1. Library Services for StFX Students
Suzanne van den Hoogen, MLIS
Angus L. Macdonald Library, StFX
May 2015

2. Why do you think libraries are important?

3. Introductions What is a Librarian? What is a Liaison Librarian?
A Librarian is an expert in information management and retrieval. Librarians have a Master’s degree in this field and have received specialized training in organizing information (cataloguing, metadata), searching for information (understanding of search functionalities of databases), evaluating information, and teaching these skills to others. The StFX Library has 8 librarians who work in these areas.
What is a Liaison Librarian?
A Liaison Librarian is the Librarian who has been appointed to a specific department, to assist both faculty and students in searching for resources, learning about the library, working out reference lists, or understanding how to use the various library search tools. Students may contact their Liaison Librarian whenever they need advice or assistance.

4. Who are we?

5. What can a Librarian teach students?
How to use the Library, Library website, databases, etc.
How to search and locate books , articles and more!
How to create annotated bibliographies and literature reviews
How to cite in numerous citation styles

6. Information Literacy
Critical Thinking
Search Strategies
Evaluating Information

7. The Physical Library Reference Desk Study Rooms
Study space/Quiet space
Extended Hours
Loaner Laptops
Computer Lab, Printers
TSG

8. The Virtual Library Subject Guides Library Catalogue LiveHelp
Document Delivery
Distance Students
Study Rooms
Need Help?
RefWorks

9. Question the facts!
Critical thinking

10. Analyse your assignment questions:
Critical Thinking
You must demonstrate that you are willing to examine popular beliefs, assumptions and opinions and weigh them against facts. Support your thesis statement with research.
Analyse your assignment questions:
What does this question mean?
How much detail does your professor require?
Where do I begin?
Read about your topic
Know your subject matter
Brainstorm ideas
Think about Key Words & Key Concepts
Write your thesis statement
Major component of the Research Cycle: Critical Thinking
Research puts your critical thinking skills to use. Be skeptical!

11. Exploring Effective Search Strategies
Getting what you want when you want it!
Exploring Effective Search Strategies
Part 2

12. Finding Information: Where do you go first?
Ask students where they start their research.
Google and Wikipedia “may” be a good starting point, but these results are not always reliable, too much information to sift through. If you are going to use Google, Google Scholar is far more likely to provide you with scholarly content. Library catalogues, however, are an excellent starting point for your research.

13. Search Strategies Keywords Phrase Searching Boolean Operators
Wildcards
Domain/Site Search
File Search
Synonym Search

14. Key Words Select your key words carefully
17th century women’s shoes, is much narrower than “Antiques”
Avoid using words like “A” “An” or “The”
Examples:
When were the Acadians expelled from Nova Scotia?
When do Asiatic lilies bloom?

15. Phrase Searching “ ” Atlantic + Ocean or “Atlantic Ocean”
To search a string of words as a “phrase”, simply use quotation marks around your search terms.
Atlantic + Ocean or “Atlantic Ocean”
Adult+ Education or “Adult Education”

16. Boolean Operators
OR Broadens your search AND (+) Narrows your search NOT (-) Makes your search more precise
Remember that Boolean Operators should be capitalized

17. Boolean Operator: OR College University
Example: You are looking for information on where to go to UNIVERSITY?
College
University
Your search will include all sites that list “college” or “university”
OR broadens your search query
There is no symbol for “OR”
We can add college OR university OR “trade school”
College OR University

18. Boolean Operator: AND (+)
Example: What is the relationship between health and exercise?
Health
Exercise
AND will provide you with information that deals with both search terms. The darker section between the two circles represents the results that will display with your query.
To further narrow your search you can add more terms: Health +exercise +smoking +pregnancy
Health +Exercise
Health AND Exercise

19. Boolean Operator: NOT (-)
Example: You are looking to get a new pet. You want to look for information on cats, but NOT dogs
Cat
Dog
Your search should now include those sites that deal with cats, but NOT DOGS (The grey section only). However, this is a common example. Use the symbol for NOT to get better results.
To further refine our search we can also indicate that we DO NOT want to look at Siamese Cats
Cat –dog -siamese
Cat –dog
Cat NOT Dog

20. Wildcards: * $ ! ? Also known as “Truncation” or “Stemming”
Wildcard Symbols may vary: * $ ! ?
Example:
Teen* teens
teenage
teenager
teenagers
Truncation allows you to search for the root of a word with all of its different endings. Truncation “broadens” your search allowing you to look for all variations of a word.

