................................................... 28
Topic 7: Summary................................................................................................. 30
Activity: Reflection and action plan.................................................................... 30
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Topic 1: Introduction
This section should help you to:

understand the importance of organising your own information;

identify some of the systems available;

describe how to use bookmarks/favourites for web resources;

understand how and why to cite references in your work;

produce a bibliography.
This section will be especially useful to you if you are involved in project work or
longer TMAs (Tutor Marked Assignments).
NB – If you plan to complete all the activities in this section you will need to allow
between one and two hours to finish everything. Some activities will require you to
use paper and pen to make notes or record your thoughts.
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Topic 2: Why organise?
Our Science post-graduate student, Mary, has identified lots of sources to help her
with her assignment on GM foods and feels she is almost ready to write it.
However, as she has been sifting through the pile, she has discovered some
puzzling things amongst the materials she has collected in her file.
Activity
You will be presented with three examples of how Mary has recorded her sources on
GM foods. For each example identify any issues Mary might encounter, if she wants
to use them for her assignment. Makes some notes on your thoughts. There is a
discussion after the third example.
Example 1
Mary has written the following in her notebook:
“Chapter five assessing the risks
from 1989 report – good background stuff
Quote "During the course of our study a number of authoritative reviews have
been published of the risks associated with the release of GEOs. These
include a statement by committees of the International Council of Scientific
Unions and reports by the United States National Academy of Sciences..."
* Page 38 Quote "A release licence should be required before a release may
take place." Licences should be issued by …”
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Example 2
Mary has photocopied two pages from a book or a journal. When the item was
photocopied, the contextual information (title, author, source and page numbers)
were missed off.
Example 3
Mary has written the following on a scrap of paper:
“Swiss launch law on genetically modified food.”
Discussion
Example 1
We think that these must be some notes that Mary has made about one of the
sources she's looked at – there's even a good quote, flagged up as important
– but there's no indication of the title of the book or journal article in which she
found it. She thinks these might be notes made from one of the books she
found when she made a special trip to the university library. The notes look
really useful. She thinks the book could have been by Smith, but she can't
quite remember the title.
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Example 2
We think this looks like a photocopy of a journal article, but it isn't a very good
one because the photocopier has cut the name of the journal and the article
title off the top. Mary remembers being in a bit of a hurry when she made this
copy, and didn't think to check that it had worked properly before heading off
from the library.
Example 3
We think this is part of a reference – it could be a reference to a book or a
journal article, there isn't really any clue, and it could be the title of a chapter
or journal article, or a quote. Mary can't remember why it was so important.
Activity: Incomplete sources
Think about all these incomplete sources and the problems is Mary likely to run into
if she wants to use them in her assignment. What should she have done differently?
Make a note of your thoughts and then go to the next page to see our comments.
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Discussion
The table below provides some suggestions.
Problem
How you can avoid this problem
Mary has incomplete references, so she
Make a note of all relevant details e.g.
will be unable to quote from these in her
author, title and date when you are
assignment, or add them to her reference reviewing resources so that you can
list.
acknowledge your sources appropriately
in your own work.
This will also help you to find other works
by the same author.
She hasn’t got sufficient information to be Make a note of when and where you got
able to track down where she originally
the information from, e.g. local library.
found them e.g. from which book,
That way you can track back your steps if
database etc.
you need more details later.
Her photocopy is incomplete; bits have
When copying, check that you haven’t
been cut off the copy.
cut off parts of the page, e.g. chapter
title, pages numbers etc. Also make sure
that the full reference is written on it
somewhere even if you have to do this
by hand at the time you find it.
Table 1: Ways to avoid incomplete sources
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Some ‘golden rules’
You need to remember to record the following information.

WHAT you find – journal article/book chapter etc.

WHEN you find it – date

WHERE you find it – place: publication title (e.g. Journal of Animal Research)
as well as physical location (e.g. University library)

