Information Literacy for MOS
ECS-65100
March 2012
Programme and Teachers:
 Teachers
Marco van Veller
 Lecture 1
 Practical training
 Lecture 2
 Blackboard modules
Annemie Kersten
Agenda
 14 March 15:30 – 17:15 h
● room C435: Classroom lecture
 21 March 15:30 – 18:00 h
● room PC 717: Practical training – working on your
assignment
(enter Blackboard and check if you have access to
ECS65100_2011_0)
 28 March 15:30 – 17:15 h
● room C435: Classroom lecture
 3 May 14:00-15:30 h
● rooms PC 512: Exam. Note: the time for the exam
is 90 minutes.
Course contents
 Self Study – Blackboard modules at http://edu6.wur.nl/
● Before practicals: 1, 2, 3.1, 3.2, 4a, 7
● Later: 4b1, 4b2, 4b4, 4b9, 5, and 8
 Quizzes in Blackboard to test your knowledge
 Practical training
 Exam on 3 May 2012.
Practical training
● Write an assignment together with one or two
fellow students
● Information on how to write it can be found in BB > Assignments
● The subject is: Influence of climatic change on food
security
● Read the description of this subject -> Assignments
● Information specialists will be available to assist
you
● Upload the document via Blackboard before 18.00 h
on 26 March 2012 -> Assignments
Sketch by Charles Darwin, 1837
Fotograph by Julia Margaret Camron, 1968
The role of scientific literature
 Scholarly communication
Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society
of London. Zoology 3: 46-50.
Fotograph by Julia Margaret Camron, 1968
The role of scientific literature
 Scholarly communication
The role of scientific literature
© Justin Sullivan/Getty pictures
 Claiming (intellectual or commercial) ownership
© Google Inc 2011
The role of scientific literature
 A record of science
And there is more information.....
Newspapers
Blogs
Web sites
Illustration © Loet van Moll
Wikipedia
When are you information literate?
 Define the information you need
 Understand the variety of information sources
 Search efficiently
● fast, comprehensive and accurate
 Search effectively
● get information that suits your request
 Evaluate and select appropriate information
 Manage selected information (e.g. EndNote)
 Use selected information and avoid plagiarism
Why should you be information literate?
 Now during your study
● Courses
● Thesis
 Later as a professional
● Keep knowledge up to date
● Basis for research
● Input for decisions
● Publishing as part of the scientific process
Define the information you need
 Purpose
● factual data, orientation, in-depth search
 Topic
● research question
 Level
● scientific, professional, news
 Type
● data, news, books, research article, laws,
● company information, government information
What: use of research resources
Resources Identified as Most Important by Researchers
Research Resources







% Ranking in Top 3
Journal articles
71.1%
Monographs
32.0%
Chapters in books with many authors
21.8%
Expertise of individuals
19.4%
Organization's web sites
15.3%
Original text sources, e.g. newspapers, historical records
12.5%
Conference proceedings
11.6%
What: use of research resources (cont.)




Datasets : published or unpublished
8.1%
Other sources (specified by interviewee)
6.8%
Preprints
5.1%
Non-text sources, e.g. images, audio, artifacts
2.9%
Researchers and discovery services. Behaviour, perceptions and needs.
A study commissioned by the Research Information Network, 2006.
Access the needed information
 WHERE??
Use the right finding aids
Illustration © Loet van Moll 2009
Resources and finding aids
Resources
Monographs
scientific
Bibliographies
professional
Library catalogues
books
Internet search engines
reports
Gateways/ portals
dissertations
proceedings
Encyclopedias
Datasets
Websites, Blogs, News
Illustration © Loet van Moll 2009
Journal articles
Finding aids
Library catalogues
 Are always linked to a library collection
 Show you where to locate books and journals
 Don’t contain journal articles
 Don’t contain book chapters
Illustration © Loet van Moll 2009
Bibliographies - bibliographic databases
Illustrations © Loet van Moll 2009
Bibliographic databases
 Consist of structured references with abstract, keywords,
link to full-text (if WUR has subscription)
In some also: cited by, related records
 Mainly refer to scientific articles but may also include
books, theses, conference papers etc.
