Creating a Library Instruction
Session for a Technical
Writing Course Composed of
Engineering and NonEngineering Students
Kevin P. Drees, Kiem-Dung Ta, and Helen Peeler Clements
Oklahoma State University
Presented at the 2005 ASEE conference poster session. Full text article
available in the Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering
Education Annual Conference & Exposition,
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education
The goal of this instruction…
[why is it necessary?]
 Students
cite web instead of academic
sources
 Equity: In the past, this technical writing
course was not exposed to the library
instruction that English composition classes
received
 Expensive subject-specific databases are
under-utilized
 The engineering workplace expects a
mastery of library skills
 ABET accreditation criteria correlates with
information literacy guidelines developed by
the ACRL (Association of College &
Research Libraries)
Approach to the sessions
[How are the sessions taught?]
 Librarians
manage the instruction by
 limiting the number of resources shown
 providing handouts for additional detail
 customizing each session by searching
with student topics instead of canned
searches
 Customizing:
 focuses attention
 increases participation of students
 reduces lecture content
The content of this instruction
[What is taught?]
Critical
thinking skills
Knowledge base of the
library
Subject experts, use of
Information Sources for
English 3323:
Technical Writing
{Presentation: as delivered in
the classroom}
Kevin Drees
Engineering Librarian
Created June 2004
Updated March 2005
drees@okstate.edu
Edmon Low Library
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK
KD 6/04
Content of this instruction:

Critical thinking skills
Keyword vs. subject search
 Information Cycle: scholarly vs. non-scholarly
material
 Primary vs. secondary sources
 Subscription databases from Library via the
web vs Web search engines


Knowledge base of the library
Discipline/Subject Specific Databases
 Format

Article,
 technical reports
 government documents



Availability (Print/Electronic)
Subject experts
Disciplines
 Business/Financial
 Engineering
 Agriculture
Formats
 Articles
 Technical
Reports
 Government Documents
Availability
 Electronic
 Print
 Note:
using both the print and electronic
will increase the odds of finding useful
information and better “composite
sketch” of the topic, company, or
industry
Critical Thinking – deciding about
how to search and what types of
sources to use – driven by
audience analysis.
 1.
Keyword vs. subject search
 2. Information Cycle: scholarly vs. nonscholarly material
 3. Primary vs. secondary sources
 4. Subscription databases from Library
via the web vs Web search engines
Critical Thinking –
 1.
Keyword vs. subject search
 keyword

search –
Synonyms: targeted, exact, specific
 Example:
 company name
search – use when
keyword fails.
 Synonyms for subject search:
classification, category, broadened
searching
 subject

Example:
 industry, product type
Critical Thinking –
 2.
Information Cycle:
Analysis increases along the
cycle
scholarly vs. non-scholarly
material
Web (scholarly/non-scholarly) vs
subscription database (scholarly
except for news accounts)
Critical Thinking –
 3. Primary vs. secondary sources
 preference of primary source materials
over secondary
 Primary source material:
 the article, speech, etc., verbatim –
a good approach to get exactly
what was said
 Secondary source material
 A summary someone wrote by
looking at the primary source.
May contain an analysis in the
context of the discipline.
Critical Thinking –
 4.
Subscription databases from Library
via the web vs Web search engines
 Understanding
the distinction
Knowledge Base
 Subject
 What
Specific Databases
technical reports and
government documents are and
why these should be consulted
Business/Financial
 Goal:
to increase your searching ability
in business and financial sources
 keyword search –
 company name
search –
 Industry
 Product type
 Subject
Electronic
 Hoover’s
 Factiva
 Business
Source Elite
 ProQuest Direct
 Edgar
Print
D & B Million Dollar Directory – 2004
 NAICS (North American Industrl Class.
System) 2000
 NAICS (2 other volumes)
 SIC (Standard Industrial Class.) Manual
 Standard and Poor’s Register – Corporations
 International Directory of Company Histories
 D&B Directory of Service Companies / 2004

Print cont.
Manufacturers Register –
 The Value line investment survey.
 Stand & Poor’s Industry Surveys
 Market Share Reporter
 Manufacturing & Distribution USA
 U.S. Market Trends & Forecasts
 Oklahoma
Summary - Business/Financial

keyword (specific) vs subject (category)
searching
 Subject searching


Value line investment survey – composite stats
S&P Industry Survey – many tables and graphs
Articles – description of the industry or
the company itself
 Further assistance – Librarians, reference
desk.