21. Wildcards: * ? $ !
Wildcards also allow us to search for the answers to specific questions, or variations of specific words
Examples:
“Thermometer was invented by *”
“Traffic light was invented by ?”
Wom?n (women, woman)
Note: Remember to verify the wildcard symbols used by individual databases
Truncation also allows you to query the response to a known question.
Galileo
Garret Morgan

22. Domain/Site Search
You can limit your search to a specific domain (site).
Domains are “indicators” within a web address that identify the “source” or “location” of the information you are searching.
Sample of Top-Level Domain Codes:
.ca Canada Country Code
.com company
.coop cooperatives
.gc government Canada
.gov government US
.info information
.int international organizations
.org organization
.net network
Wikipedia has a list of generic domain codes (Also known as Top-level domain (TLD) Codes).

23. Domain/Site Search Strategy
Example #1
Example #2
Enter your search term with the domain code:
health.org
library.com
family.gc.ca
You can also search a specific website by entering your search term with the URL:
“Albert Einstein” site:amazon.ca
tuition site:

24. File Search
You can search for specific file types on the WWW Examples:
Word Document: .doc/docx
PowerPoint: .ppt
Adobe Acrobat: .pdf
Excel Spreadsheet: .xls/xlsx

25. File Type Search Strategy:
filetype:ppt “Earth Day”
filetype:doc “Earth Day”
filetype:pdf “Earth Day”

26. ~ Synonym Search ~ ~cow ~drugs ~exercise ~pollution
You can search for synonyms by using the tilde symbol immediately preceding your search term: ~
Examples:
~cow
~drugs
~exercise
~pollution

27. Evaluating information
Separating the Wheat from the Chaff
Evaluating information

28. Scholarly vs. Popular Sources
Journals
Written by experts
Evaluated by experts: “Peer Reviewed”
Authoritative Source
Usually include:
Credentials of the Author
Abstract
Bibliography
Specialized vocabulary
Reference List
Popular
Magazines
Written by journalists, students, popular authors, or no author listed
Flashy covers
Advertisements
Brief articles
Trade Journals: Business, Finance, Industry (Written by experts, but may not be peer reviewed)
Newspapers
Academic, Peer-reviewed, Scholarly vs. Popular

29. Question! Question! Question!
Is this source reliable?
Is this source current?
Have opinions changed?
What are the current trends in this research area?
Are there any gaps in the research? Is something missing?
Who is the author?
Are they an expert in this field?
Do they represent multiple points of view or do they express bias for their own point of view?

30. How do I remember what questions to ask?

31. C R A P Currency Authority Purpose / Point of View
How recent is the information?
Can you locate a date when the resource was written/created/updated?
Based on your topic, is this current enough?
Why might the date matter for your topic?
Reliability
What kind of information is included in the resource?
Is the content primarily opinion?
Is the information balanced or biased?
Does the author provide citations & references for data?
Authority
Can you determine who the author/creator is?
What are their credentials (education, affiliation, experience)?
Who is the publisher or sponsor of the work/site?
Is this publisher/sponsor reputable?
Purpose / Point of View
What’s the intent of the article (to persuade you, to sell something)?
For Web resources, what is the domain (.edu, .com, etc.)? How might that influence the purpose/point of view?
Are there ads on the Web site? How do they relate to the topic? Is the author presenting fact or opinion? R A
*Based on the original CRAP TEST created by Librarian Molly Beestrum, Dominican University
LOEX (Library Orientation Exchange) wiki (2008). The CRAP test. Retrieved from P

32. Questions?

33. Thank You! Suzanne van den Hoogen svandenh@stfx.ca 867-4535
Liaison Librarian for:
Adult Education
Anthropology
Education
Political Science
Sociology