GRADUATE
LIS
745: SEARCHING ELECTRONIC DATABASES (3 sem. hours)
Spring
Semester 2008 January 10 - May 1, 2008
Section 745-01 River Forest Wednesdays
1 - 4 p.m. Crown 330 (1/16/08-4/30/08)
Section 745-50 Grayslake
Thursdays 6 - 9 p.m. Univ. Center
(1/10/08 - 5/1/08)
Instructor Marilyn
A. Lester, Adjunct Associate Professor
Ph.D. Library & Information Science, Univ. of
Ill. Urbana-Champaign
Mailing address W5470 County Road ES, Elkhorn, Wisconsin 53121
Home office 262-742-4796
(8 a.m. - 9 p.m.)
E-mail LesterMarilyn@aol.com
Office hours one
hour before every class; other times by phone, e-mail, appointment
Online information Blackboard.dom.edu
Required Texts:
1) Bell, Suzanne S. Librarian's
Guide to Online Searching. Westport,
CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006.
2) To be handed out in class (free):
·
Dialog Database Catalog
2005 and Supplement 2006
·
Introduction to DIALOG
for Information Professionals. [Dialog
workbook Sec. 1-4]
·
Download
other publications at www.dialog.com
DIALOG materials
and student passwords are provided through the courtesy of Thomson
Corporation's Dialog Graduate Education Program.
Related Texts:
Bopp, Richard and
Linda C. Smith. Reference and Information Services: An Introduction. 3d ed. Englewood, CO.: Libraries Unlimited,
2001.
Walker, Geraldene and
Joseph Janes. Online Retrieval: A
Dialogue of Theory and Practice. Second ed. Englewood, CO.: Libraries Unlimited, 1999.
Course (catalog) description:
Advanced study of the principles, concepts
and skills needed in reference and information services in order to help answer
users' information queries by searching electronically accessible databases. An
overview of existing and state-of-the-art information systems and the
development of appropriate search strategies.
Prerequisites for this class: LIS 701 Introduction to Library &
Information Science, LIS 703 Organization of Knowledge, and LIS 704 Reference
& Online Services.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this course, students
will be able to:
·
Perform effective search question
negotiations, facet analyses, search strategy formulations, and online
searches.
·
Identify the subject contents and producers
of major free and fee-based databases.
·
Retrieve information effectively using
free and fee-based online databases.
·
Query databases by vendors and producers
such as Dialog, Ebsco, H.W. Wilson, OCLC,
LexisNexis, OVID, ProQuest/CSA, others.
·
Evaluate databases and systems based on
ease of use, level and subject of coverage, cost, and other considerations.
·
Produce a professional Information Product
for a client with a real information need, and describe the process used to
produce it.
·
Create an annotated bibliography applying
APA, Chicago/Turabian, or MLA citation style.
·
Discuss issues and trends in searching
online databases and information retrieval.
Relationship
of this course to Dominican University’s M.L.I.S. degree objectives:
LIS 745 supports
the program objectives by teaching and guiding students:
·
to identify and analyze information needs
(MLIS objective # 3);
·
to develop creative solutions to
information problems (MLIS objective # 4);
·
to evaluate and use systems, technologies,
services and products that connect users with information. (MLIS objective #
5);
·
to promote and practice values of ethical
responsibilities, confidentiality, intellectual freedom, and universal access
to information (MLIS objective #2).
How I Teach
My philosophy of teaching is grounded in
adult learning theory. As your
instructor, I am a facilitator of your learning. As graduate students, you are expected to
teach yourselves by reading, discussing, thinking, and doing. Students are expected to learn as much from
each other as from the instructor.
Attendance and discussion are essential components of this class. You
are expected to perform database searches and other exercises both inside and
outside of class.
