Information Literacy for Journalists Gergana Georgieva Information Literacy Librarian January 26, 2009

Information Literacy  Information literacy is the ability to identify, locate, evaluate and select information to use it effectively.  Information literacy skills are necessary to conduct a good research.  Research is at the core of every mass communicator’s job

Why IL for Journalists? A Journalist:  Works in an information driven industry  Must be effective and efficient about finding information  Has to analyze information to find quality  Maintains credibility with accurate information

What Can You Learn from IL  Basic Research Skills  Use of reference sources  Use of databases  Use of online materials  Criteria for evaluation of sources  Ethical and legal use of this information

The 7 Steps of Research  Identify and develop your topic  Find background information  Use the online catalog to find books  Find periodicals articles (print and electronic)  Find Internet resources  Evaluate what you have found  Cite what you find using a standard format for your bibliography  Identify the basic issue  Divide the issues into logical components.  Focus on the most significant point of each component.  Brainstorm sources that will provide information and that will corroborate information already obtained.  Evaluate information.  Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all sub issues.  Organize the information for presentation in order of issue significance and impact. Show the sources and provide attribution. Kessler, Lauren and Duncan McDonald. Uncovering the News: A Journalist’s Search for Information. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1987

The process Human sources Primary sources Secondary sources

Reference Sources  Atlas  Dictionary of quotations  Encyclopedia  Almanacs  Biographical sourcebook  Governmental Directories  Medical dictionary  Handbook  Phonebook  Guide to Reference Books

Statistical Information  Statistical Yearbook (Statisticheski Godishnik): Ref HA1621.A455  Statistical Reference Book (Statisticheski Spravochnik): Ref HA1621.S832

Reference databases  Encyclopedia Britannica  Oxford Reference Online -A collection of over articles, 100 reference titles, 1000 links to valuable internet resources. -Also figures, maps and illustrations.

Reference Database - Bulgaria  APIS Law  APIS SOFITA  APIS Procedures  APIS Finance  APIS Global  APIS Register 

Books  Provide: Depth Authoritative detail Multiple viewpoints Additional sources  Limits: Time Timeliness

How to Find Books  AUBG Online Catalog – Virtua VTLS accessible from everywhere in the world. AUBG Online Catalog  All library collections are 100% cataloged and searchable through this software. Includes records for books, print and electronic periodicals, atlases, maps, VHS, DVD and CD collections. The Browse and Keyword searches allow you to find materials by Author, Title, Subject, Call Number and Journal Title  Ebrary Ebrary

Periodicals  Types:  Uses: Check developments Issues into context Ideas for future projects

Find Print Periodicals  Search the online catalog.online catalog  Shelved in alphabetical order by title in the Periodicals department.  A list of currently subscribed periodicalslist

Find Electronic Periodicals  They are collected in various databases, the links to which are on the left side of the web page, listed in alphabetical order.  Another way to access a journal in an AUBG library database is through the Electronic Journal Portal.Electronic Journal Portal.  The portal serves as a catalog for finding electronic periodicals that are contained in the AUBG library databases  Ciela Infomedia

Ciela Infomedia  Full-texts of the press and the news from the national electronic media   User name: AUBGLibrary  Password:

Databases  ABI Inform  CEEOL  Columbia International Affairs  DOAJ  EBSCO/Host Databases  JSTOR  ScienceDirect  World Bank databases

ABI/Inform Research  Provides information on advertising, economics, human resources, finance, marketing, computers, etc.  Fast access to information on over 60,000 companies.  The Wall Street Journal.  Coverage: 1971 – to current days.

CEEOL  An online archive of full text PDF articles from over 300 humanities and social science journals and re-digitized documents pertaining to Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European topics.

DOAJ  It covers free, full text, quality-controlled scientific and scholarly journals.  Aims to cover all subjects and languages.  3824 journals  1351 journals are searchable at article level.  articles

Columbia International Affairs Online  Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs.  It publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 onward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional paper series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs.

EBSCO  Full-text articles in Economics, Business, Finance, History, Geography, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Literature, Linguistics, Journalism,Computer science, Mathematics, Astronomy and more  Company, Country, Industry reports.  Others

JSTOR  An electronic archive of scholarly journals, starting with the very first issue, some dating as far back as the 1600s.  All subject areas

 ScienceDirect offers more than a quarter of the world's scientific, medical and technical information online.  Over 2,000 peer-reviewed journals  Hundreds of book series, handbooks and reference works  ScienceDirect College Edition ScienceDirect

World Bank Databases  Global Development Finance Global Development Finance  Global Economic Monitor Global Economic Monitor  World Development Indicators World Development Indicators  World Bank e-library World Bank e-library

How to Narrow Your Search  Be more specific  Use phrases  Add a discriminating or qualifying word or phrase "World Wide Web" and statistics "World Wide Web" and “usage statistics”

How to Broaden Your Search  Use lower case - use lower case, even for proper nouns. This will broaden your search.  Use truncation - If you only want to do one search, but don't know which variant of a word is best, use a word stem for all variations of the word, such as comput* to retrieve any of the following words: - computer - computers - computing

Use the Boolean Operators USETO AND Narrow search and retrieve records containing all of the words it separates NOT Narrow search and retrieve records that do not contain the term following it. OR Broaden search and retrieve records containing any of the words it separates.

The Web  Use search engines and internet directories to locate materials on the Web.  Bulgaria-Web Directory Bulgaria-Web Directory  Discipline-Specific Resources Discipline-Specific Resources

 S – Scope – are all aspects of the topic covered  T – Treatment – is the information free from bias  A – Authority – are the authors qualified to provide this information  R – Relevance – does it address your topic  T – Timeliness – Is the information current for your purpose How to Evaluate Internet Sources

Ask for Assistance  Reference Desk  Virtual Reference Virtual Reference   Phone: or  Reference Assistance Form Reference Assistance Form

Thank you! Gergana Georgieva