Dr. Ruth A. Palmquist Office: 562J SZB Phone: 471-3839 Email: palmquis@uts.cc.utexas.edu Office Hours: 4:00-5:30 Wednesdays, 1:30-3 p.m. Thgursdays, by arrangement at other times. Teaching Assistant: Jungwha Hong Email: jwhong@mail.utexas.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION The overall objective of the course is to begin to develop the knowledge and skills needed by an information professional in order to provide a quality online information retrieval service in a variety of environments. Focus will be upon the primary commercial online tools provided in academic and special libraries––chiefly Dialog and Lexis-Nexis. Some examination of the benefits of Web-based information will be made and contrasts developed between the Web and more traditional fee-based services. About Web Engines (Power Point) Criteria Web Sites (Power Point)

Objectives Assignments and Evaluation Courtesy Textbook Web Information Retrieval Calendar Students Related Web Sites

OBJECTIVES

1. To develop an understanding of the dynamics of electronic reference as a process in various environments.
2. To develop the judgment necessary to select appropriate electronic sources that will meet the information needs of users/clients.
3. To know the searchable characteristics of these electronic resources by understanding the fields/elements available in the underlying databases from which these resources are retrieved.
4. To achieve the ability to analyze information queries and to establish logical, efficient, computerized search strategies for the successful fulfillment of users' needs.
5. To complete a retrieval task for an actual client/user who has a real information need through dialogue with the client/user and execution of an online search on a commercial database appropriate to the need.
6. To develop informed opinions on several of the issues which have an impact on the evolving world of electronic information provision, e.g., role of the Web, fee–versus free issues, information liability, information management techniques, and digital libraries of the future.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS AND STUDENT EVALUATION

The course objectives will be met by a good deal of self motivated activity. There are some readings, but you must be willing to spend a good deal of time online testing your understanding and questioning system responses. Some exercises will be provided, but they are only a first step. You must be constantly assessing system responses and trying to determine what caused certain results. Dialog is ideal for this task because Dialog makes all of its search protocols explicit, unlike the Web and various full–text databases. A combination of outside of class assignments, readings, student presentations, lectures and class discussions will be used to accomplish the course objectives. There may be an in–class quiz on the search features of Dialog in addition to graded assignments. Good, acceptable graduate work will receive a grade of B. Only an extraordinary performance will receive a grade of A. Should a student's work fall between two letter grades, the degree and value of class participation will be used to decide whether the final course grade will be raised to the higher letter grade.

• Grading will be based upon the following weighted efforts:
• Graded online assignments (3) --- 60%
• Graded online "client" search - 20%
• Presentation (Oral w/Handout(s)) - 20%
• Additional ungraded exercises, as indicated in class

Active participation in class discussions is expected and essential. The quality of that participation will be used as the determining factor when a student's grade (based on the above components) falls between two grade levels. Submission of assignments on time is also essential. The instructor reserves the right to penalize the work by a third of a letter grade if it is late.

SOME ISSUES OF CLASS MANAGEMENT

To allow for a rapid return of graded assignments and in an effort to pool students' experience and knowledge, you will be asked to choose a partner for the bulk of class assignments. You will have a few weeks to determine this partnership and should the arrangement prove to be unworkable, you can be granted a "divorce" should that be necessary. In order to attempt a realistic approach to the graded online searches, one of you will be the "user/client" and the other will function as the "searcher." Roles will be reversed for the second graded search. The intent is to heighten your awareness of the roles which exist in an effective online search negotiation. There will also be a need sometimes to make decisions as the search results unfold to narrow the search in some way. The individual who is taking the role of the "user/client" will be responsible for making such decisions. More details on this partnership is mentioned in the section of the syllabus that discusses the formatting of your online search submissions for grading. We will also discuss the "role playing" in class to add some clarification.

TEXTBOOK

Required, available at the Coop and through amazon.com: Walker, Geraldene and Joseph Janes. Online Retrieval: A Dialogue of Theory and Practice. 2nd edition. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1999. (Required) Recommended, but not required: Hock, Randolph. Extreme Searcher's Guide to Web Search Engines: A Handbook for the Serious Searcher. Cyberbooks, 1999. Backed up with an updating Web site at http://www.onstrat.com/engines

At this point Dialog no longer provides a Workbook. We have an old copy available in the class file in the IP Lab for you to photocopy. Much is now available online through the Web at http://www.dialog.com But this requires a user id and password to access, so the printed version provides an alternative until your passwords are assigned. Lexis-Nexis has a similar tutorial available by visiting www.gslis.utexas.edu/~palmquis/lexishelp.html.