Assignments and Grades
10% Active
class discussion, exercises, attendance
10% Paper
1: Indexing (due Class 3)
15% Exam
I (Class 5)
10% Paper
2: Evaluating Databases and Vendors (due Class 6)
15% Exam
II (Class 10)
20% Final
project - oral presentation (due as scheduled)
20% Final
project - Information Project for client
(due Class 15)
DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY GRADING
POLICY (definitions approved
by GSLIS faculty 12/15/2004)
A 95-100 Outstanding achievement. Student performance demonstrates full command
of the course materials and evinces a high level of originality and/or
creativity that far surpasses course expectations; nearly flawless work.
A- 90-94 Excellent achievement. Student performance demonstrates thorough
knowledge of the course materials and exceeds course expectations by completing
all requirements in a superior manner.
B+ 85-89
Good solid work. Student
performance demonstrates strong comprehension of the course materials and
exceeds course expectations on all tasks as defined in the course syllabus.
B 80-84
Satisfactory acceptable work.
Student performance meets
designated course expectations, demonstrates understanding of the course
materials and performs at an acceptable level.
B- 75-79
Marginal work. Student performance demonstrates incomplete,
substandard understanding of course materials, or absence of required work;
indicates danger of falling below acceptable grading standard.
C+ 70-74 Unsatisfactory work
C below 70
Unacceptable work
Classroom
policies regarding attendance and late arrival:
Graduate
students are expected to attend all classes and actively participate in the
teaching and learning process.
Instructor must be notified if absence is essential; points may be
deducted for missing class.
Completion of
work:
Students are
expected to complete all assignments on time.
Late assignments may be accepted with approval of instructor.
Consequences for
failure to meet the requirements of the course and classroom policies:
Students who are
unprepared for class and/or fail to complete assignments can expect their final
grades to be at least one full letter grade less than other students.
Academic
Honesty Policy
Students of the university must conduct
themselves in accordance with the highest standards of academic honesty and
integrity. Failure to maintain academic
integrity will not be tolerated. See 2007/08
Student Handbook and Planner (p.20) for additional information:
·
Definitions of Plagiarism, Cheating, and Academic
Honesty;
·
Sanctions for Violations of Academic
Integrity;
·
Academic Appeals Process.
COURSE CALENDAR AND ASSIGNMENTS
Class 1 BASICS OF ONLINE SEARCHING Thur Jan 10; Wed Jan 16
Course
objectives, assignments, Blackboard, accuracy of e-mail address
Bibliographic
citation styles (APA, Chicago/Turabian, MLA)
Final project:
Information Product and presentation to the class
What's online
searching all about? Users and Information
Information
retrieval systems; searching the Invisible Web
Database producers,
vendors, aggregators - Dialog, Ebsco, Factiva, OCLC, OVID, ProQuest/CSA, U. S. government, LexisNexis,
Westlaw, others
H. W. Wilson Co. http://www.hwwilson.com/ftabsind_alpha.htm
Subject contents
of online databases
Gale
Directory of Databases 2007. Detroit: Thomson
Gale, 2006. Dialog (File 230)
"Dewey, Indexes, and
Databases" (Lester's list of major databases by subject)
Basics of
Searching - The Seven Stages (Quint)
Facet Analyses
Part 1 - turning the research question into searchable concepts
Boolean
searching review
Introduction to ERIC,
MEDLINE, ABI/Inform, MLA, NTIS, Agricola
In-class exercise: Reference questions
and facet analyses
ASSIGNMENTS FOR CLASS 2:
Bell, Ch. 1
Database Structure for Everyone: Records, Fields, and Indexes
Bell, Ch. 2 Searcher's Toolkit - Part 1 (Boolean,
Controlled Vocabulary, Field Searching)
Bell, Ch. 3 Searcher's Toolkit - Part 2 (Proximity,
Truncation, Limiting, Pearl Growing)
Quint,
Barbara. "Inside a Searcher's Mind:
The Seven Stages of an Online Search - Part 1." Online 15, no. 3 (May 1991): 13-18; "… Part 2." Online 15, no. 4 (July 1991): 28-35.
Tenopir, Carol. "Human
or Automated, Indexing is Important."
Library Journal 124 n. 18
(Nov. 1, 1999): 34, 38.