 Searching based on metadata,
not full text
 Different search platforms
Example of a bibliographic record
Bibliographic databases
Multidisciplinary
• Scopus
• Web of Science
• Google Scholar
Overlap
Additional
Specific topics
• CAB-Abstracts
• Biological Abstracts
• FSTA
• Medline/ PubMed
• ……………..
Use several databases
Overlap and unique records
Sensitivity of models on leaching of pesticides to
groundwater
Web of Science
Scopus
CAB Abstracts
SciFinder
144
157
115
145
After deduplication
73
48
59
Choosing a bibliographic database
 Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar
● Use links on Library home page
http://library.wur.nl/
 Specialized subject oriented databases
● Use the Portals on the Library web site
● Choose a bibliography or start a Metasearch from
there
 From off-campus: Log in first
● Read the FAQ item on off-campus access if you
have problems connecting
Getting the articles
Use our link resolver SFX
Access to licensed resources only when logged in!
Google Scholar
 Bibliographic database
 Multidisciplinary with very broad coverage
● journal articles, books, theses, patents
 Simple + advanced search interface
 Index based on full text rather than bibliographic
metadata
 Relevance ranking
 Locate the complete document through your library or
on the web
● WUR-library when logged in or from within WUR-net
Search strategies
 Known item search
 Following a thread
 Concept or structured search
Known item search
 Paste the title into Google Scholar
Known items search 2
 Look up the journal in Journals A-Z
● Use wildcards for the journal title
Following a thread
 Find one or more relevant
publications
 Search citations:
● In references (older)
● Cited by (more recent)
 Search related articles based
on:
● Authors
● Keywords
● Shared references
Illustration © Loet van Moll 2009
Concept or structured search
 Identify key concepts (split your subject into main
themes)
 Formulate search terms per concept
 Apply database tools and combine search terms with
Boolean operators
 Improve your search (evaluate and select)
Illustrations © Loet van Moll 2009
Finding the focus
 Effect of windmills on the marine environment
 Questions:
● Which effects?
● How can wind energy be collected?
● What does the marine environment exist of?
 Background: Wikipedia, Google, books, reviews
Combining with Boolean operators
 Within concept: OR (any word)
 Between concepts: AND (all words)
 (Exclude concepts: NOT)
 Make sets per concept, or use parentheses
 Adjust during search
Limiting
 years of publication
 geographic region
 language
 additional concept(s)
Identifying key concepts
Effect of windmills on the marine environment
Identifying key concepts
 Effect of windmills on the marine environment
Finding search terms
windmills OR wind power OR wind energy OR windfarms
marine OR sea OR ocean
environment OR fishes OR fauna OR macrobenthos OR
seals OR …….
effect OR impact OR influence OR disturbance OR ……..
Truncation and phrase searching
windmill* OR “wind power” OR “wind energy” OR
windfarm*
marine OR sea OR ocean*
environment* OR fish* OR fauna OR macrobenthos OR
seals OR …….
effect* OR impact OR influence OR disturbance OR ……..
Combining sets
Use parentheses around concepts
WRONG
windmill* OR “wind power” OR “wind energy” OR
windfarm* AND marine OR sea OR ocean
RIGHT
(windmill* OR “wind power” OR “wind energy” OR
windfarm*) AND (marine OR sea OR ocean)
Search history
Retrieved articles
 Importance of using multiple sampling methodologies for
estimating of fish community composition in offshore
wind power construction areas of the Baltic Sea
 Spatial planning of offshore wind farms: A windfall to
marine environmental protection?
● abstract: … no-take zones for fish, with possible
spill-over effects…
 Underwater noise from three types of offshore wind
turbines: Estimation of impact zones for harbor
porpoises and harbor seals
● keywords: … seals; oceans; seas; power plants …
Improving your search
 To narrow: more specific terms, less truncation, more
concepts….
 To broaden: more (general) terms, more truncation, less
concepts …………
 Build on what you have found:
● More or better terms (thesaurus!)
● Key authors/ groups
● References (citation search)
Evaluation
 Assignment
● Upload assignment before 18.00 hrs on 26 March
2012
● Assignment needs to be submitted in order to get a
grade for this course
 Exam
● PC exam on 3 May 2012
● Final grade is based upon this exam (minimum 5.5)
● Note: the time for the exam is 90 minutes
 Contact: annemie.kersten@wur.nl or
marco.vanveller@wur.nl
End slide
Thank you for your
attention!