S533 Online Searching: Spring 2013 p. 1 of 8
S533 Online Searching
Spring 2013
Contact Information:
Instructor: Dr. Xi Niu
Office: IT 479
Email: xiniu@iupui.edu
Textbook: Suzanne Bell, Librarian’s Guide to Online Searching. Libraries Unlimited, 3rd Ed.
2012 OR 2nd Ed. 2009. Do not use the 1st edition; it is missing several chapters we will
use. Be sure to have this in-hand BEFORE class starts. The 2nd edition has different
examples but covers the same topics. When a chapter number is given, I will indicate if
it differs between editions.
All other required readings will be posted in Oncourse.
This syllabus has:
WHAT: Course description and outcomes
WHY: Relation to MLS and librarianship goals
HOW: Assignments and schedule
POLICIES: Attendance, grading, academic misconduct, and
disability accommodation
WHAT
Catalog description: Principles, methods, and techniques of advanced online information
retrieval (IR). Characteristics of and search strategies for the use of bibliographic, referral,
citation, fact, numeric, and full text databases and search systems. Considers standards, use of
communications software, front-ends and micro-based IR systems, and creation of in-house
databases.
Course learning outcomes:
Upon completing this course students will know:
 Concepts in judging search effectiveness (relevance, recall, precision)
 Current and future trends in the indexing and retrieval of different types of information
 Principles for effective patron interactions and instruction
And be able to:
 Select appropriate free and subscription online resources as matches for scholarly,
citizen and consumer topics
 Identify effective controlled vocabulary, natural language, citation and other strategies
and appropriate format and other limitations for searches
 Construct effective advanced, multi-step and multi-type searches in OPACS, subscription
databases, and major free databases, using a variety of interfaces
 Communicate professionally with patrons individually and through user guides
WHY
How does this relate to masters-level librarianship?
ALA Core Competences of Librarianship: quoting directly from the ALA CCL1
1
http://www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/careers/corecomp/corecompetences/index.cfm
S533 Online Searching: Spring 2013 p. 2 of 8
The most important competences addressed in this course are:
5. Reference and User Services
5A. The concepts, principles, and techniques of reference and user services that provide
access to relevant and accurate recorded knowledge and information to individuals of all
ages and groups.
5B. Techniques used to retrieve, evaluate, and synthesize information from diverse
sources for use by individuals of all ages and groups.
These areas are also involved:
3. Organization of Recorded Knowledge and Information
3C. The systems of cataloging, metadata, indexing, and classification standards and
methods used to organize recorded knowledge and information.
4. Technological Knowledge and Skills
4A. Information, communication, assistive, and related technologies as they affect the
resources, service delivery, and uses of libraries and other information agencies.
4B. The application of information, communication, assistive, and related technology
and tools consistent with professional ethics and prevailing service norms and
applications.
4C. The methods of assessing and evaluating the specifications, efficacy, and cost
efficiency of technology-based products and services.
4D. The principles and techniques necessary to identify and analyze emerging
technologies and innovations in order to recognize and implement relevant technological
improvements.
This is a course in connecting users with relevant information using online methods. It is
about users, information, and connections.
Indiana University MLS Program Goals:
Assist and Educate Users of Libraries and Information Centers
 Analyze and identify information needs of diverse communities of users.
 Educate users and potential users to locate, use and evaluate information resources and
tools.
 Analyze and evaluate information systems and services in a variety of settings.
For this course, you need to know what these are, from S401 and S501 (required) and also
S503 or 504 (recommended):
A bibliographic database: a stand-alone/discrete entity that provides citations to

journal articles (and some other materials) with some form of subject access/indexing.
The difference between controlled vocabulary (from a thesaurus or authorized

index/list) and free, natural, or user-assigned terms.

The difference between an OPAC/library (book/materials) catalog, a restrictedaccess database, and the open Web.
