EDUC250-Week4

EDUC 250Introduction to Information Literacy Skills in Education

Instructor: David Pickup

[email protected]

(514) 848-2424 ext. 4007

Class 4 – Outline

Assignment #1 is DUE

Review – LC Call Numbers & Subject Headings

Search Strategies Pearl Growing / Bibliography Branching Building Blocks

Boolean Logic

CLUES Advanced Search

Assignment #2

Review LC Call Numbers

The first character of an LC Call Number is always what – a letter or a number?

What is a Cutter Number?

Library of Congress Classification: 21 main divisions

A General WorksB Philosophy, ReligionC HistoryD History, Topography (except

America)E America (general), United States

(general)F United States (local), America

(except the United States)G Geography, AnthropologyH Social Sciences (general),

Statistics, Economics, SociologyJ Political Science

K LawL EducationM MusicN Fine ArtsP Language and

LiteratureQ ScienceR MedicineS AgricultureT TechnologyU Military ScienceV Naval Science

Z Bibliography, Library

Science

http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/

LC Call Numbers (cont’)

The main division is then subdivided by a second letter, indicating a more specific topic addressed: L Education LA History of Education LB Theory and Practice of Education LC Special Aspects of Education LD Individual Institutions – US LH College and school magazines and papers LJ Student Fraternities and Societies LT Textbooks


After assigning the 2 letters, next is added a number reflecting a further specification by topic.

For example, LC149.7 65-245 Social aspects of education 68-70 Demographic aspects of education 71-120.4 Education and the state 129-139 Compulsory education 149-161 Literacy 251-951 Moral and religious education


Finally, added on to the end of the Call Number is the “Cutter Number”, which is based on the last name of the author (or sometimes the title of the book). For example, G63 if the author’s last name begins with

GOA

The last piece added is the year of publication.

Exercise #1 – Part A

Determine how the book you borrowed from the library was catalogued. What is it’s main division? What does the letter represent? How is it subdivided? What is the Cutter Number?

Limitations of Library of Congress

While Library of Congress call numbers provide a unique code and unique location for each book, not all books easily fit into one subject.

What do you do when a book spans different subjects?

Cataloguers must determine what is the principal focus of a book/video/journal/etc.

Scattering of Books

Information literacy : developing students as independent learners / D.W. Farmer ; Terrence F. Mech, editors. --San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, 1992.LB 2305 N4+ no.78.

Information literacy : an introduction to information systems / Eileen M. Trauth, Beverly K. Kahn, Francena Warden. New York : Macmillan ; Toronto : Collier Macmillan Canada ; New York : Maxwell Macmillan International, c1991. QA 76 T724 1991.

Learning to lead and manage information literacy instruction / Esther S. Grassian and Joan R. Kaplowitz. New York : Neal-Schuman Publishers, c2005.Z 711.2 G75 2005.

Technology literacy applications in learning environments / David D. Carbonara, [editor]. Hershey : Information Science Pub., c2005.

LB 1028.3 T39734 2005.

Information literacy : essential skills for the information age / Michael B. Eisenberg, Carrie A. Lowe, Kathleen L. Spitzer; Westport, Conn. : Libraries Unlimited, c2004.

ZA 3075 E385 2004.

Information literacy and workplace performance / Tom W. Goad.Westport, Conn. : Quorum Books, 2002.

LC 149.7 G63 2002.

A search on “Information Literacy” found the following:

Library of Congress Subject Headings

To address the limitation of Library of Congress Call Numbers, a second organizational system was developed:

Library of Congress Subject Headings These are fixed terms or labels assigned to the catalogue

record for an item that describe it in more detail. They will appear as clickable links in the record, returning

a list of everything else given the same heading. A system of “controlled vocabulary”

LCSH

Library of Congress Subject Headings Standard list of subject headings used in most libraries See also: http://authorities.loc.gov/ Alphabetical arrangement of headings Hierarchical relationship of headings

Appear as links in most academic library catalogues

Deciphering LCSH (cont’)

Subject Headings may be subdivided to add extra specification to the heading to better describe the book/item.

Subdivisions are typically indicated by a double-dash --

There are four types of subdivision possible…

LCSH Subdivisions

Topical Subdivision Limits the main subject heading by a further sub-topic Example: Literacy -- Government Policy

Form Subdivision Limits the main subject by the type of publication (form of

the material) Used mainly for Reference sources Example: Education -- Encyclopedias

LCSH Subdivisions

Chronological Subdivision Limits the main subject by a period of time (historic era) Example: Canada -- History -- 1939-1945 NOTE: the above example has both a topical subdivision

(History) and a chronological subdivision (1939-1945)

Geographic Subdivision Limits the main subject by a geographic area Example: Literacy -- Canada

Exercise #1 – Part B

Look your book up in CLUES and see what Library of Congress Subject Headings were assigned to it.