Read other articles by Carol Tenopir, and Karen Markey Drabenstott
from Bibliography or others you find.
Class 2 INDEXING AND ABSTRACTING Thur Jan 17; Wed Jan 23
SUBJECT
HEADINGS, THESAURI
Scholarly information
and publication cycle: journals and their indexes
Concepts of
indexing, abstracting, information retrieval
Database Fields
Uncontrolled
access: natural language, keyword, and free text searching
Controlled
access: subject headings, descriptors, thesauri
LCSH: http://authorities.loc.gov
ERIC: www.eric.ed.gov/thesaurus
PsycInfo:
http://www.apa.org/psycinfo/products/thesaurus_full_list.pdf
Facet Analyses Part
2 - turning natural language into subjects/descriptors
Precision
(relevance) and Recall
Introduction to
DIALOG - passwords, logging on and off, basic commands, Bluesheets, Demonstration of a DIALOG search; Dialog workbook
ASSIGNMENTS FOR CLASS 3:
Paper 1: Indexing a Journal
Article (10 points) (instructions distributed in class)
Bell, Ch. 6 Bibliographic Databases
Bell, Ch. 9 Focus on People
Bell, Ch.
10 Choosing the Right Resource for the
Question
Class 3 CLIENTS
AND THEIR QUESTIONS Thur
Jan 24; Wed Jan 30 MULTI-DISCIPLINARY DATABASES
Paper 1 due. What did you learn?
Schedule Final Oral presentations
Information seeking behavior of users;
user vocabulary match failures
Reference interview
Database Content: Selecting the best
databases to answer the client's questions in all disciplines, computer
science, library science, information science):
Worldcat; Dissertation Abstracts
Academic Search Premier (Ebsco), Academic
Universe (LexisNexis)
OmniFile Mega (H.W.Wilson)
Periodicals Abstracts, FirstSearch,
ArticlesFirst (OCLC)
Gale Group Magazine
Database (Dialog)
Newspapers (various indexes)
Government publications
Library
Literature (H.W.Wilson); LISTA (Ebsco)
In-class exercise: Searching multi-disciplinary
databases
ASSIGNMENTS
FOR CLASS 4:
Final Project Client
and Topic due for approval by instructor
Bell, Ch. 4 Social Sciences Databases
DIALOG CATALOG (browse subject lists and database
descriptions)
Class 4 SOCIAL
SCIENCES & PSYCHOLOGY Thur Jan 31;
Wed Feb 6
INTRODUCTION TO DIALOG
Demonstration of Dialog searching
Citation indexes
Database Content: selecting the best
databases to answer the client's question in sociology, anthropology, political
science, economics, law, education, commerce, and customs)
Education
Abstracts/FT, Education Index (H.W.Wilson) 1929+
ERIC (U. S. Dept.
of Education) 1966+
Social Sciences Abstracts
(H.W.Wilson) 1907+
Social SciSearch,
Social Science Citation Index (Institute
for Scientific Info.) 1972+
Sociological Abstracts (Cambridge
Scientific) 1952+
PsycInfo,
Psychological Abstracts (American Psychological Association) 1887+
In-class exercise:
Searching social science and psychology databases
ASSIGNMENTS
FOR CLASS 5:
Prepare for Exam: contents of multi-disciplinary, psychology,
and social sciences databases; facet analyses; how to answer reference
questions; scholarly publication cycle; basics of online searching; chapters
assigned in Bell; and anything else covered so far in this class.
Read: Introduction
to DIALOG for Information Professionals
Sec. 1 Basic Commands for Online Searching Using
Dialog Classic
Sec. 2 Planning the Search Strategy
Sec. 3
How Databases are Constructed
Class 5 EXAM
I and Thur
Feb 7; Wed Feb 13
DIALOG
SEARCHING - Part 1
Searcher's toolkit - proximity, truncation,
limiting, pearl growing
Dialog
databases - where do they come from?
