E-RESOURCES (Theory) ILS-2017

Objectives By the end of the presentation students should be able to: Define E-Resources, List major E-Resources used at CUT, Know the Benefits of E-Resources, Evaluate E-Resources, Save Information downloaded from E-Resources

Internet A means of connecting a computer to any other computer anywhere in the world via dedicated routers and servers. . When two computers are connected over the Internet, they can send and receive all kinds of information such as text, graphics, voice, video, and computer programs.

Database A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can be easily accessed, managed and updated. Data is organized into rows, columns and tables, and it is indexed to make it easier to find relevant information. Data gets updated, expanded and deleted as new information is added. Databases process workloads to create and update themselves, querying the data they contain and running applications against it.

Electronic resources Definition Any information source that the library provides access to in an electronic format. The library has purchased subscriptions to many electronic information resources in order to provide you with access to them free of charge

Examples of E-resources electronic journals (e-journal), electronic books (e-book), online databases in varied digital formats, Adobe Acrobat documents (.pdf), WebPages (.htm, .html, .asp etc) and more.

E-Journals An electronic journal is a periodical publication which is published in electronicformat, usually on the Internet.  Electronic journals have several advantages over traditional printed journals: You can search the contents pages and/or the full text ofjournals to find articles on a certain subject.

E-Books An electronic book (or e-book) is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Commercially produced and sold e-books are usually intended to be read on dedicated e-reader devices

Online Databases An online database is a database accessible from a local network or the Internet, as opposed to one that is stored locally on an individual computer or its attached storage (such as a CD).  Online databases are hosted on websites, made available as software as a service products accessible via a web browser.

Examples of electronic resources at cut Proquest Ebook Central  EBSCOHost  Elsevier Science Direct  CUT Institutional Repository Henry Stewart Talks Online *Can be accessed via : www.cut.ac.zw/library/

ProQuest E-Book Central

EBSCOhost

Henry Stewart Talks

Benefits of E-Resources to students Least reliance on physical structure of libraries, More dependence on the online world, Convenience and instant availability, Get satisfied with whatever is easily available even at the cost of standard and quality

Benefits of E-Resources to students cont… Accessible: can be accessed from any computer on campus any time of the day or night, so there is no need to make a trip to the library, Easily searchable - each journal can be searched quick and easy often through the complete full text of articles and via online index, Interactive - Rapid turnaround time means articles can be read, commented by the readers, amended quickly and greater feedback through the web

Benefits of E-Resources to students cont… Email alerts when latest issue is loaded, Virtual reality and interactive, Inexpensive - savings can be made over printing costs, distribution costs and extra costs by new features, Flexibility - E-journals evolved quickly. They are not tied to a format, printer, and distribution network, Speed - Articles/issues  appear online before printed version is available.

Search Engines  are programs that search documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. A search engine is really a general class of programs, however, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Google, Bing and Yahoo!

Google: Popular search Engine

Internet Browsers A web browser (commonly referred to as a browser) is a software application for retrieving, presenting and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. Although browsers are primarily intended to use the World Wide Web, they can also be used to access information provided by web servers in private networks or files in file systems

Internet Browsers Opera, Safari, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explora

Evaluating E-resources Purpose Authority Accuracy Objectivity Currency Coverage/Scope Accessibility Technical Considerations

Purpose ✓ Know exactly what information is relevant to your research question: facts, opinions, statistics, background, etc. ✓ Test the resources located against your purpose.

Authority ✓ Who wrote this document? ✓ Is the publisher reputable? ✓ Who can be contacted for more information? ✓ Is the author qualified to write this? ✓ Is the material copyrighted?

Accuracy ✓ Is the information timely? ✓ Is the information error free (typos, grammar, spelling)? ✓ Is the information sufficiently detailed and comprehensive for the stated purpose of the research? ✓ Is the information vague? ✓ Is the information one-sided? ✓ Is the information supported by citations to other sources? ✓ Is the information organized for easy reading (charts, graphs, etc.)?

Objectivity ✓ Is the information biased? ✓ Does it acknowledge the other side’s arguments? ✓ Is it intended to sway the audience? ✓ Is advertising on the page clearly related to the content presented?

Currency ✓ When was the material last updated? ✓ Is it a work in progress? ✓ Are cited sources up to date? ✓ Are previous editions acknowledged and possibly made available for comparison?

Coverage Areas/Subject covered? Is it indepth?

Accessibility Is the information Accessible? Can it be downloaded?

LOCATING INFORMATION You can use the following tools to find information: Library catalogue (OPAC) Library website Internet search engines

How To Save Information Save early, save often. Follow that rule and you will be happy in your relationship with saving. To save a file means to store it on some permanent medium such as hour hard drive of a CD-ROM. Saving a file involves (1) giving it a name that relates to its content; (2) putting the file in a place you can find it; and (3) using your computer to make a digital record. It is one of the most fundamental and critically important of all computer processes.