Engineering

Electronic


Compendex
EBSCO








Acad Search Elite
ASTA (Applied Science and Technology)
Biological Abstracts (multiple years)
Medline
INSPEC
IEL (IEEE Electronic Library)
Science Direct
Web of Science
Agriculture

Electronic
 ASAE (American Society of Agricultural
Engineers)
 EBSCO
Agricola - compiled by the U.S. National
Agricultural Library (NAL)
 Biological Abstracts (multiple years)
 Biological & Agricultural Index


USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
www.usda.gov
Technical Reports - defined

Are written to convey new developments or
final results of scientific and technical
research.
 Are usually funded by government
departments or corporate bodies.
 Deliver technical information to the funding
organization.
 Provide a forum for peer information
exchange.
Anne Graham, Barker Engineering Library, MIT, grahama@mit.edu,
http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/types/techreports/definition.html, Accessed August 14, 2004

Tech Reports - locating

The most important resources for locating
tech reports and other info produced by the
Government for this technical writing course.

Library Catalog



Science.gov –



Regular search
Limited to gov docs
site searches 30 Government agency databases and
makes use of 1700 agency selected websites pertaining
to science.
May not be able to pull the full text from this source.
Contact Gov Docs
Gov Docs Dept – 5th Floor of Library



Gov Docs Librarians
Print vs electronic over date ranges
Identify agencies relevant to your topic
Tech Reports - locating
NTIS
All (nearly) government publications are
available from NTIS (National Technical
Information Service)
 OSU Gov Docs will request the item in
Microfiche – take the NTIS record
(abstract and other data) to Gov Docs- 2
weeks- patron photocopy the mf copy

Government documents - defined
a
record of activities of government’s
numerous agencies, regulatory bodies,
and departments
 content ranging from agriculture to
zoology and impact on all academic
disciplines.
 Authorship by agency, a unique
classification system, and a variety of
output formats often confound users,
 Primary source materials readily
available from government sources
include verbatim testimony obtained
from congressional hearings and
environmental impact statements.
Government Documents –
identifying relevant materials

Search the following in this order

Library Catalog



Science.gov –



Regular search
Limited to gov docs
site searches 30 Government agency databases and
makes use of 1700 agency selected websites pertaining
to science.
May not be able to pull the full text from this source.
Contact Gov Docs
Gov Docs Dept – 5th Floor of Library



Gov Docs Librarians
Print vs electronic over date ranges
Identify agencies relevant to your topic
Government Documents

Primary source material:

Example: Congressional hearings appear




Congressional LexisNexis – via Indexes and Databases
page.
Science.gov – www.science.gov
Thomas - (legistative information on the Internet
http://thomas.loc.gov/
Secondary source material

Example: search for Congressional hearings in a
source with major newspapers like New York
Times –

ProQuest
How can I tell it is a Gov Doc

A government agency: EPA, etc
 Found the publication in the “GPO Monthly”
(Catalog of US Gov Pubs)


Call numbers in Gov Docs 5th floor Libr



http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgp/index.html
SuDocs (slashes and colons)
Jackson numbers (3 letters)
OSU catalog limited to Gov Docs on the limit
tab
_____________________________
 Exception to the above – sometimes non-Gov
publisher items are placed in Gov Docs _
Government websites via
agency or service
Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov/
 Catalog of US Gov Pubs
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgp/index.html
 EPA www.epa.gov
 Science.gov www.science.gov
 NTIS (National Technical Information Service)
www.ntis.gov/
 USDA (US Dept of Agriculture)
 www.usda.gov
 Dept of Labor http://www.dol.gov/


Business stats
Summary
 Search
respective databases & print
sources
 subject (category) searching as well as
Keyword (specific)
 Locate primary sources as needed
 Visit Gov Docs – Library, 5th Floor