This course is designed to be most useful for students in academic, special/research, and public
libraries. Most of the examples and research will be from academic and special (scientific)
library settings, and there is an emphasis on understanding scholarly research and
communication. Final projects allow students to focus on particular user groups, going into
more depth in understanding specific resources and services.
S533 Online Searching: Spring 2013 p. 3 of 8
HOW
Course Format: The spring session consists of 15 instructional weeks, with one “unit” each
week.
Each week begins on Monday and ends on Thursday midnight
Papers, exercises and postings are due by Thursday midnight.
Papers, exercises and postings that are on time, will be graded by the end of
Saturday.
There is a penalty-free grace period for Friday until midnight.
Items turned in on Fridays may not be graded until Monday.
Every additional day late means 5 point deduction.
You can work ahead if you need to arrange for time “off” for foreseeable issues like vacations and
weddings.
If you experience unforeseen personal issues, let me know. I can give you extended due dates:
this is not ‘extra’ time but merely a replacement for time you may have lost to accidents or
illness. You need to communicate about this.
There are two types of units:
Forum & Response & Exercise (FRE)
Paper/Project: 1 paper, 2 projects
Do not wait until three days of the scheduled Unit to work on a paper or project.
They are larger in scale than the FRE groups.
For a Forum & Response & Exercise unit you will:
Post an activity in a Forum, as described in the Unit directions
Respond to someone else’s activity / posting from the previous FRE unit
Complete an Exercise turned in via Assignments
20% for all Forums and Responses
20% for all Exercises
Papers:
Future: Choose among 4 topics in the future of information retrieval; readings are provided;
500-700 word essay.
SEO/Discovery: Choose among 3 topics (search engine optimization, discovery systems, next
generation catalogs; find commercial reports; 500-700 word essay
10% for each paper
Search Mastery Project: conduct a search for a hypothetical patron (including a patron
interview), produce a patron report and an analysis.
20% for the search and analysis
Option Project: Choose from among 3 different options (database reviewing/collection
management; usability testing; patron instruction)
15% for the project
5% for comments on others’ projects
S533 Online Searching: Spring 2013 p. 4 of 8
Topics/Readings/Timetable



White: These are FRE Units. Each involves a Forum, a Response, and an Exercise.
These are due by midnight of that unit’s date.
Green: These are paper/project due dates/units. DO NOT WAIT until three days to
work on these projects.
Blue: These are reminder items
UnitsDUE by
MIDNIGHT
Classes begin
Monday January
7
Unit 1: FRE
Begins January 7
DUE
Thursday
January 10
midnight
Unit 2: FRE
Begins January 14
DUE
Thursday
January 17
midnight
Jan. 14th
Unit 3: FRE
Begins January 21
DUE
Thursday
January 24
midnight
Topics, Readings
Make sure you have your textbook!
Topic: Google and Databases: Orientation to Online Searching
Relevance, precision, recall
Readings:
 Bell, Chapter 1
 Letzing, John. "Google to Roll out Smarter Search." Wall Street
Journal, May 17 2012, B6.
 Needleman, Sarah E., and Emily Maltby. "As Google Tweaks
Searches, Some Get Lost in the Web." Wall Street Journal, May 17
2012, B1.
Forum-1: Google/Bing/Relevance, assigned topics
Response: post in the Introductions Forum
Exercise-1: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, Google
OPACs
Book subject headings
Review of Boolean
Breaking down questions
Bell, Chapters 2, 3, 6 [skim]
Poo, D. C. C., & Khoo, C. S. G. (2009). Online catalog subject searching
Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences (Third ed., pp. 39533962). New York: Taylor and Francis. (Read ONLY 3953-3956)
Forum-2: Tutorial critiques
Response to Forum-1: improve search with advanced features
Exercise-2: OPAC searching
100% refund period ends
Bibliographic databases # 1:
Education, Library Science
Metasearching
Bell, Chapter 4, sections on Library Literature and ERIC
Baker, S., & Gonzalez, A. C. (2012). Graduate students and federated
searching. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 17(1), 13-31.
