PsycInfo

It just goes to show that you never know what gems are hidden in a database or where you find an interesting article about your topic! I was very nervous about searching PsycInfo of my topic because I was not sure how cybersecurity would fit into this database or what element of this technical field would be covered.  This concern led to me to try a quick and dirty search simply for “cybersecurity” to see if anything would even come up.

I was completely surprised to find a very interesting and relevant article in the first two results!

The article, entitled “The Role of Psychology In Enhancing Cybersecurity”, seemed like the perfect result. The only problem is that it was not available as full-text online! But the abstract did alert me to a new term that would help me to continue my search – “cyberpsychology”.

“Cyberpsychology” actually encapsulates a wide range of topics, from how we interact with computers to how much we share on our social networks.  To reduce the number of results, I added a second term (“privacy”) and limited my search to those articles with linked full text.

The result that interested me the most is titled “Social Media as a Research Environment”, a short article covering the best practices for using social media to research cyberpsychology topics and ethics to using social media for research purposes.

What I Learned

Despite my interest in cybersecurity and privacy measures, I had no idea that the field of cyberpsychology existed!! Although I had read about many of the topics that fall under that category, I had never heard the term before. I think is a perfect example of pearl searching, in a way – I found what seemed like a perfect article, but it didn’t work out. However, the abstract and subjects helped me to find thousands of other articles that were related to my topic, allowing me to find an article that was relevant and available quickly.

Reflection

I found PsycInfo to be easy to search, with a simply, user-friendly interface. As always, the ability within EBSCO databases to limit my search instantly from the panel to the left of my results is always appreciated. I find it difficult to limit a search ahead of time, especially with a topic like cybersecurity where you are unsure if you will return any meaningful results. 

JSTOR

JSTOR is massive and multidisciplinary database which I frequently used as an undergraduate student. Because JSTOR pulls from so many different sources, it is an excellent beginning to this searching project, allowing me to get a general idea of what types of research and reporting is being done on cybersecurity today. I began my search with a quick and dirty search for “cybersecurity”, returning a surprisingly manageable 118 results:

The results came from many different disciplines, including science and technology, law, political science, history and public administration/human resources. Nearly everyone on the first page was relevant to the search. If I were simply trying to learn more about cybersecurity generally, the very first results – Richard J. Harknett and James A Stever’s “The New Policy World of Cybersecurity” – would have been a good start, providing a general overview without getting too technical. However, it was not available as a full-text document through JSTOR and I was forced to investigate other options for obtaining that document.

In order to test out other functions of JSTOR, I performed a second, advanced search for “cybersecurity” and “libraries”, limiting the results to only those that were available strictly within JSTOR by deselecting the option to link to external content.

Unfortunately, there were no articles that covered this more specific topic exactly, but there were multiple articles, including the first article listed (see above – titled “Wake Up The Nation: Public Libraries, Policy Making and Political Discourse”) which discussed cybersecurity and privacy concerns in addition to many other political issues that affect public libraries and their continued funding.

What I Learned

Through the article I selected, I learned about the many different federal regulations that play a part in how libraries interact with their patrons and a patron's rights within a library. In addition to major pieces of legislation like the USA Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act, there are regulations that control how a library can receive federal funding for technology and even regulations that allow the federal government to require libraries to offer free training for government applications to the public. In 2010, a new Broadband Act began to defund assistance to libraries, specifically funding to acquire faster and more secure internet access. This was a very enlightening article about the institution of public libraries and their interaction with the federal government.

Reflection

I found JSTOR very easy to use and, because of the limited topic that I chose, the results were very reasonable. The advanced search feature for JSTOR was easy to use, even if I had not already learned about search strategies in my MLS education. Had I had a more broad topic, the ability to search by discipline would have been very helpful.  Another interesting feature of JSTOR are the tabs above your search results that allow you to instantly sort for journal articles, books or pamphlets, without having to go back and limit your search again on the Advanced Search page.

I think JSTOR is a great place to start on a research project because it brings together so many different resources from a variety of disciplines. This is ideal for a subject like cybersecurity because concern about this topic and of privacy in general affect scholars and students from many different fields.