How To Save Information cont.. When you first create a file, it is saved in temporary memory. Should your computer lose power or should you turn off your computer, the file will disappear. To actually save the file you have to transfer it from temporary to permanent memory. That involves putting the file on some sort of storage medium like a hard drive, USB drive, or CD-ROM.

How To Save Information cont… When you save a document for the first time, you will need to supply a name for that document. To do that go to File > Save As. The File dropdown menu appears. Note that our friend the ellipsis (...) is attached to the command. When you click Save As, an onscreen box will appear onscreen asking you to make some choices.

How To Save Information cont… Near the bottom of the box you should fill in a name where there is a blank next to File Name. When deciding on a name, try to make it have something to do with the file's actual content. Also, try to be consistent in how you name files. This will help you remember the names when you want to open that saved file. Notice that the file at right is being saved to "My Documents". (under the blue bar.) This is a convenient place to store your files. Another convenient place to locate these files is on the Desktop.

How To Save Information cont… After you have named the file, that name will appear in the blue bar at the top of your screen. If it does not appear, then you have not saved properly. Just repeat the process in this case. You only need to do a Save As one time for any document. However, you can do it a second time to save a copy of the document under a separate name. Once the Save As process is complete, simply do File > Save or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + S to save your files as you work.

SEARCH STRATEGIES ILS-2017

Objectives Students should be able to: understand the importance of effective searching, develop guidelines for planning and implementing searches, understand and gain experience of structuring effective searches, gain theoretical experience of effective searching in a range of electronic information environments

SEARCH STRATEGY A search strategy is a structured organisation of terms used to search a database.  The search strategy shows how these terms combine in order to retrieve the best results. *****Different databases work in different ways, so you need to adapt your search strategy for each of the databases you use

Importance of Search Strategy Find the materials we want amongst the huge number of online resources available Google claims it searches >3 billion web pages More than 20,000 full text journals are online Newspapers, databases, books, company web pages, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, individual home pages, etc, are also online. Make efficient use of limited access to PCs and bandwidth Save time and money

Planning a search strategy Define your information need (1) Decide which sources to use (2) Find out how they function (3) Run your search (4) Review and refine you search (5) *****This process can be started away from the computer

Define your information need(1) Careful choice of search term(s) is vital What key words do you think will appear on the site/article you want? What key concepts is it a part of or related to? Are there any synonyms for these keywords or concepts? Are there any alternative spellings for your keywords/concepts Are plurals or capitalisation involved?

Decide which sources to use (2) What sources are appropriate for your information need? Individuals’ and organisations’ home pages Newspapers and magazines Subject gateways, databases, catalogues Journals—titles, abstracts or full text Reference resources, e.g., encyclopaedias, dictionaries Books Grey literature, e.g. government publications Print or electronic

How they function (3) Electronic search tools may interpret your search terms using Boolean operators Phrase and proximity searching Truncation or wildcard functions Case sensitivity Fields Stop words Relevance sorting

Boolean searching Uses commands (operators) such as AND, OR, NOT Different search tools may use different symbols AND + NOT – Different search tools may use OR or AND as a default setting Sometimes Boolean operators must be entered in capital letters

AND, OR & NOT

Phrase and proximity searching Using quotation marks allows you to search for an exact phrase, e.g. “information literacy” Using NEAR allows you to specify how close to each other the terms you are searching for should be

Truncation or wildcard searches Truncation: place a symbol at the end of the word so you search for variant endings of that word, e.g. litera$ would look for literature, literacy, literal, Wildcards: place a symbol within a word to find variations on it, e.g. analy*e would find analyse or analyse, Different symbols - including $ * # ! : - are used by different search tools

Other variations in search tools Case sensitivity: use of upper or lower case in search terms, Fields: searches in fields such as the title, URL or links, Stop words: searches may ignore common words such as ‘and’, ‘if’, ‘an’, ‘the’, Relevance sorting: relevance is measured in different ways in different search tools, Brackets may be used to order the search, e.g. (literacy AND education) NOT secondary

Citation searching Also known as ‘cited reference searching’, Finds all material that cites a particular work Many electronic resources provide easy to use citation searching or include facilities that offer this Useful when cited work is of a high quality, by leaders in a field

Run the search (4) Take the terms/keywords you have decided on Find the sources you are going to search Read the ‘Help’ page to find out how that particular source uses Boolean commands, wildcards, etc Run the search

Review and revise your search (5) Hopefully you have found what are looking for, or at least places to start from, but Be prepared to review and revise your search scope and strategy Try new sources of information (familiarity is sometimes too easy) Start again near the beginning of this process if you need to

Remember Never use phrases if you are looking for some topic or subject Use complete phrases only when you are looking for the exact phrase Break your concept in key concepts or terms z Before starting searching think (WWH) what, where and How It will save your time and bandwidth

Summary Developing and encouraging people to use effective searching strategies is essential The use of a search strategy checklist should be encouraged Understand and use advanced searching Boolean searches are powerful and under used Learn the search routines for all packages and electronic information sources