Information Literacy
Programme
Use of Internet and Electronic
Resource search Techniques
Presenter: Apollo Abungu
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Contents
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Definition of Information Literacy
Objectives
Qualities of information literate persons
Planning your search
i. Boolean search
ii.Truncation
iii. Exact phrase search
Online resources available at IED EA
JSTOR
EBSCOHOST
Part two - Practical Journal Search
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What is information literacy?
“The competencies and skills Library users need
to locate, retrieve, evaluate, analyze, and use
information. These competencies are developed
over time and are essential for lifelong learning. ”
(UNESCO, 2005)
Information literacy enables people to recognize
the value of information and use it to make
informed choices in their personal, professional
and academic lives.
(Source adapted - WAAL Information Literacy
Committee, 1998)
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 Information
literacy is a survival skill in the
Information Age. Instead of drowning in
the abundance of information that floods
their lives, information literate people know
how to find, evaluate, and use information
effectively to solve a particular problem or
make a decision…
- ALA Presidential Committee
on Information Literacy
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Objectives of IL
 Ensure
effective and efficient information
retrieval
 Create awareness of available information
resources
 Develop and implement effective search
strategies.
 Use information effectively to accomplish a
specific purpose.
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Qualities of an information Literate
person
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Recognition that information is required
Knows where to find information
Knows how that information is organized
Knows how to retrieve information
Understanding different formats in which
information appears
Will apply it for effective outcome.
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Qualities cont…
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Able to record information sources used
accurately.
Able to create bibliographies and
understand bibliographic styles.
Understand issues surrounding plagiarism
and copyright
Able to carry out literature reviews
Understand methods of current awareness
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Search techniques.
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Keywords
Boolean searching
Combining words
Phrase searching
Truncation/wildcard searching
Focusing a search
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Before you search, you need to:
 Prepare
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What do you need to know about your topic?
Make a list of all the terms connected with your topic.
Include names, organizations, and phrases.
 Organize
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Make a list of the words that are critical to your search.
Note terms that you don’t want to see appear.
Discard the rest.
 Combine-(Use Boolean operators to combine most important
terms.)
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Use AND to connect the terms you want to see.
Use OR to include similar terms.
Use NOT to exclude terms you don’t want.
Use lower case for all proper nouns, except for acronyms
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Why Boolean?
 In
Boolean searching, connecting
terms also known as operators, are
used to combine words and phrases to
get better search results.
 Knowledge
of basic Boolean principles,
enables you to search a library
catalogue, a database, even the
Internet.
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Boolean operators Application
AND
Pediatrics
Pediatrics
OR
surgery
Pediatrics
NOT
surgery
Pediatrics
AND
OR
Surgery
Surgery
Pediatrics
surgery
Pediatrics
NOT
Surgery
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Template with Boolean application
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Truncation or stemming.
A
search technique that allows for
searching of variant spellings and
words with different endings through
the use of specific symbols e.g. ( *, $,
?, !)
 (Remember symbols differ according
to databases).
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How do I Truncate?
1. Find the “common stem keyword.
For instance, Regulat
 Step
 Step
2. Search for that stem with the
symbol (* , ?, !).e.g. Regulat* retrieves
regulation, regulations, regulatory,
regulating, regulate etc.
(If the * does not work for the database you
are using, consult the Help section of the
database.).
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Example Using truncation
 To
find materials on Education training in
Tanzania:
 Educat* AND Tanzania to include the
terms Educate, Education or Educational,
Educationist(s) which ‘education' would
not retrieve.
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Truncation for variant spelling
Truncation can also be helpful in some
cases of (variant spelling). i.e. ..organisation
/organization (British/American English)
 Also use a truncation symbol to look for
different word forms WITHIN a word
(wom*n would find WOMAN and WOMEN,
colo*r matches both “color” and “colour.”)
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Advanced Truncation
A
question mark (?) stands for exactly one
character. Multiple question marks in a row
stand for the same number of characters.
For example, psych????y matches either
“psychology” or “psychiatry”, but not
“psychotherapy.”
 If
you see a message about a search
being invalid, you’ll need to add at least
one character before one of the
wildcards.
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Exact phrase search
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Involves use of quotation marks (“ ”) to undertake
an exact phrase search so that you narrow down
your results to the exact phrase or name you are
looking for.
(This technique works in most databases.)
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E.g. “Educational research” or “Paulo Freire”
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Online Resources, Passwords and URL’s
PUBLISHER
ACCESS REQUIREMENT
URL
SAGE ONLINE
No password in Campus
User id: agakhanuni
Passwd: tanzania08
http://online.sagepub.com/
EMERALD
User Id: 490482 Passwd:emerald
www.emeraldinsight.com
EBSCOhost
User Id: ns055276
Passwd: password
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx
(Use pword outside the Institution)
WILEY INTER-SCIENCE
User Id: agakhaninasp
Passwd: access
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/
OXFORD ONLINE
Activated No password
http://www.oxfordjournals.org/
JSTOR
No password in campus
http://www.jstor.org/
User Id: agakhan Passwd:welcome
Cambridge online journal
N/A
http://journals.cambridge.org/
UNESCO
Free Access
http://www.unesco.org/en/education
Directory of Online Access
Journal (DOAJ)
Free Access
http://www.doaj.org/
The American Educational
Research Association- AERA
Special Interest Group (SIG)
Free Access
http://aera-cr.asu.edu/ejournals/
Education Policy and Data
Center
Free Access
http://epdc.org/Default.aspx
Aga Khan University-IEDEA
library
Free Access
http://www.aku.edu/iedea/Library/index.shtml
World Bank Data
Free Access
http://data.worldbank.org/
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What is JSTOR?
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Was founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for
scholarship.
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It offers a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive to
support scholarship and teaching.
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JSTOR includes archives of over 1,000 leading
academic journals and primary source materials
valuable for academic work.
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The entire archive is full-text searchable, offers search
term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is
interlinked by millions of citations and references.
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Basic search results
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Advanced search screen
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Advanced search results
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Browsing JSTOR
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2. Dbases under EBSCOhost
i.
Academic source complete –
-10,900 publications PDF going back 1865.
- 4,400 peer-reviewed journals.
ii. Education Research Complete –
-1,870 journals indexes and abstracts & 1,060 full text journals
iii. Library,
Information Science & Technology Abstracts
- LISTA indexes more than 560 core journals, nearly 50 priority journals, and
nearly 125 selective journals; plus books, research reports and
proceedings.
iv. Newspaper Source
– Has selected full text of 40 US National N/papers and 389 US regional
N/papers
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EBSCOhost home page
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Advanced Search
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Search Results
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Dos and don’ts of searching
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DO undertake preliminary background reading
DO plan your search strategy carefully
DO use the instructions for the specific database or
ask the library staff for help
DO ask a librarian for advice if needed; some
searches are just not easy to do.
DON’T just type in your essay title
DON’T give up if the first attempt is not successful
— try to refine your search
DON’T waste time getting nowhere
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Remember:
*** Knowledge
is free at the library.
Just bring your own container.
- Unknown
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End Of part one (1)
 Thank
you
 Any questions?
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Part two(2)
 Practical
search using JSTOR and
EBSCOST.
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