Are there any subdivisions within the Subject Heading?

Locate one other book using the Subject Headings.

Research Process Model



CLUES

What will you find in CLUES? Books / ebooks Periodicals (journals, newspapers, magazines) Audio-visual Dissertations Special Collections Databases Government Reports

What WON’T you find in CLUES? Articles (i.e. the contents of journals, newspapers)

CLUES (cont’) Each item in CLUES has its own page in the catalogue called a

record. Each record is comprised of fields, one each for every piece of

information about the item. Fields include:

Author Title Publisher City of Publication Year of Publication Call Number Subject Headings Etc.

CLUES Search Options

Keyword Search: Searches ALL text-based fields (i.e. everything but the year, ISBN

number).

Subject Search: Searches only the Library of Congress Subject Headings field, will

return records that have been assigned the subject. More precise (less results) than a Keyword search.

Author Search: Searches only the author field. Returns all items by the author available through CLUES. Must search Lastname, Firstname (i.e. Shakespeare, William)

CLUES Search Options

Title Search: Similar to the Keyword search, except only the Title field

is searched. More precise, less results.

Journal Title Search: Searches only the Title field for records of the Journal

type. Good for checking if Concordia subscribes to a particular

journal and through which database(s) it is available.

CLUES Advanced Search

http://clues.concordia.ca/search/X

Choose which fields you want to search,

Additional filters to limit results (by Year, by Library, etc),

Must be used when completing your search assignments in this course,

Uses Boolean Logic to combine keywords.

Boolean Logic

A system of logical operations (invented by George Boole)

Also known as ‘set theory’

Uses three main ‘operators’: AND OR NOT

A way to pass instructions to a search tool to limit or expand the number of results you obtain.

Precision vs. Recall

When determining a Search Strategy you must balance two concepts Precision

Low number of results, but precise to your topic But could miss relevant and useful results

Recall High number of results, but less precise. Can be overwhelming to look through all the results

Typically you want to develop a strategy that begins with a higher level of recall and moves towards precision.

Boolean Operators AND

Used between terms expressing dissimilar concepts BOTH terms must appear in results Example: Literacy AND elementary Increases precision, decreases recall (quantity).

Literacy (1426 recs)

Elementary (4442 recs)

Total retrieved: 180 records

Boolean Operators, cont’d OR

Used between terms expressing a similar concept EITHER term must appear in results Example: Literacy OR Reading Increases recall, decreases precision.

Literacy (1426 recs)

Reading(5686 recs)


Boolean Operators, cont’d NOT

Used to eliminate unwanted terms from search results CLUES uses “AND NOT” Example: Literacy NOT adult Increases precision, but use with caution.

Literacy (1426 recs) Adult

(2604 recs)


Search Strategies

The aim is to search intelligently so that you can find highly relevant and useful search results.

You should not be picking sources that ‘look okay’ but aiming to include the best sources available

Search Strategy: Building Blocks

A series of searches of growing complexity

Build ‘sets’ of keywords for each of your Key Concepts, and combine them using Boolean Logic.

Moves from high recall to high precision.

Building Blocks: Step 1

First, determine the Key Concepts expressed in your preliminary thesis statement.

A good thesis should typically have 3 key concepts: Subject / Domain Population Outcomes/Effects/Treatments

Example

Thesis:Early intervention programs aimed at improving the literacy skills of young children will lead to societal benefits.

Subject: Early intervention programs for literacy

Population:

Young children

Outcomes:

Societal benefits

Example

Thesis:Professional athletes who rely on steroids for better performance may suffer from long term effects such as muscle pain.

Subject: Steroids

Population:

Professional athletes

Outcomes:

Muscle Pain

Fill in the blanks.

Thesis: Elementary school children who receive homework will achieve higher grades than those who don’t receive homework.

Subject:

Population:

Outcomes:

Building Blocks – Step 2

Next, brainstorm each of your Key Concepts and try to come up with some other terms that may also be used to express the same idea – i.e. synonyms.

