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Principles of Searching Course outline

17:610:530 – e530

For more details consult syllabus & other documents in Course home

tefkos@rutgers.edu; http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~tefko/

Tefko Saracevic

Course logosignifies what course is all about

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Information

People

Technology

• How do I search effectively and efficiently a variety of electronic information resources for users?

• How do I evaluate what was searched and provided?

• How do I provide searching assistance and services to users and institutions?

Central ideas

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ToC

1. Rationale – Why?2. Basic definitions3. Purpose, objectives4. Course organization5. Coursework6. Parting wisdom

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What is the course all about?1. Rationale & orientation

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Why?

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• Number & variety of information resources is HUGE– growing at a very high rate - called “information explosion”

• Digital age has radically changed how people engage with & search for information

• Great many people search for information on their own– few do it well – even fewer know how well they are doing

• Search engines are global but searching is individual

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Why? (cont.)• As professionals, librarians were always concerned

with searching for information on behalf of users, i.e. mediated searching – with the advent of electronic information resources and

the web, searching has changed in many ways• Trend is toward dismediation of searching

– where searching is increasingly shifting toward end users – placing librarians in new roles o traditionally we were concerned about content & searching of

resourceso now more with the process of access & variety of services

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Why? (end)

• Roles for professionals – YOU- has changed a lot• Besides mediated searching now it also includes:

– knowledge navigation - supporting the user in locating and retrieving relevant information in the global information environment

– cooperative searching - interacting with a user in search processes usually through teamwork oriented software

– source recommendation – acting as recommenders

– source evaluation – assessing value, quality & suitability

– impact investigation – search for evaluative data of use in assessing outputs & impacts of research, institutions, researchers …

– user assistance and training

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Orientation

• Course is oriented not only toward mediated searching but also toward these other additional & changing functions & processes

• This also includes research related to searching & these newer functions

• To prepare you for life-long learning in this area– one thing you ca be sure:

o things will keep changing & you will have to keep upo you will also have to assume new roles & functions

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What do we mean by “Principles” & by “Searching?” These definitions are really basic, but they clarify the course. Many definitions will be presented later

2. Basic definitions

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prin′ci′ple [prinsəp l] ′ (noun)(courtesy of Encarta Dictionary)

1. basic assumptionan important underlying law or assumption required in a

system of thought

2. ethical standarda standard of moral or ethical decision-making

3. way of working the basic way in which something works

4. sourcethe primary source of something

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All these definitions fit this course, but which one fits best?All these definitions fit this course, but which one fits best?

sear′ching, search [surch](verb, noun, adjective)

1. penetrating or probingobserving acutely or examining thoroughly

2. examine thoroughlyto look into, over, or through something carefully in order

to find somebody or something3. examine computer file

to examine a computer file, disk, database, or network for particular information

4. discover something by examinationto discover, come to know, or find something by

examination

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All fit, but no. 3 fits this course particularly wellAll fit, but no. 3 fits this course particularly well

Thus…• We are dealing with the basic way in which searching

works so that you can apply it to many sources and situations

• We are also dealing with searching as a complex pragmatic process requiring professional skills

• And we are NOT concentrating on mastering of searching of any particular system or database– the ones used in the course are used to learn principles and

develop skillso what you learn here you will apply that later for specific

sources and situation

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Syllabus has both instructional & learning objectives – both are synthesized here

3. Purpose & objectives

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• … is to study effective searching of electronic information resources on behalf of users seeking information, involving both: general principles of searching and practical search exercises– Students will learn skills related to human-human and

human-computer interaction as well as the principles and theories on which the skills are based

• The course provides a base for additional learning necessary to cope with the ever-changing pragmatic world of searching – therefore, it includes both principles & theoretical bases &

practical skills Tefko Saracevic 15

Purpose

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Course objectivesIntegrated understanding of:

• Information: subject, structure, & vocabularies of a variety of information resources as they affect searching.

• Technology: Models of information retrieval (IR) systems, search engines, & digital libraries, as relevant to searching.

• Searching: Human-computer interaction. Principles for effective searching & variations in search strategies and tactics. Evaluation of retrieval results.

• People: Human-human interaction. User information seeking & the process of mediation & interviewing involved in user modeling. Alternatives in presentation of results to users. Ethical norms applied to searching. Sources for life-long learning.

Searching is …

… a complex process involving interaction & feedback between and among

PEOPLE,INFORMATION, &

TECHNOLOGY

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Information

People

Technology

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In order to be a professional searcher you need an understanding & mastery of:

Information: What is the content of the sources? How is the content organized? You and resources.

Technology: What kind of systems are used? Information retrieval, web, digital libraries. You and systems.

