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Panelists:
Rong Tang,
Simmons College
Carol Tenopir, University of Tennessee
Rachel
Applegate, Indiana University Purdue University
Indianapolis
Lynn
Hanson,
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Jamshid
Beheshti, McGill University
Maria Ziemer, ProQuest
Panel Title: To Dialog or
Not to Dialog: Teaching
Online Searching to MLIS Students in the Age of Google
While being titled
differently, most of the library schools offer a search class
featuring, among
other things, the teaching of the search syntax of some legacy
systems such as Dialog
[part of ProQuest]. With the dynamic evolution of database
industry and rapid
development of database interface design, it becomes
increasingly challenging
to show students the value of learning Dialog classic search.
Meanwhile, as
ProQuest Dialog currently is in the development and has been
installed through
various stages and versions, as Dialog classic interface is
being phased out,
what platforms and search languages should a search class cover?
What exactly
is the difference between search skills for information
professionals and
search skills as end users? What other content elements should
be added to a
traditionally search-focused course?
This panel intends to
exchange ideas for the content of an online searching course,
with the hope to
adopt best practices and ensure the course to deliver both
essential knowledge
and practically relevant skills.
Below
are some of the issues that various panelists will cover in
their talk:
1. Roles, purposes, and values
of the online search
course in the MLIS curriculum
2. Specific educational
objectives of online search
courses and evaluation methods (e.g., assignments, lab
exercises, discussions,
student presentations, etc.)
3. Online systems covered in the
online search course
and the MLIS curriculum (e.g., Dialog, Factiva, LexisNexis, and
web)?
4. Depth of knowledge required
from Master’s students
about online systems (e.g., Boolean, nested logic, stop words,
proximity
operators, field searches –basic and additional index fields,
inverted files, etc.?)
5. What other content are
covered in online search
courses (electronic resource management, electronic resource
librarianship, user
instruction, digitalization, evaluation of databases, etc.)?
The panel will post following
questions to the audience:
1. What do you think are the
purposes of a search
course in the MLIS curriculum? What do you think students want
to learn from
this course?
2. What other courses in the
curriculum cover online
searching techniques and sources?
3. Should we continue teaching
Dialog knowing that the
command line search option in ProQuest Dialog will be different
from the traditional
Dialog syntax?
4. What are the alternative
systems that we can use to
teach our search courses?
5. What are the possible changes
of directions for a
search course:
·
Change the
course into a search and database evaluation course
·
Change the
course into a “electronic resource management” course that
addresses budgeting,
licensing and negotiation, copyright, access management, link
and
authentication
·
Change the
course into a “user instruction” course, with a focus on
teaching database
searching
·
Change the
course to a digital collection course, etc.
·
Merge the course
content into various other courses (such as collection
development, technical
services, etc.) and get rid of the course
6. How can we make the online
search course both timely
relevant and practically useful?
-- ************************************************ Rong Tang, PhD Associate Professor Director, Simmons GSLIS Usability Lab Graduate School of Library and Information Science Simmons College Boston, MA 02115 (617) 521-2880 [log in to unmask] ***********************************************