Syllabus for LS 574 Database Searching

Instructor:

Mr. Matthew R. Marsteller
Physics and Math Librarian
University Libraries
Room 4400, Wean Hall
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Special Services Statement: Any student requiring accommodations for taking notes or tests should make arrangements, as early in the semester as is possible, to discuss his or her needs with me.

The purpose of this course is to give the students a general background in online searching; to introduce them to the multitude of pathways to obtain computer searchable information; and to provide them with opportunities to become proficient database searchers.

General introduction to interactive database searching, including database producers, search system vendors, management of search services, search strategy, Boolean searching, structure and indexing of computer stored files. The course includes historical and background information. Greatest emphasis is on becoming a proficient searcher.

A. Write a brief summary of the state of the art of online information systems.
B. Describe the relationships between database companies and vendors of search services (online, local hosting, and CD-ROM) and their users.
C. Conduct a successful pre-search interview.
D. Conduct successful searches using an online system.
E. Clearly describe the requirements for management of online searching in libraries.
F. Make an evaluation of performance using commonly accepted methods of evaluation.
G. Quickly adjust to a new database or database searching interface and exhibit a level of insight that goes beyond novice searching.

Walker, Geraldine and Joseph Janes. Online Retrieval: A Dialogue of Theory and Practice. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1999.

Sherman, Chris and Gary Price. The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can't See. Medford, NJ: Information Today, 2001.

The DIALOG Search Summary Quick Reference Guide and the Dialog Database Catalog (2005) as well as other training materials are available at: http://gep.dialog.com/

The student will develop a lesson plan for a topic in database searching. The topic and audience for the lesson plan is up to the student with the advice and consent of the instructor. The topic will naturally be demonstrated on a database that would expected to be available to a typical K-12 student and may be either a fee based database or a database that is found free on the Internet. The student will post their completed lesson plan as an RTF file attachment in a Discussion Forum that will be created for the student to share their work with the rest of the class. The instructor would like to see feedback provided on one anothers lesson plans. Activity on this discussion forum will count heavily toward the class participation grade. This assignment is due on August 7, 2005.

     Searching Assignment One Due on Sunday, July 17, 2005.
     Searching Assignment Two Due on Sunday, July 31, 2005.
    Searching Assignment Three Due on Sunday, August 7, 2005.

This assignment calls for the student to research and write a three to five page paper on a topic related to database searching in the K-12 environment. The student will need to search the database searching literature and choose an intriguing topic. Browsing recent journals such as School Library Journal or Information Searcher may help the student generate a research topic. Skimming a recent monograph on the general topic of information seeking of children and/or teens may also be a good method of determining the topic of your paper. Inform the instructor of your topic no later than Saturday, July 30, 2005. Due: August 13, 2005.

Grading Scale:
90% to 100% = A
80% to 89% = B
70% to 79% = C
60% to 69% = D
50% to 59% = E

IV. Course Calendar - Completion dates are given to keep the student on track to finish the course without falling behind.

Lesson One (required completion date July 17, 2005)
Readings: Walker and Janes, Chapters 1, 2, 5, and 6; GEP Lab Workbook Chapters 1-3

B. Special Required Reading: Tenopir, C. "Why I still teach Dialog." Library Journal, v. 126 no. 8 (May 1 2001) p. 35-6.

     1. Database Structure
     2. Database Types
     3. Basic DIALOG Commands
     4. Boolean Operators
     5. Formulating a Search Strategy
     6. Evaluating Results - A Beginning

D. Tutorials - these tutorials will give the student examples that will clarify the reading and the lectures ... and perhaps calm some jittery nerves.

Lesson Two (required completion date July 24, 2005)
Readings: Walker and Janes, Chapters 7-9; GEP Lab Workbook Chapters 4-7

     7. Nesting
     8. Truncation and Wildcards
     9. Prefix Searching (basic index vs additional indexes)
     10. Combined Sets vs Command Stacking
     11. Controlled Vocabulary
     12. Proximity Operators

G. Tutorials - Gentle Demonstrations of Skills Learned

Lesson Three (required completion date of July 31, 2005)
Readings: Walker and Janes, Chapters 10-12; GEP Lab Workbook Chapters 8
J. Multifile Searching

     1. File Order
     2. Removing Duplicates
     3. Grouping Like Files
     4. Problems of Multifile Searching
     5. How Thorough is Thorough - When Do You Stop?

     1. More on Evaluation
     2. Pearl Growing
     3. Successive Fractions
     4. Layering Searches
     5. Presentation of Search Results
    6. Citation Searching
    7. Patent Searching
    8. Non-bibliographic Databases

Lesson Four (required completion date of August 6, 2005)
Readings: Sherman and Price, Chapters 1-8

     1. A Brief History
     2. Browsing the Visible Web
     3. Searching the Visible Web
     4. Additional Browse and Search Tools
     5. The Invisible Web
     6. Staying Current
     7. What the Future Holds
     8. What's in Your Lesson Plan?

P. Lesson Plan Discussion Forum - Post your completed lesson plan as an attached file in RTF format by August 7, 2005.

Lesson Five (required completion date of August 13, 2005)
Readings: Minkel, W. " 'So Far I've Only Found His Head.' " School Library Journal, v. 46, no. 4 (April 2000) p. 37. Ishizuka, K. "Teens Are Tech Wizards? Not!" School Library Journal, v. 51, no. 4 (April 2005) p. 24-5.

R. Children/Teens and Database Searching (Information Seeking or Information Literacy)

S. Brief Research Paper Discussion Forum - Post a message to the Discussion Forum with your Brief Research Paper as an RTF attachment.

U. Closing Thoughts Discussion Forum - Share your candid thoughts about the effectiveness of the course.

The Conceptual Framework for the College of Education and Human Services (graphic depiction)

The topic of database searching provides a powerful example of our College's conceptual framework. As teacher librarians you will need to guide your learners past the challenges to successful database searching (contexts) that exist in the inner red triangle. The gold triangle lists three processes that all database searchers must successfully utilize in order to bolster the outcomes of the outer blue triangle. The instructor will look for opportunities to incorporate these concepts into the lectures for the course. The complete text that accompanies this framework is available at:

http://www.stevens.clarion.edu/ncate/framework.htm

Syllabus developed by Matthew R. Marsteller, June-July, 2005.

Syllabus LS 574:W1 Database Searching

Syllabus

LS 574:W1 Database Searching