People: How to be in effective in human-human interaction. You and the user.

Searching: How is human-computer interaction conducted for high effectiveness? You and the computer.

And professional conduct: ethics

Two components 1. Hardware & software:

a variety of inf. & communication technologies, including networks

2. Systems:that handle information objects (collect, organize, store, provide access) – we will commonly call them information retrieval (IR) systems

As to technology

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The two are different things but are closely connected.Professional searchers need to know how to use both.

IN THIS COURSE WE DEAL ONLY WITH SYSTEMS!Other courses deal with hardware & software

The two are different things but are closely connected.Professional searchers need to know how to use both.

IN THIS COURSE WE DEAL ONLY WITH SYSTEMS!Other courses deal with hardware & software

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What will the course NOT do?

• Create a professional searcher or “extreme searcher” out of you

• Make you an expert on databases, systems, information retrieval, search engines, the web

• Make you expertly proficient on any one system, database, resource, search engine

But you will be learning

• What is under the hood of a number of systems & databases– so that you can generalize to all the others

• How to conduct a search effectively using a number of techniques– so that you can generalize to advanced searching

• How to interact professionally with users– so that you can generalize that to a number of

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What will the course DO?• Provide you with a practical & theoretical

foundation and framework on basis of which you can then:– develop into a professional searcher or technical

assistant to users– grow & evolve with the field– adjust to inevitable changes in the world of searching– eventually, depending on your other courses & life-

long learning, become an expert

Themes, units4. Course organization

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Distribution of units• Semester lasts 15 weeks• Course has 14 units – one for each week of the

semester, plus a unit at the end for evaluation• Units are grouped into themes – there are 4 themes

following objectives:

A. Information (units 1, 2 & 3)B. Technology (units 4 &5)C. Searching (units 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10)D. People (units 11, 12, 13, & 14)At the end (unit 15)

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UnitsEach unit has an outline as to:• Title of the unit• Why? the rationale for presenting this unit

and questions you should ask• What? a list of topics covered in the unit• How? presentation and tasks for the unit

– elaborated in section 6

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Topics covered by unitsTheme A. INFORMATION

Unit 1. Overview of searching and a bit of historyUnit 2. Types and structures of information resourcesUnit 3. Types and structures of vocabularies

B. TECHNOLOGYUnit 4. Information retrieval; Interaction in information retrieval Unit 5. Search engines. Digital libraries

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Topics covered (cont.)C. SEARCHING — human-computer interaction

Unit 6. Search techniques and effectivenessUnit 7. Advanced searchingUnit 8. Web search and the invisible webUnit 9. Bibliometric and scientometric searchingUnit 10. Evaluation of search sources and results

D. PEOPLE — human-human interactionUnit 11 Mediation between search intermediaries & users. User modelingUnit 12. Presentation to usersUnit 13. Search services and roles of intermediaries – traditional and evolvingUnit 14. Ethics. Student presentations

AT THE ENDUnit 15. Future. Course evaluation

How? Ways and means we are going about doing the course

5. Coursework

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Mix• The course is a mix of two tracks:

1. principles & theory &2. practical skills

• Why principles & theory?– base for further understanding & professional

developmento knowing principles & theory separates learning from training & a

professional from a technician or paraprofessional o nothing more practical than a good theory & good set of principles

– principles & theory endure through changes in systems, technology & softwareo principles & theory make learning new systems easiero help with understanding

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Structure of coursework• Each unit has:

1. a lecture on the unit topic2. assignment as to readings3. exercise for searching – dealing with skills

4. discussion

• There is also a term project – a semester long task focusing on providing a

search service to a user selected by student o and a journal primarily devoted to the term project

dealing with principles

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Schedule

• Units are run on a weekly basis Monday through Sunday– assignments and exercises for each unit are due

on the following Monday (0 to 24 hours on Mon)

• The semester long term project has three deliverables - due per schedule– a selection report, progress report & final report

• Schedule is provided on course site

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Lectures• Each unit has a lecture on the topic

– lectures are in PowerPoint & Camtasia (narrated version of the PowerPoint lecture)o Suggestion: PowerPoint best viewed if downloaded & then

run on own computer (go to Downloads) omost lectures contain some links to other sites, providing

further explanation, examples, or resourcesounfortunately, links do not work in Camtasia

– some lectures slides have notes with further explanatory text

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Assignments

• Assignments refer to READINGS ONLY– associated with unit topic and lecture– some readings are required – these have to be briefly

summarized and questions answered & turned in – other readings are for read-only and discussion or reference

• Full citation to readings is in the bibliography• All readings, but the required book, are digital

– found either at RUL, on class web site, or on the web– sometimes you will have to search

o (after all this is a searching class!)