Web Informaiton Retrieval

• Assignment for class discussion only (probably on September 16th).
• Attempt to find answers on the web to the questions on the back of this handout.
• In looking for the answers to these questions, be prepared to discuss the following issues:

1. What were the decisions you had to make about the question in order to fully understand it. Were there proper nouns you could exploit? Were there exact phrases you could use? Were there contextual issues that helped you choose a particular engine or category on Yahoo?

2. Where did you look? Keep track of all the engines and queries you tried, especially if your first try wasn't successful.

3. What was your first instinct for a "best" place? Why and was it a good first instinct?

4. What keywords or phrases did you use? Can you find those in the actual response to the question? How did you choose the keyword(s)? Did the source influence what you could use to answer the question? Do you think the user would be satisfied?"

5. What, if any, sort of preparation did using the source/engine entail? Was there a useful index? (Probably most helpful for print sources, but the web surprises me daily!) Any other metadata that proved helpful? (We'll explore metadata more next week.)

6. Was there something else (some other capability) that would have been helpful to your hunt? (Examples might be a) limitation by date, b) limitation by author, c) limitation by type of document, etc.)

7. How did you know the answer was a good, reliable, complete one?

1. Who invented the water bed, and where was it first mentioned?

2. Find the earliest documented instance of the collapse of a structure due to resonance.

3. Who wrote "A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig," and where did he or she get the idea?

4. Who chose the letters K and W as the first call letters of American radio and TV stations and why?

5. How are the digits of a Social Security number determine?

6. Who scored the last home run for the Pittsburgh Penguins?

7. Why was it customary to carve a crescent moon in the door of an outhouse?

8. Who said, "If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?"

Tentative Course Calendar

Dates	Contents	Assignments / Due
Aug 26	Course Overview History & Evolution of Online Database Search Industry	Read: Walker & Janes, Online Retrieval... Chaps.1-4 Arnold & Arnold, "Vectors of Change: Electronic INformation from 1977 to 2007," Online July/August, 1997:pp. 19-33.
Sep 2	Looking at Web-Based Search Engines Keeping Up with the Web: Be prepared to suggest your favorite Web site to the class. Something that provides current information on particular Web engines or resources. TRY: http://www.searchenginewatch.com	HANDOUT: Some Web-findable ready reference questions.
Sep 9	Web Search Interfaces: What's this Ranking all about? Boolean Searches and Database Structures Precision/Recall Evaluation	Read: Walker & Janes, Chap. 5 and Chap. 12
Sep 16	ERIC Interface comparison: (Ungraded, for discussion) Compare ERIC's Ovid interface through UTNetCAT(www.lib.utexas.edu) and AskERIC on the World Wide Web (www.askeric.org) Attempt to find the following: You have been asked by an elementary teacher to find something which will help her understand the special needs of a school child in her class who comes from an alcoholic home. She has a small 14 page document put out by the Council for Religion in Independent Schools, 1990, written by Ralph Pitman that has been helpful, but she would like to know if there are more items like that one available on ERIC. Note features such as: ease of subject description, aids for help w/ vocabulary, syntax search syntax storing/downloading useful content for delivery to your user	READ: Walker & Janes, Chaps. 6-9
Sep 30	Getting started w/ Dialog (In class demo) Be prepared to pick a partner for the remainder of the semester. All searches (including the client search and the presentatrion) should be done with a partner.	Handout: Ungraded Boolean Exercises for Dialog. Handout: Graded Search #1
Oct 7	Developing Successful Search Strategies Discuss: Boolean Exercises	Read: Walker & Janes, Chap. 13
Oct 14	Conducting a Search Interview	Handout: Graded Search #2 Read: Walker & Janes, Chap. 10
Oct 21	Multiple File Searching : Diallndex and OneSearch	Read: Walker & Janes, Chaps. 11 Due: Graded Search #1
Oct 28	Ready Reference or RQ Searches Non-Bibliographic Databases Citation Databases Directory Databases Concept Codes Numeric Databases	Handout: Graded Search #3 (Ready Reference Questions)
Nov 4	Ways of Adding Value to Your Search Getting Started with Lexis-Nexis	DUE: Graded Search #2 Read: The Basics of LEXIS-NEXIS for Graduate Schools of Library and Information Science (Available through L-N Web site in Acrobat format for printing)
Nov 11	Presentations Sign-In	.About Presentation
Nov 18	Presentation I 1. Yun-Ho Jung 2. Kathy Harden, Anne Price 3. Steve Casburn 4. Gieschen, Pearson, Moreno 5. Jungwha Hong	Due: Graded Search #3 (Multiple Questions)
Nov 25	Thanksgiving - No class.	.
Dec 2	Presentation II 1. Naomi Dominguez, Alicia Koundakjian 2. Matt Mckowka, Peng Zhang 3. Min Liu 4. Jiayin Tang, Jie Ren 5. Chiao-Feng Lin, Ching Lien 6. Itzel McClaren 7. Will Porter, Shari Johnson 8. Barret Havens, Mark Linsenmayer Final class: Course Evaluation Any additional presentations??
Dec 9th	No class	Due: Final Client Search Client Search Evaluation Form

