Emma 102 Course Development

Internet Search Engines and Academic Research: Using Advanced Search Features to Achieve Better Results

An Information Literacy Course presented by the Emma Goldman Memorial Library Reference Services

Melanie Chu, Frances Howard, Bill Sherwood & Geoffrey Skinner
LIBR228-1 Assign. 3
May 12, 2002

Setting

The setting is a small academic college library, the Emma Goldman Memorial Library. We will hold the instructional session in a classroom with desks, a computer, and a projector.

The audience will be beginning college students. These students have used the Web, including search engines to gather information for limited academic purposes, as well as recreational or informational needs. They are familiar with search engines; however, they have typically used only the simplest search functions, generally the default keyword search option. They may not know that advanced features, such as Boolean operators or phrase searching, can be used to refine searches for better results. This course is designed to teach undergraduates to use the advanced search features of Internet search engines and other electronic resources, including the library's databases, to achieve better results in their academic research. Ultimately, the purpose of this instruction is to help students develop the skills, adaptability, and confidence to find and use information in an academic environment. Goals

Our goal is for the first year undergraduate students to have a clear understanding of how to effectively use an Internet search engine for basic academic research. Maughan (2001) says that Patricia Senn Brevik and E. Gordon Gee, "emphasized the critical importance of partnerships [between faculty and librarians] within colleges and universities in graduating students qualified to be called information literate." Bibliographic instruction is important and deserves thoughtful preparation.

With that in mind, we discussed several techniques to convey search methods to the undergraduate students. Starkey (1987) says, "The most important result of a good lecture is that a listener is left with the memory that an intelligent, professional person, completely in command of his or her material, presented a well organized body of difficult but nevertheless intelligible material." Even though this is our goal, we must keep in mind that we will not reach all of the students, possibly because of different learning styles. Starkey (1987) also notes that, "On the average, [of] students who attend library lectures (or any other lecture, for that matter)… at best approximately ten percent will remember and internalize every main point." To allow for this tendency, we will utilize visual aids in class, distribute handouts with the main points summarized, and employ problem based learning to engage with the students while teaching them valuable skills. Such problem-based learning includes different ideas from other sources in relation to problem resolution. Students must also learn how to use information in making decisions and/or solving problems. We aim to create an environment that motivates our students to be life-long learners.

Following a half-hour instructional session focused on research students' real-life research questions with an Internet search engine, students will gain understanding in areas including advanced search features such as Boolean and phrase searching, the theoretical concepts behind Boolean operators, and basic styles of citing online resources. As Ackermann and Hartman (2000) say, "None of the search engines are exactly alike. Some are better for certain kinds of information than others." Therefore, it is beneficial that the advanced search techniques we are demonstrating in Google can be applied to other tools.

The skills gained in this course will enable students to effectively use advanced search techniques of Boolean and phrase searching, and with this theoretical knowledge of Boolean searching, they will be able to apply those advanced search techniques to the library OPAC and other electronic resources. They will also be able to locate guidelines for appropriate formats (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian) for citing online resources.

The criterion for the students will be that within thirty minutes, students can successfully conduct the following simple Boolean searches: and, or, and not. They will also learn how to implement phrase searches and locate guidelines for appropriate formats (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian) for citing online resources.

Limitations

One limitation of the program is that only a few of Google's advanced features will be covered. To fully explore all of Google's advanced search features would take far longer than the allotted time. We will also lack time to discuss evaluating the quality of the results, which is admittedly a critical topic when doing research. Fortunately, this session is only the first of two modules. The second module covers evaluating resources; a third course offered by the library goes into greater depth about citing resources using the appropriate citation formats.

Course Development

The process of our group project included meeting three to four times in person in which we split up reading and research work for the literature review. We discussed at length several potential topics. In our discussions, we changed the topic and the title of our project several times until we came to our present one. There was a lot of discussion about format and structure. The academic group also did a lot of rewriting and reorganization of materials before we came to the final product. We also communicated by Blackboard, email, and telephone. We discussed several teaching methods, reviewed and discussed various examples of bibliographic methods. Our academic group also looked at several examples of instructional media, which included, PowerPoint presentations, web sites, handouts, and other instructional resources in which we accessed and used to support our project.

Projected Impact of Services

This course and its companion modules benefit both students and faculty. Faculty will able to expect more thorough research on assigned papers.

The primary benefit to students will be more efficient and focused search strategies with less wasted time in evaluating an overwhelming number of useless search results. They will be able to analyze their search needs by making more informed choices in how to implement the search query. By developing better search strategies, students will gain confidence in their research abilities. If the students take the second module, they will be able to better evaluate the resources they discover. The skills they learn in such courses can prepare them for their futures in academia and beyond.

References

Ackermann, E., & K. Hartman. (2000). Internet & web essentials: what you need to know. Oregon: Franklin, Beedle & Associates, Inc.

Bibliographic instruction resources on the Internet (The Teaching Library). (2000). Retrieved May 9, 2002, from http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/BIResources.html.

Boening, C.H., & D. Grimes. (2001). "Worries with the web: a look at student use of Web resources." College and Research Libraries (62)(1), 11-23.

Information Literacy Bibliography and Links. (2000). Information literacy - Lacuny Institute. Retrieved May 8, 2002, from http://lacuny.cuny.edu/institute/links.html.

Information Literacy (Saint Peter's College Libraries). (2000). Retrieved May 9, 2002, from, http://www.spc.edu/library/infolit.html.

Library instruction links (29th Workshop on instruction in library use): (2000). Retrieved May 8, 2002, from http://www.lib.uwo.ca/wilu2000/links.html.

McCarthy, G., (1994). "Getting to know your non-users." Library Management (15), (4), 30-34.

Maughan, P.D., (2001). "Assessing information literacy among undergraduates: a discussion of the literature and the University of California-Berkeley Assessment experience." College and Research Libraries (62)(1), 71-85.

Oppenheim, C., (1996). "An agenda for action to achieve the information society In the UK." Journal of Information Science (22) (6), 407-421.

Starkey, E. D. (1987). "Reexamining the library lecture." In Defining and applying effective teaching strategies for library instruction; library orientation series.Library instruction conference (14th : 1987). Ed. Bunge, Mary B.University Libraries, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.