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Information Literacy, Search Strategies & Catalog Instruction
Frederic Murray Frederic Murray Assistant ProfessorAssistant ProfessorMLIS, University of British ColumbiaMLIS, University of British ColumbiaBA, Political Science, University of IowaBA, Political Science, University of Iowa
Instructional Services LibrarianInstructional Services LibrarianAl Harris Library Al Harris Library [email protected]@swosu.edu
Information Literacy
• It is a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.
Library Instruction in the Information Age• A single current newspaper contains
more written and visual information than the average person in the 17th Century was likely to come across in their entire lifetime. There are many areas of literacy that all add up to Information Literacy: Cultural, Visual, Media, Network, Computer, Traditional Alphabetic Literacy, and Library Instruction.
Did You Know….
Educational Goals for 21st Century
1. Teach Students to be self-directed & understand how to organize more & more of their own learning.
2. Teach our students the importance of global communication.
3. Teach our students to deal with massive amounts of information.
Library Instruction in the Information Age
• New Search Strategies are required
• Critical evaluation is more important than ever
• Hi-Tech Research
Catalogs, Databases, & Search Engines
• A comprehensive list of the books, periodicals, maps, and other materials in a given collection.
• A large, regularly updated file of digitized information related to a specific subject or field.
• Computer software designed to help the user locate information available at sites on the World Wide Web by selecting categories from a hierarchical directory of subjects (example: Yahoo!) or by entering appropriate keywords or phrases (Google).
Search Techniques
• Keyword • Basic Boolean
Identifying Keywords
• Identify the significant terms and concepts that describe your topic from your thesis statement or research question.
• These terms will become the key for searching catalogs, databases and search engines for information about your subject.
Thesis Statement
Advances in digital communicationhave made online social networks
anintegral part of daily life.
Thesis Statement
Advances in digital communicationhave made online social networks
anintegral part of daily life.
How do I pick the right keywords?
• Here is an example of a visual word search tool:– Visuwords
– Use Subject Headings– Use the suggestions made in the
databases– Use keywords provided by abstracts
Keyword Phrases
• Single concept, multiple words• Some electronic resources require
keyword phrases be enclosed with punctuation– Quotation marks – SWOSU Catalog – Parenthesis
Thesis Statement
Advances in digital communicationhave made online social networks
anintegral part of daily life.
Boolean
• AND = Narrow
• OR = Expand
• NOT = Exclude
Boolean Operators
• Connect keywords only• Must be placed between keywords• AND
– Narrows your search
• OR– Expands your search with synonymous
terms
• NOT– Excludes words from your search– If used too much, it can work against you!
Truncation (Wildcards)
• Non-universal symbols used in searching
• Common symbols: + * ?• Used with a root
word• Used to mark
essential or important terms
Truncation (Wildcards)
• Root Word- looks for multiple endings of a word, in this case it takes the place of ‘OR’– jump?– jump, jumps, jumping, jumper,
jumpers
– rope and jumping or jumps or jump – rope and jump?
Truncation (Wildcards)
•+ or * are used to mark important or essential terms
• i.e. death penalty +innocence death penalty +race death penalty +statistics
Class Exercise
• Keyword Building ExerciseTopic: Global Warming
• Thesaurus.com• Visuwords
Global Warming
Policy
Science
Business
Global Warming
Atmosphere
Environment Antarctica
Ozone
Catalog: Finding books
• Relevance
• Keyword searching with Boolean operators
• Limiters/Filters
• Subject searching (hyperlinks)
SWOSU Catalog
Dewey
• All of human knowledge is broken into Ten Major Categories
Open WorldCat
E-Books: Ebrary/Netbook
• 24/7• Full Text Searching*• Highlight Markup• Note Taking• Changeable Font Size• Online Bookshelf
• Multiplicity of Use
Exercise
• Catalog worksheet– SWOSU– WorldCat– Ebrary
Thanks!