Class (Fall '99): List of Students

• Dr. Ruth A. Palmquist: palmquis@gslis.utexas.edu



• To all students



• Casburn, Steven Michael Casburn@gslis.utexas.edu
• Chen, Gao josef@cs.utexas.edu
• Dominguez, Naomi Rene nr.dominguez@mail.utexas.edu
• Gieschen, Laurence Edward gieschen@mail.utexas.edu
• Harden, Kathy Diane kharden@gslis.utexas.edu
• Havens, Barret Craig barret@mail.utexas.edu
• Hong, Jungwha jwhong@mail.utexas.edu
• Johnson, Shari Lynn sjohnson@gslis.utexas.edu
• Jung, Yun-Ho jungyh@mail.utexas.edu
• Koundakjian, Alicia J. aliciaK@gslis.utexas.edu
• Lien, Ching clien@gslis.utexas.edu
• Lin, Chiao-Feng joannelin@mail.utexas.edu
• Linsenmayer, Mark Andrew mark@mail.utexas.edu
• Liu, Min minliu@mail.utexas.edu
• Ma, Yanrui yanrui@cs.utexas.edu
• Makowka, Matthew Mark premium@gslis.utexas.edu
• McClaren, Itzel Rene ItzeL@mail.utexas.edu
• Mosqueda, John N. mosquito@mail.utexas.edu
• Pearson, Jon Richard jonp@mail.utexas.edu
• Porter, William Wardwell porterww@gslis.utexas.edu
• Price, Anne Kathryn T. a101956@gslis.utexas.edu
• Ren, Jie jieren@gslis.utexas.edu
• Tang, Jiayin Tangjiayin@mail.utexas.edu
• Zhang, Peng pzg@mail.utexas.edu
• Moreno, Pedro carbuncle@mail.utexas.edu

Related Web Sites

Search Engines

• Searching the Internet by UT's WebTeam. Includes searchers relating to keyword, subject, email addresses, people, FTP, WAIS, Telnet, listservs, and newsgroups.
• Netscape Net Search contains a large list of search engines, web guides, and white and yellow pages on the Web.

Search Engine Evaluation

• Precision Among World Wide Web Search Services compares five search engines: Alta Vista, Excite, Hotbot, Infoseek, and Lycos.
• The Spider's Apprentice provides search engine ratings and explains how to get the most from various search engines.
• Internet Promotions-The Major Search Engines highlights some of the major search engines and explains why each is significant to webmasters.
• Best Search Sites on the WebBest Search Sites on the Web

Dialog

• Dialog Information Services (The Dialog Corporation), Dialog's WWW Homepage/Global Information Center, contains FAQs and information about the company's services.
• DialogWeb, DialogWeb Database Search

Lexis-Nexis

• LEXIS-NEXIS telnet site
• User Guides:
  • LEXIS-NEXIS User Guide
  • Using LEXIS/NEXIS
  • Sample LEXIS/NEXIS Searches
• Lexis-Nexis Communications Center has information about the company's products and services.

Other Online Resources

• Collections and Electronic Resources on UT Library Online.

Last updated: August 28, 1999