Subjects and
producers of Dialog databases
Using the
Dialog Bluesheets and other documentation
Basic Search and Output Commands (B, S, C,
T, DS, and AND, OR, NOT)
Downloading
and formatting Dialog output
Cost
monitoring and control
Field (code)
searching
In-class: Dialog
Workbook Exercise Sec.1 & 2, numbers 1-2, 4-5, 7-8
ASSIGNMENTS FOR CLASS 6
Paper 2: Evaluating Databases and Vendors (10
points) (See instructions on page 9)
Bell, Ch. 11 Evaluating Databases
Read Introduction to DIALOG for Information
Professionals
Sec. 4 Choosing the Right Database and Searching
Multiple Databases
Class 6 DIALOG
SEARCHING - Part 2 Thur Feb 14; Wed Feb 20
Paper 2
due: what did you learn?
Exam
review
Searching
Multiple Databases - Dialog's DIALINDEX and OneSearch functions
Evaluating
your search results, revising search strategy
Precision and
recall
Using controlled vocabulary and thesauri (Expand and EXPLODE! commands in
Dialog)
In-class:
Dialog workbook Exercises Sec. 3, no. 1-10 and Sec. 4, no. 1-7
ASSIGNMENTS
FOR CLASS 7
Bell, Ch. 5 Databases for Science and Medicine
Beam, Pauline S., et al. "The Changing Library: What Clinicians
Need to Know." Mount Sinai Journal of
Medicine 73 no. 6 (Oct. 2006): 857-63.
Practice searching
in MedlinePlus www.medlineplus.gov
and PubMed www.pubmed.gov
Class 7 MEDICINE AND PHARMACOLOGY Thur Feb 21; Wed Feb 27
The future of
health information
Ethical delivery
of legal and medical information by information professionals
Professional and
researcher medical and health-related databases
MEDLINE/PubMed
Embase
CINAHL
DrugInfo
MeSH
Thesaurus (Medical Subject Headings -
National Library of Medicine)
Consumer-level
medical information on the Web
MedlinePlus
(U.S. National Institutes of Health) http://www.medlineplus.gov
NOAH
(New York Online Access to Health) www.noah-health.org
Mayo Clinic www.mayoclinic.com
WebMd, Inc. www.webmd.com
In-class
exercise: Medical Resources
ASSIGNMENTS FOR CLASS 8
Practice searching ABI/Inform and 5 other business and management
bibliographic and non-bibliographic databases available from Dominican and Dialog
on the Dewey, Indexes, and Databases list. Prepare 1 database (to be assigned) to
present the class, including examples of reference questions that database
could answer.
*******SPRING BREAK March 3 - 9, 2008 ********
Class 8 BUSINESS Thur Feb 28; Wed Mar 12
Database Content: selecting the best
databases to answer the client's question in business, manufacturing, engineering, management, banking and finance,
insurance, marketing, competitive
intelligence, and international business.
Student
presentations of databases
In-class exercise: Business and Management Information
ASSIGNMENTS FOR CLASS 9
Practice searching
at least 5 different databases in science and technology subject categories.
Class 9 SCIENCES & TECHNOLOGY DATABASES Thur Mar
13; Wed Mar 19
SciSearch, Science
Citation Index (Institute for Scientific Information) (Dialog File 34)
Web of Knowledge
(Thomson Scientific) http://isiwebofknowledge.com (includes Web of Science and three ISI citation indexes)
Scirus, the Search
Engine for Science (Elsevier) www.scirus.com (keyword only)
Specialized
databases:
Biological sciences, medicine,
allied health
Chemistry & physics
Earth Sciences, Geology, agriculture
Technology (applied sciences)
NTIS (U. S. National
Technical Information Center)
In-class exercise: Science and Technology
ASSIGNMENTS FOR CLASS 10
Prepare for Exam: database contents in business, sciences,
technology, and medicine; complex facet analyses; simple Dialog searches; and
everything else covered since Exam I.
Read: Bell, Ch. 7
Humanities Databases
*******EASTER BREAK March 20-23, 2008 ********
Class 10 EXAM
II and Thur Mar 27; Wed Mar 26
HUMANITIES
Databases
for literature, book reviews, films, biographies, fine arts, music, dance,
history, philosophy, religion, and more.