Forum-3: Finding subject terms in different databases
S533 Online Searching: Spring 2013 p. 5 of 8
Jan. 2oth
Unit 4: FRE
Begins January
28
DUE
Thursday
January 31
midnight
Feb. 3rd
Unit 5: FRE
Begins February 4
DUE Thursday
February 7
midnight
Unit 6: FRE
Begins February
11
DUE Thursday
February 14
midnight
Unit 7: PAPER
DUE Thursday
Response to Forum-2: Provide an example for a tutorial
Exercise-3: Assigned searches, evaluating subject terms
75% refund period ends
Bibliographic databases # 2:
Humanities, Social Sciences
Limits: years, publication types
Bell, Chapter 4/PsycINFO; Chapter 7
Abels, E. G. (2009). Business information and its users Encyclopedia of
library and information science (pp. 693-700). New York: Taylor and
Francis.
Forum-4: Social science topics and terms; limits
Response to Forum-3: Metasearching
Exercise-4: Humanities database comparison
25% refund period ends
Bibliographic databases # 3
Medical databases
Exploding, focus, subheadings
Bell, Chapter 5 (just PubMed/Medline)
Rana, G., Bradley, D. R., Hamstra, S. J., Ross, P. T., Schumacher, R. E.,
Frohna, J. G., Haftel, H.M., Lypson, M. L. (2011). A validated search
assessment tool: assessing practice-based learning and improvement
in a residency program. Journal of the Medical Library Association,
99(1), 77-81.
Forum-5: Create a medical search topic
Response to Forum-4: General vs. specialized database searching
Exercise-5: Comparing major medical database interfaces & results
Searches based on tracing
Citation searching, scientific
Legal, patent searches
ALL: Bell, Chapter 5 (Web of Science)
CHOOSE ONE AREA:
Citation searching: Nisonger, Thomas E. "Citation Autobiography: An
Investigation of ISI Database Coverage in Determining Author
Citedness." College & Research Libraries 65.2 (2004): 152-63.
Patent searching: White, M. J. (2009). Patents and patent searching
Encyclopedia of Library and Information Studies (Third ed., pp.
4114-4126). New York: Taylor and Francis
Legal searching: Arewa, O. B. (2006). Open access in a closed universe:
Lexis, Westlaw, law schools, and the legal information market. Lewis
and Clark Law Review, 10, 797+.
Forum-6 Choice: Patent or Legal or Citation
Response to Forum-5: Medical text/systematic review searching
Exercise-6: Comparing trace vs. subject searching
Concept paper: Future of Information Retrieval
S533 Online Searching: Spring 2013 p. 6 of 8
21st
Unit 8: FRE
Begins February
25th
DUE Thursday
February 28
midnight
Unit 9:
PROJECT
Interview
questions by
March 7th
Unit 10: FRE
Begins March
18th
DUE Thursday
March 21
midnight
Unit 11: PAPER
DUE Thursday
March 28st
Unit 12: FRE
Begins April 1
DUE Thursday
April 4
midnight
Friday April 5
Unit 13:
PROJECT
Due: Thursday
April 11
Unit 14:
PROJECT
Due: Thursday
Patrons
Information Seeking Behavior
Interviewing
Bell, Chapter 9
CHOOSE ONE ELIS information seeking article [listed in instructions]
Forum-8: Scenarios and interview questions
Response to Forum-6: use ISB readings to comment on database interfaces/
capacities
Exercise-8: Reflection on user experience
Search mastery topics/scenarios assigned
Initial user interview
March 11-17th: Spring Break
User instruction
Bell, Chapter 12
DaCosta, J. W. (2010). Is there an information literacy skills gap to be
bridged? An examination of faculty perceptions and activities relating
to information literacy in the United States and England. College &
Research Libraries, 71(3), 203-222.