WHO created it in the first place (author, editor etc.)?
Like Mary, you will probably be gathering information from a wide variety of sources.
You will need to keep track of what you have got, where you found it, and what it
was about in order that you can incorporate it into your work.
However, doing this isn't just about physically organising the bits of paper you
gather, it's about organising yourself too. This might mean planning ahead to ensure
you have the right information at the right time. For example you may need to apply
some time in advance for a book via interlibrary loan (for a book that isn't in your
local library), in order to make sure that you get hold of it in time for when you are
going to need it. Keeping track of what you've ordered and when, and what you still
might need to get hold of is tedious but essential.
Systematically keeping track of what you've got or what you've had, and recording
information about your information, will ensure that you don't have to retrace your
steps, can cite references accurately, and provide an accurate bibliography at the
end of your project. Being organised in the way you approach your information is
ultimately going to save you the one thing that you may not have a great deal of as
you get to the point of completing your assignment – TIME!
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Topic 3: Ways to organise
In order to investigate ways of organising information we asked some of our OU
friends and colleagues about the methods they use. All of them are doing modules
that require them to write quite lengthy TMAs or projects but they all have different
ways of organising the information that they need to complete these assignments.
Sue
“I keep photocopies of what I've read in a box file. I used to keep a separate
list on my word processor of everything that was in the file but it was too much
effort to keep it up to date. I find it just as easy to make sure that the reference
is written on the top of my notes, and the notes are clipped to the photocopy,
if I made one. I did try storing the articles in alphabetical order by who'd
written them, but that made it more difficult to find things again – I tend to
think in terms of topics, rather than who wrote what, so the articles tend to be
filed alongside other articles on the same subject.”
Brian
“I keep all my lecture notes and articles in binders, with file dividers, according
to what topic they're on. That way everything is in the right place for when I
come to revise for the exams or write the assignments.”
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Sandra
“I put web pages, ejournals and online stuff into my social bookmarks. I use
delicious as it's quite simple to use, and I can access it from any PC
connected to the internet. I like the social aspect of seeing who else has
tagged sites I use, as it can lead to me to find new stuff for my studies.”
Matthew
“I use RefWorks to organise all my references. It’s really useful because some
of the key databases in my subject allow me to export records straight in
RefWorks, and it works with Google Scholar too. This saves me having to
manually type things in. I use it to create my bibliographies automatically.”
We can't tell you which system to use – everybody's preferences will be different,
particularly when it comes to deciding between paper and computerised systems.
However, we think that paper-based filing systems are fine for most undergraduate
work. If you are comfortable with computers and your work is likely to continue
beyond a single assignment, to extended essay or even Masters Level, it may be
worth looking into computerised solutions.
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Topic 4: Social bookmarks
Whichever internet browser you use you will probably already have discovered the
‘favourites’ or ‘bookmarks’ features and saved some of you favourite sites. This
enables you to return to them easily at a later time. However, have you organised
them into folders? If you’ve only got a few bookmarks it's not really necessary to do
this, but once you have more than a dozen or so then you might like to try organising
them into folders according to topics.
The following instructions refer to versions of browsers that were current at the time
of writing (December 2014).
Setting up folders in Internet Explorer 8

Select Favorites (US spelling).

Select Organise Favorites from dropdown menu.

Select New Folder at the bottom of the box, to create your folder

You can now drag your bookmarks into the correct folders.
Setting up folders in Mozilla Firefox 31.0

Select the Show your bookmarks icon to the right of the URL and search
bars. (Scroll your cursor over the symbols to identify the correct icon).

Select Show all bookmarks.

Select the Unsorted Bookmarks in the left hand column.

To create a new folder, select Organise at the top of the box, and then New
folder.

You can now drag your bookmarks into the correct folders.
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The downside of these kinds of’ Favorites’ or ‘Bookmarks’ is that they are based on
your own PC so if you use more than one machine for your studies or work then you
have to save copies on each machine you use.
This is where online social bookmarking tools can be really useful, as they allow you
to save your favourites to a website which you can then access from any PC
connected to the Internet. You can also add keyword tags to sites you save; this
enables you to group together items on the same subject. With the bookmarking
feature in your browser you put one site in one folder, whereas when using social
bookmarks and tagging, you can assign many different tags to the same site. In this
way, when you search through your tags, that same site can appear as a resource
within as many subject groups as are relevant.
Scenario
Our Science post-graduate student, Mary, does her studying at home, at work and in
her local library. She’s saved sites of interest onto her ‘Favorites’ on her home PC,
but this means that when she’s studying at work she doesn’t have access to these
resources. A friend has recommended that she try out Delicious, a social
bookmarking site. She can set up an account, import all her favourites into Delicious
and tag them and then she will be able to access them from anywhere. If she makes
her sites public, she will also be able to share them with her friends and her study
group by giving them a link to her page.
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Topic 5: Citing references
When you are writing an assignment, you will often find that you need to refer to the
work of other people in order to support your ideas and illustrate the arguments you
are putting forward.
Acknowledging the work of others in your writing is all part of the process of
communicating your own work to other people interested in what you have written.
This process of acknowledgement is known as ‘citing’.
Activity: Why cite?
Why do you think it is important to cite references in your work? Make a note of your
thoughts and then read the discussion below.
Discussion
Here are some of the things we thought of:

You will be recognising the intellectual input someone else has made to your
work – passing off someone else's work as your own is called plagiarism.