Arts &
Humanities Search/Arts & Humanities Citation Index (ISI)
In-class exercise: Humanities
ASSIGNMENTS FOR CLASS 11
Practice searching Foundation Grants Directory (File 26) and Foundation
Grants Index (File 27) on Dialog. Print
out Bluesheets for these files and bring to class.
Class 11 FINDING
MONEY - GRANTS and Thur Apr 3; Wed Apr 2
ADVANCED DIALOG REPORTS
Exam II review
Review Humanities exercise
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) www.Grants.gov
Foundation Center publications/database (Dialog Files 26 & 27)
Grants Database (Greenwood Pub.) (Dialog File 85 - no longer
updating)
Sources of info on nonprofits, grantors, grantees: Guidestar, Donors
Forum
Advanced Dialog features, preparing reports, other special
features
In-class exercise: Finding Money; Locating 990s for Non-Profits
ASSIGNMENTS FOR CLASS 12
Bell, Ch. 8 Numerical Databases
Class 12 NON-BIBLIOGRAPHIC
DATABASES and Thur Apr 10; Wed Apr 9
Final
Project Presentations (Group 1)
Census &
TIGER, labor statistics, business directories,
Geographic
information systems (possible guest speaker)
In-class exercise: Non-Bibliographic Databases and
Non-Bibliographic Business Databases
Class 13 PATENT SEARCHING and Thur Apr 17; Wed Apr 16
Final
Project Presentations (Group 2)
In-class exercise: Patents and
trademarks, Patent Office classification
Class 14 LAW
AND LEGAL RESOURCES and Thur Apr 24; Wed Apr 23
Final Project
Presentations (Group 3)
Federal and
state laws, municipal and local laws
Courts,
reporter systems
Legal
publication sources (government, Westlaw, Shepard, Lexis, Commerce Clearing
House, Dialog, Prentice-Hall, universities,
associations)
In-class exercise: Legal
information
Dominican
University Course Evaluations
ASSIGNMENTS FOR
CLASS 15
Bell, Ch. 12 Teaching Others About Databases
Class 15 TEACHING
ABOUT DATABASES and Thur May 1; Wed Apr 30
CURRENT ISSUES and
Final Project
Presentations (Group 4)
Library and
information professional's role in teaching clients how to search online databases
effectively.
Discussion
of current issues regarding online databases.
Final
Projects due - Information Products (paper and electronic copy)
INSTRUCTIONS FOR GRADED PAPERS
Papers
written for my classes are expected to be brief and to the point. Follow instructions carefully. Write
succinctly to get your point across. I
look for evidence of understanding the concepts taught in class, applications
of knowledge, and critical thinking.
Paper 1: Indexing a Journal
Article (10 points) due Class 3
Read the journal
article handed out in class. Write an
entry for this journal article as if for publication in an index/online
database, including bibliographic description, abstract, index terms, subject
headings, and field codes. Follow the
instructions on handout.
Paper 2: Evaluating
Databases and Vendors (10 points) due
Class 6
Compare the
ways that different vendor systems search, retrieve, and display information
from identical databases, especially on how controlled vocabulary is
searched and retrieved.
First, read:
Bell,
Chapter 11 Evaluating Databases
Othman,
Roslina and Nor Sahlawaty Halim. "Retrieval
Features for Online Databases: Common,
Unique, and Expected." Online Information Review 28 no. 3
(2004): 200- 210. Available online: Emerald Group Publishing
Limited.
Choose one
of the following databases, then evaluate three vendors' products of the
same database (two vendors if ABI/Inform). Read the vendors' instructions and Help
screens before you start. Not all
databases are available from Dominican; use others if you have access.
ABI/INFORM (business)
Producer: Proquest
Print name: none
Vendors: ProQuest/CSA,
Dialog, OVID, others
Vocabulary: ProQuest Controlled
Vocabulary
AGELINE (multi-disciplinary
articles related to seniors)
Producer: American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
Print name: none