Introduction to Information
Literacy, Search Techniques &
Finding Books
Jane Long
MLIS, University of Oklahoma
MA, English, Wright State University
Reference Services Librarian
Al Harris Library
jane.long@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 his/her 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.
Educational Goals for 21st Century
1. Teach students to be self-directed
and understand how to organize
more and more of their own learning.
2. Teach students the importance of
global communication.
3. Teach 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
Search Techniques:
1. Keywords
– Flexible Terms
– Easy Searches
– Less Accuracy in
Searching
– Use of Phrases
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.
Keyword Phrases
• Single concept, multiple words
• Some electronic resources require keyword
phrases be enclosed with punctuation by using
– Quotation marks – SWOSU Catalog
– Parenthesis
Keyword Phrase Examples:
•
•
•
•
Basic phrase
Proper names
Hyphenated words
Slogans,
advertisements
• Famous quotations
• Movie titles,
song titles
“criminal justice”
“Native American”
“x-ray”
“Where’s the Beef?”
“hope is the thing with
feathers”
“Dark Knight”
Search Techniques:
2. 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!
Treatment of employees by
fast food restaurants
• First, narrow down the topic
– Which restaurants are you talking about?
– What kind of treatment?
• Good or Bad
• Focusing on:
– Working environment & hours
– Benefits & Pay
– Promotion & Opportunities
– How employees are treated by their peers?
Manager(s)? Customer(s)?
How “AND” is used
• AND (narrows)
– restaurant and employee
– restaurant and employee and “retirement
benefits”
How “OR” is used
• OR (expands)
– restaurant or cafeteria
– salary or income
• AND & OR together
– restaurant or cafeteria and employee
– salary or income and “work hours”
Search Strategy
• Endless possibilities…
– employee OR worker AND cafeteria AND salary
– employee AND restaurant AND salary OR income
– waitress AND eatery AND income
How “NOT” is used
• NOT (excludes)
– cafeteria not school
– income not influx
• AND, OR & NOT together
– employee and restaurant or cafeteria not
school
Truncation (Wildcards)
• Non-universal
symbols used in
searching
• Common symbols:
*?
• Used with a root
word
• Used to replace a
vowel or single
character
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)
• Singular/Plural- replaces a vowel or
single character in a word, in this case
it takes the place of ‘OR’
– wom*n
– woman, women
– history and woman or women
– history and wom*n
Class Exercise
• Keyword Building Exercise
Topic: Conservation
• Thesaurus.com
Conservation
safeguard
save
keep
management
preservation
maintenance
control
protect
storage
Catalog:
Finding books
Reference Materials
• Almanacs, dictionaries, handbooks, and
encyclopedias are useful tools for
finding quick facts, statistics, or a
broad overview of your topic.
• If you don't know much about your
topic already, these tools can be a
good place to start.
SWOSU Catalog
Open WorldCat
Ebrary
• Ebrary provides more than 44,000
digital books in a broad range of
subject areas, including business,
technology, health and medicine,
literature and the humanities, physical
sciences, social sciences, and
interdisciplinary studies. Ebrary digital
books contain the full-text and
illustrations of their print counterparts
Exercise
• Catalog worksheet
– SWOSU
– WorldCat
– Topic: Race
Questions?
• Contact me:
– Jane Long
• 774-3030
• jane.long@swosu.edu
Thanks!