Population Young Children; kids; early childhood; pre-school; kindergarten

Treatment/Domain Literacy skills; literacy; reading; illiteracy

Outcomes/Effects Societal benefits; Employment; socio-economic status; society;

community

Non-descriptive terms

NOT key concepts in a search strategy: Impact Effects Consequences Role of… Significance of…

Example

Thesis:Professional athletes who rely on steroids for better performance may suffer from long term effects such as muscle pain.

Subject: Steroids – performance enhancing drugs, doping

Population:

Professional athletes – football, hockey, NFL, NHL, etc.

Outcomes:

Muscle Pain – muscular damage, myalgia, tendons

Fill in the blanks.

Thesis: Elementary school children who receive homework will achieve higher grades than those who don’t receive homework.

Subject:

Population:

Outcomes:


Now that you have a set of keywords for each Key Concept, you can use Boolean operators to combine them…

Use OR to join your synonyms together as a series of optional words to match

Use AND between sets to insist that at least one word from each set is found in your search results.


(steroids OR performance enhancing drugs OR doping)

AND

(professional athletes OR football OR hockey OR NFL OR NHL)

AND

(muscle pain OR muscular damage OR myalgia OR tendons)


(young children OR kids OR early childhood OR kindergarten OR preschool)

AND

(literacy OR reading OR illiteracy)

AND

(Societal benefits OR employment OR socio-economic status OR community)

Building Blocks (con’t) Each group of keywords in parentheses coincides with

a row in the search form

(literacy OR reading OR illiteracy) =

Building Blocks (con’t) You should search each keyword set separately to see

what is available in the search results, and then begin combining them using the AND operator.

1. (solar power OR wind power OR energy) = 7359 results

2. (government OR politics) = 32000 results

3. (solar power OR wind power OR energy) and (government OR politics) = 587 results

http://clues.concordia.ca/search/X

Other Search Features

Phrase Searching Terms will appear side by side in the order specified Use quotes around two or more words Examples: “Urban Planning”, “Early Childhood Education”

Limits and Sorting Options Material Type Year of Publication Language

Other Search Features

Truncation Searches the stem word Allows for the retrieval of words with alternate endings Use “*” to search up to 5 characters Use “**” for unlimited number of characters (CLUES only) NB: Other systems use “!” as truncation character or $ Example: Canad* (Canada, Canadian, Canadians,

CanadArm)

Exercise: Truncation

Where would you truncate the following words: Structures Pollution Economy Communication Adolescence Psychology Treatments

Search Example

(steroid* OR “performance enhancing drug*” OR doping)

AND

(“professional athlet*” OR football OR hockey OR NFL OR NHL)

AND

(“musc* pain*” OR “musc* damag*” OR myalgia OR tendon*)

Search Example

(“young children” OR kids OR “early childhood” OR kindergarten OR preschool)

AND

(literac* OR reading OR illitera*)

AND

(“Societal benefit*” OR employment OR “socio-economic status” OR communit*)

Search Strategy: Pearl Growing

Using one information source to find others;

Scanning an article’s bibliography to find other articles on the same topic.

Need to know how to ‘read’ a reference.

Search Strategy: Pearl Growing

Let’s say you find a really good article and in its list of references you find these 2 articles that you want to find and read yourself. How would you proceed?

Shephard, K. (2003). Questioning, promoting and evaluating the use of streaming video to support student learning. British Journal of Educational

Technology, 34(3), 295-308. doi:10.1111/1467-8535.00328

Nichols, S. E., & Tippins, D. J. (2000). Prospective Elementary Science Teachers and Biomythographies: An Exploratory Approach to Autobiographical

Research. Research in Science Education, 30(1), 141-153.

Journal Title Search

To check whether Concordia offers direct access to a journal article, you can look up the Title of the journal in CLUES.

REMEMBER, you cannot search for the article titles in CLUES.

Once you find the CLUES record for a journal, you can see if we subscribe to it in print or electronically.

Assignment #2

Due week 6 (February 17)

Applies what we covered today in class: You will take your Thesis statement and break it down into 3-4

key concepts. Then come up with synonyms for each concept group (the

background reading you did for Assignment #1 may offer some suggestions).

Finally, plan out a building blocks strategy using Boolean logic to combine your words.

Make use of Phrase Searching & Truncation where appropriate. Worth 5% of your final grade.

CLUES Exercise

Working in small groups, complete the CLUES exercise posted to Moodle using the advanced search form.

Next Week

Databases Using Boolean logic to find the best articles Database Thesauri Demonstration of several database platforms (i.e. EBSCO) In-class exercise with laptops/tablets

Documents

EDUC250-Week4