Forum-10: User cheat-sheet
Response-to-9: Relate a database to a user group
Exercise-10: Critiquing LibGuides
Concept paper: Search Engine Optimization OR Federated/Discovery/ New
Catalog systems
Management: Evaluation and selection of databases
Bell, Chapter 11
IUPUI Database Prices spreadsheet
RUSA Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS). (2011). Best free
reference websites: thirteenth annual lists. Reference & User Services
Quarterly, 51(1), 19-24.
Forum-12: Database reviews/usability
Response-to-10: Strong points of cheat-sheets/populations
Exercise-12: Database selection worksheet and critique
No later: Pick final project (send to instructor via email
Search mastery project
Project: choice of database review/selection, usability, or patron instruction
S533 Online Searching: Spring 2013 p. 7 of 8
April 18
Unit 15:
COMMENT:
By April 25
Comment on Search Mastery and Project from other students
Course Administration and Policies
Attendance:
Students are expected to access Oncourse at least 3-4 times per week. If you have an emergency,
contact the instructor as soon as possible.
If you do not complete at least half of all activities during the first two weeks of class, you can be
administratively withdrawn. This would occur after the tuition refund dates. (This is a campus
policy, adapted to a summer and online format).
Students can use any IU-campus computer lab if they lose connectivity at home.
Grading:
This course follows the general standards found in the SLIS Bulletin:
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/Courses/forms/grades.html
For assignments, the philosophy is the same: A assignments will be completed with both full
mastery and high originality; B assignments will show solid understanding; Cs or below will be
assigned when it is apparent that not all aspects of an assignment have been completed
satisfactorily.
Play close attention to assignment requirements. Failure to complete required sections
of assignments will result in C or lower grades.
The Oncourse Gradebook will be used. Exercises and projects are returned, with comments,
through the Assignments tool, not the Gradebook. Comments on Forum postings are found in
the Forum gradebook comments section.
Letter grades will be assigned and translated into percentage scores:
A = 98 A- = 93 B+= 88 B = 83 B - = 78 C+ = 73 C = 68 C- = 63
Oncourse will then calculate weighted averages and translate the results into the following scale:
A = 95-100
A- = 90-94
B+ = 85-89 B = 80-84
B- = 75-79
C+ = 70-74
C = 65-69
PLEASE NOTE: The numbers specified here are arbitrarily designated in order to conform to
Oncourse’s mathematics. A “B” effort is NOT one in which you have completed 83% of the
requirements. A “B” / 83 grade is assigned to “good work…meeting course expectations.”
If a due date is missed, a zero is assigned when grading begins for the next unit.
Academic misconduct
Students are expected to do their own, individual, and original work. Work that is plagiarized
(using other people’s writings without attribution) or re-purposed (handing in work done for
another class) will result in a minimum in the failure of that section. You will learn from what
other people do and post (in Forums), but there are no group projects.
WHENEVER you quote from someone else you need to use quote marks. When you do not use
quote marks, you are representing that wording as your own creation; this is plagiarism, even if
you use a footnote/citation.
In some assignments you will provide descriptions of materials (books, articles). It is fine to use
summaries or abstracts you find elsewhere, as long as you use quote marks to clearly mark what
you yourself did not write.
S533 Online Searching: Spring 2013 p. 8 of 8
For the paper, TurnItIn will be used. This identifies passages that are identical to articles and
other resources. If you use quote marks, this is just fine.
If it appears that you have not marked work that is not your own, I will let you know. You may
dispute this in a meeting (phone, email, or in person, at your choosing). You would need to redo the assignment, and the existence of the incident will be reported, according to campus
policy.
Accommodations:
Students needing accommodations because of a disability will need to register with Adaptive
Educational Services (AES) and complete the appropriate forms issued by AES before
accommodations will be given. The AES office is located in Taylor Hall, UC 100. You can also
reach the office by calling 274-3241. Visit http://aes.iupui.edu/ for more information.
Most resources should be accessible to visually-impaired students. All assignment directions
are in Word documents. If assigned pdfs or websites are inaccessible, please contact the
instructor.
Students who create projects for the public assignments should incorporate ‘alt’ tags for images
or enough text so that the meaning is accessible to students using screen readers.