It shows that the points you are making in your work are supported by other
people – your arguments are stronger if you can back up what you say with
evidence.

It enables other people reading your work to find the things you have referred
to quickly and easily.

It shows your tutor not only what you have been reading but also where you
have been reading around the subject.
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When do I need to cite?
Commonly known facts and dates (e.g. that World War II ended in 1945) do not need
crediting in your work. Everything else, such as quotations, statistics, or any ideas or
opinions that aren't your own, should always be cited in your work.
The extracts below are taken from students’ essays and illustrate the kinds of things
you should avoid.
Extract 1
“Although instructors may be lured by the freshness of full motion videos or
two-way conferencing, the type of instructional delivery depends primarily on
four aspects.”
It isn't obvious at first glance why this should be avoided. But if I had simply copied
this quotation and included it in my work without acknowledging that it was the work
of someone else, I would have been guilty of plagiarism
It may seem very tempting to 'borrow' ideas and words from somebody else's work,
especially if you aren't all that familiar with the subject area. But if you don't use your
own words, your writing won't 'read' all that well - people's writing styles differ, after
all. Notice how different the quotation above is from the rest of the writing on the
page you are reading now. Also, if you don't work towards expressing ideas in your
own words, it is unlikely that you'll take them in. (Quote from Dewal, Nancy (2000).
'Information literacy at a distance: instructional design issues', Journal of Academic
Librarianship, vol. 26, no.1.)
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Extract 2
“It has been shown that dogs are more intelligent than cats …”
What research? Whose research?
Extract 3
“We know from the research that 95% of statistics are made up.”
How do we know? Who proved this?
If you have read academic research papers, journal articles or books, or even the
more serious articles in broadsheet newspapers, you will probably have come across
citations. There are a number of ways in which this is done and some references do
not even include direct text quotations.
Below are some examples with explanations of what they are.
Example 1
“The best advice is to experiment with a range of different search tools, and
settle on the two or three that provide you with the best results (Parker,
1999).”
This is an example of citing somebody else's idea or opinion, you are paraphrasing,
not referring to the author in the text nor directly quoting from their work but if you
didn't acknowledge their idea, it would look like it was your own.
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Example 2
“However, Tim Berners-Lee, widely acknowledged as the inventor of the
World Wide Web ...”
As this is a commonly known fact, you wouldn't need to cite it in your work.
Example 3
“As Gash (2000) states, browsing the Internet can be enjoyable. Sometimes
information can be found by accident, but this can take time and the serious
searcher might find this frustrating, particularly if they are not familiar with how
search engines work.”
This is an example of acknowledging someone else's opinion directly.
Example 4
“This is further illustrated by Spender: "As there are no teachers, librarians or
sages to help you make your way around on the information superhighway,
the most common complaint is that it is too hard to find what you need."
(Spender, 1995, page xvii)”
Quotations from someone else's work should always be acknowledged.
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A final comment about citations
Identifying an original author in your text is sometimes not enough to fully
acknowledge someone else's research, especially for academic work. Think back to
the snippets on the previous pages – from the information given about them in the
text would you be able to locate the sources we have referred to in your library?
Probably not. Directing your readers to the sources you have used to produce your
work is all part of the research process. Citing references in the body of your work
should go hand in hand with providing a bibliography – a list of those same
references – at the end of your piece of work. So, make sure to provide a citation
next to the opinion or idea that you have used within your written work, this will
signpost any reader to look for a full reference in the list of references at the end.
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Topic 6: Bibliographies
At the end of your piece of work, you should provide a list of all the things you have
referred to in your work. These might be arranged in alphabetical order by author, or
in the order they are mentioned in your work. The convention at the Open University
is that you should call this list ‘references’.
‘Bibliography’, quite literally means ‘list of books’ – it enables you to find a book (or
journal article) in your own library, regardless of where the person who wrote the
bibliography got their original copy from. Sometimes there may be sources you have
consulted as background reading, but have not mentioned in your work – you might
like to put these in a separate list entirely, after your list of references, calling it
‘bibliography’. The rest of this topic examines the type of information that you need to
include in a bibliography.
Activity: Finding a book
Imagine you are going into a library or bookshop to look for a book. What information
do you think you might need in order to find it quickly? Make a note of your thoughts
and then read the discussion on the next page.
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Discussion
You would need the following information:

the book's title

who wrote the book

who published the book

the book's ISBN number

the year the book was published

the place the book was published.
If the library or bookshop has a searchable database of books, two of these in
combination – for example, author and year, publisher and title – will enable you to
track down an item eventually. However, the key to a good bibliography is supplying
all the information, so that there are no gaps, and the detective work for your readers
is minimised. Remember that what you are trying to do is to give your readers the
opportunity to find and read the same things you have read, so you need to be as
precise as possible.
Activity: Finding a journal article and referencing a web page
Now we want you to consider two more types of information: journal articles and web
pages. For each of the questions below make a note of your thoughts, and then read
the discussion below.

Think about a journal article. What information would you need to give
somebody in order for them to find it?

Providing references to information from the World Wide Web is especially
problematic. Why do you think this is?
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Discussion
We think you’d need the following information to find a journal article:

author

title

journal title

volume number

page number

issue

year of publication.
Providing information on web pages can be problematic because:

much information is transient – there one day and gone the next

it isn't always evident who the author/publisher is

web addresses change

the information given might quickly go out of date.
Referencing web–based materials is particularly challenging because of these
problems and because, more and more, important and relevant information is found
on the web. We shall look at how to reference these sources next.
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Referencing the web
As we have seen, you are likely to come across several problems when referencing
information from the web. It is increasingly being recognised as a valid information
source – sometimes the sole source of certain information – but pages on the web
tend to change frequently. So, how can you describe the exact source you have
found?
One way to tackle the problem is to add to the reference the date on which you
visited the site to gather the information you used. This won't ensure that your
readers will get the same information if they look at the site another day, but it will
make your use of the source more valid – as if to say, ‘on this date the site was there
and the information I got from it was like this’.
So, a reference to something you have found on the web might look like this:
Lancaster University Computing Department, Research Schemes: Cooperative &
interactive systems [online], Lancaster University Computing Department. Available
from: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/research/advinteractivesystems.html [Accessed
January 13 2011].
Of course, there are other kinds of documents on the web too. The OU Harvard
Guide (OU login required) provides advice on referencing all sorts of materials.
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How should my references look?
No matter how diligent you are about citing every source you consult, if your
references aren't presented in a systematic, consistent way, the people reading your
work are going to become frustrated when trying to track down the sources you have
used.
The trick is to adopt a suitable citation style, for the citations in the text and for the list
at the end, and use it throughout your piece of work. There is no one ‘right’ style –
many publishers and organisations have come up with rules which dictate how the
references in the text and in the list at the end are presented.
Activity
Over the next two pages you will find two versions of the same piece of text. Look
carefully at them and make a note of:

what is different

what is the same?
Then read the discussion which follows after the two versions.
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Version 1: MLA
As Gash states, browsing the Internet can be fun. Sometimes information can be
found by accident, but this can take time, and the serious searcher might find this
frustrating, particularly if they are not familiar with how search engines work. This is
further illustrated by Spender: "As there are no teachers, librarians or sages to help
you make your way around on the information superhighway, the most common
complaint is that it is too hard to find what you need" (Spender, pxvii). Even when
using search engines it can be difficult to find what you need, as recent research has
shown that the majority of search engines only return 10 ‘hits’ within the first 20 on
the results list that might be relevant to the searcher (Gordon and Pathak). The best
advice is to experiment with a range of different search tools, and settle on the two or
three that provide you with the best results (Parker).
References
Gash, Sarah. Effective Literature Searching for Research. Second ed. Aldershot:
Gower Publishing Limited, 2000.
Gordon, Michael, and Praveen Pathak. "Finding Information on the World Wide Web:
The Retrieval Effectiveness of Search Engines.” Information Processing &
Management 35.2 (1999): 141-80.
Parker, Jo. Using the Internet: What's It All About? August 1999. Website. Available:
http://oulib1.open.ac.uk/wh/guides/internetguide.htm. 19 July 2001.
Spender, Dale. Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace. Melbourne:
Spinifex Press, 1995.
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Version 2: Nature
As Gash(1) states, browsing the Internet can be fun. Sometimes information can be
found by accident, but this can take time, and the serious searcher might find this
frustrating, particularly if they are not familiar with how search engines work. This is
further illustrated by Spender: "As there are no teachers, librarians or sages to help
you make your way around on the information superhighway, the most common
complaint is that it is too hard to find what you need".2 Even when using search
engines it can be difficult to find what you need, as recent research has shown that
the majority of search engines only return 10 ‘hits’ within the first 20 on the results list
that might be relevant to the searcher 3. The best advice is to experiment with a
range of different search tools, and settle on the two or three that provide you with
the best results. 4
References
1. Gash, S. Effective Literature Searching for Research (Gower Publishing Limited,
Aldershot, 2000).
2. Spender, D. Nattering on the Net: Women, Power and Cyberspace (Spinifex
Press, Melbourne, 1995).
3. Gordon, M. & Pathak, P. Finding information on the World Wide Web : the
retrieval effectiveness of search engines. Information Processing & Management 35,
141-180 (1999).
4. Parker, J. (1999). Using the Internet: what's it all about? (Open University Library;
online at http://oulib1.open.ac.uk/wh/guides/internetguide.htm)
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Discussion
The table below highlights the differences between these two examples:
Differences
MLA
Nature
In-text citations
Represented by author
Represented by a number
surname
Reference list
In alphabetical order by
In numeric order, title is
author order, title is bold
italicised, publisher, place
and date is at the end
and date are all in
brackets at the end.
Table 2: Examples comparisons
Despite all these differences, the information that builds up each reference is the
same, and would enable you to track down that source for yourself.
The choice of citation style you use is often dictated by WHO you are writing FOR –
this might be your tutor, the journal your article might be published in, or your
organisation. It also depends on your topic and how you would like your bibliography
to look. If your college or university does not specify which style you must use then
the most important thing is to choose a particular style and use it consistently and
uniformly, so that your readers get clear information.
If you would like to delve into further examples of citing references, there is a guide
on the Library's web pages.
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Tool to help you
You will find that creating bibliographies can be quite a lengthy process.
Bibliographic software packages can help do this as they will create your list of
references, and the in-text citations, for you automatically. If you are using a word
processor, check to see whether it offers a referencing function (called ‘Endnotes’ in
Microsoft Word).
There are a number of freely available web-based bibliography and database
management tools. These let you create your own personal database by importing
references from text files or online databases.
CiteULike – a free social bookmarking service to help academics to share, store, and
organise the academic papers they are reading. It specialises in academic papers,
and provides specific tools for that purpose.
Mendeley – free desktop and web-based tool. Features include automatic extraction
of information from PDF documents; the facility for annotation and searching across
all content, and the option to share publicly or privately for collaboration.
Zotero – free bibliographic software. Features include automatic capture of
information from websites, formatted citation export and integration with Microsoft
Word.
If you are comfortable with computers and your work is likely to continue beyond a
single assignment, to extended essay or even to Masters Level, then we strongly
recommend that you investigate one of the free tools listed above.
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Activity: Writing a reference list
You may need to refer to the OU Harvard guide to citing references for this activity
(OU login required).
Imagine you are putting together a list of references to go at the end of an
assignment. Using a pen and paper or your word processor, write down how the
following references should look when formatted for the reference list.
a) A book written by Andrew Northedge, published in Milton Keynes by The
Open University in 1990. It's called The Good Study Guide.
b) A journal article called Getting to Know the Invisible Web by C. Brian Smith,
which appeared in volume 126, issue 12, of the Summer 2001 Supplement of
the Library Journal, pages 16 to 19.
c) The Learner's Guide, a web page produced by the Open University, written by
the Learner's Guide team, which I looked at on 23rd June 2001. The URL is
http://www3.open.ac.uk/learners-guide/index.htm
When you have finished go to the next page and read the discussion.
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Discussion
You might not have the italics, but your references should look something like this:
Book
Northedge, A. (1990) The Good Study Guide, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Journal
Smith, C.B. (2001) ‘Getting to know the invisible web’, Library Journal Summer 2001
Supplement, vol.126, no.12, pp. 16-19.
Web page
Learner's Guide Team (2001) The Learner's Guide [online],
http://www3.open.ac.uk/learners-guide/index.htm (Accessed 23rd June 2001).
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Topic 7: Summary
In this section we have looked at how important it is to organise your information. We
also looked at the tools you might use to store your information. We practised using
social bookmarks, and started thinking about citing references and creating
bibliographies.
Activity: Reflection and action plan
Thinking about the topics we have covered in this section, write yourself a short
‘action plan’ of steps you can take and tips you can apply to your work in terms of
organising your information. What in particular are you taking away with you after
studying this section? What was new to you?
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