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Exercises• Objective: to obtain practical training in a variety of

systems– the objective is NOT to teach you a given system, but to

provide searching experiences that can be generalized & later sharpened, improved

• On a weekly basis as assigned– using Dialog, Scopus, Web of Science, LexisNexis, web, search

engines, digital libraries …– or search for answers for given questions– or use a variety of tactics & features

• In exercises you can work cooperatively in groups

Connection

• At times exercises are seemingly independent of lecture topic or readings– but they have their own logic in progression

• Think about the course as running on two parallel (but not independent) tracks:– lectures & readings are general, devoted to principles,

introducing concepts, experiments, theories on the topic– exercises are pragmatic introducing practice and “what is

under the hood” examples

• They can be connected in discussion & the journal

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Examples of first few exercises• Involves Dialog*• Take Dialog tutorials• LEARN & PRACTICE:

– Contents of databases– Structure of databases & records - BLUE SHEETS– Basic search commands– Basic output commands– Logical operators, execution– Truncation– Searching in fields– DIALINDEX; OneSearch

Why start with Dialog? Why include it at all?

• It is somewhat of a dinosaurs but it is also the largest set of legacy databases on the planet (over 15 Terabytes) (the whole print collection of the Library of Congress has some 10 Terabytes)

– it is also is the best way to learn what is under the hood – how are databases and vocabularies structured & how to do search strategies

• Also has a great set of learning tools plus a free password

• What you learn in Dialog translates to every indexing & abstracting database & even search engines

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Discussion

• Weekly there will be questions to discuss– a threaded discussion; you are asked to respond– or raise you own questions– & respond to remarks by your colleagues

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Term project purpose

• A reality exercise designed to give you in depth experience that you will encounter in your professional life– involves every aspect of searching from start to

end

• Experiences to be shared among classmates, so that you can learn from each other

• It will take time and effort, thus do NOT procrastinate – it is semester long!

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Term project• Select a specific user with an information need to do an

online search - no family or significant others

• Interview the user - if necessary several times with feedback

• Construct a user model – user question requirements & characteristics

• Select resources for searching• Construct search strategies & conduct searching

– reiterate as you get feedback from user

• Organize results for presentation• Present results to user; evaluate• Write a technical report

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Term project deliverablesThere are two:1. A search results report to the user

• suggest you follow presentation guidelines as suggested in Term project: final report; starts with an executive summary

• does NOT have to be presented to the instructor or class – it is between you and your user!

• only include the executive summary in technical report

2. A technical report to the instructor• discussed next and in the syllabus at length

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Technical report(details in the syllabus & instructions)

• Selection of user: who?• User question & model

o what task? how much knows? what topics? priorities?

• Mode & results of interviews• Summary of search tactics & approaches, dynamics• Changes in user model, user definition of problem• Changes in searching & you• Evaluation of your effort & learning

o what does or does not work? o what effects of your decisions? And user feedback?o what would you do differently? (this section VERY important!)

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Journal• You are asked to keep your own informal journal in

eCollege – equivalent to a lab or project personal notebook or diary

o Required: for you to record the progress in your term project as it unfolds

o Optional: for you to record major aspects of what you learned (from readings, exercises, discussions, project, experience …) with any associated reactions, comments, reflections and the like.

• But there is nothing to turn in• You can use journal entries about the term project in

your technical report– also keep at after the class is over as a notebook

Groups• I will try to organize you into groups of 3-4 students

– or you can do self organization into a group according to shared interests

• Groups are intended for more intensive discussion among members , exchange of experiences & self-help

• The role is for each group to– discuss readings and assignments– perform tasks together e.g. exercises– term project can be done as a group project (2 or more)– share journal entries– together report to the class as a whole.

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Method of assessment

• SCILS has the following letter grades – we will use them:

A, B+, B, C+, C, and F• The final grade will be derived as follows:

• Criteria for grading listed in the syllabus

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Summaries, exercises, discussion, journal 60%

Term project 40%

About the course …6. Parting remarks

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About the course• It is demanding - but so is searching as professional work• It is challenging - but so is searching• There is a lot of thinking• There is a lot of work• But there is a lot

– that can be learned– that can be used in practice

o and in other courses– that will stay with you throughout your career– upon which you can build

• And the course is rewarding– and so is searching professionally

Grades• Do not worry about grades• The course is not about grades – it is about learning,

gaining knowledge & competencies – grades are just an indicator for you to gauge your progress

• Nobody will ever ask you what grade you got– but will expect of you to master something & ask you about what

you know & have learned– thus RELAX! And concentrate on exploring & learning– and even having fun!– as of matter of fact let us all have fun, you learning & me teaching

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Future?

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another perspective …

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still another perspective