Information Literacy, Search
Strategies & Catalog Instruction
Frederic Murray
Assistant Professor
MLIS, University of British Columbia
BA, Political Science, University of Iowa
Instructional Services Librarian
Al Harris Library
frederic.murray@swosu.edu
Login to the Library
1. Before you can login to the library, you'll first need
to login to your student webmail account at
https://outlook.com/student.swosu.edu.
2. The student webmail for John Smith would be
smith@student.swosu.edu.
2. Your default Password is Live1234
(L must be uppercase /1234 are the last digits of your SSN)
3. You will need to change your password to log into
the Library Website.
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
• One week of newspaper articles from the
NYT contains more written and visual
information than the average person in the
18th 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
• Varied Types & Sources of Information
• Critical evaluation is more important
than ever
• Construct Your Search
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 communication
have made online social networks an
integral part of daily life.
Thesis Statement
Advances in digital communication
have made online social networks an
integral 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 communication
have made online social networks an
integral 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!
Class Exercise
• Keyword Building Exercise
Topic: Global Warming
• Thesaurus.com
• Visuwords
National Geographic
Global Warming
Policy
Science
Business
Environment
Global
Atmosphere
Antarctica
Warming
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
Log In to Ebrary Bookshelf
E-Books: Ebrary & eBooks
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24/7
Full Text Searching*
Highlight Markup
Note Taking
Changeable Font Size
Online Bookshelf
• Multiplicity of Use
Exercise
• Catalog worksheet
– SWOSU
– WorldCat
– Ebrary
Questions?
• Contact me:
– Frederic Murray
• 774-7113
• frederic.murray@swosu.edu
Thanks!