South-of-the-Border Boolean: Teaching Search Strategies with the Value Menu

As databases and Internet search engines continue to become increasingly user-friendly, the need for Boolean operator skills seems to have waned but in reality, the amount of online information is skyrocketing as thousands of articles are uploaded each day. Bridging familiar activities with new Boolean operator skills sets the stage for a smooth introduction for students and creates a strong foundation for the retention of those skills. Using the simple task of ordering from a restaurant menu to demonstrate to students they already have the skills to do successful online searching, the South-of-the-Border Boolean lesson plan connects everyday tasks and scholarly application, while boosting confidence in students. This article will begin with a brief literature review, followed by an introduction of the lesson plan, including student learning outcomes, assessment, and unexpected results

South-of-the-Border Boolean: Teaching Search Strategies with the Value Menu

As databases and Internet search engines continue to become increasingly user-friendly, the need for Boolean operator skills seems to have waned but in reality, the amount of online information is skyrocketing as thousands of articles are uploaded each day. Bridging familiar activities with new Boolean operator skills sets the stage for a smooth introduction for students and creates a strong foundation for the retention of those skills. Using the simple task of ordering from a restaurant menu to demonstrate to students they already have the skills to do successful online searching, the South-of-the-Border Boolean lesson plan connects everyday tasks and scholarly application, while boosting confidence in students. This article will begin with a brief literature review, followed by an introduction of the lesson plan, including student learning outcomes, assessment, and unexpected results

Targeting effectiveness in digital healthcare advertising

Throughout the past 300 years since the first ad was distributed via printed newspaper, the field of advertising has drastically changed. Specifically, with the introduction of online media, marketers and advertisers have sought to gain insight as to how this type of media is consumed moreover how advertisements in this space can be most effective. An area of focus within online marketing remains to be healthcare advertising. Grounded in the Hornik et. al., (2013) study of information seeking and searching, a study with digital media users was conducted to gain a better understanding of how individuals seek healthcare information online. Elaborating off this theory, an analysis of how advertising in this field is affected was conducted, specifically looking at the context in which ad messages are presented to a digital media user

Somebody google a doctor! urgent health information seeking habits of young adults

Introduction: While much scholarship has been done on health information-seeking habits, comparatively little has been done on these habits among young adults. Objective: The primary objective of this study was to determine to which media young adults turn during an urgent health crisis, which factors correspond to their choice, and if information-seeking corresponded to visiting a health professional. Method: A survey method was used, sampling students from two large universities. Results: Credibility was the most consistent factor in predicting respondent media choice for an urgent health matter. Whether respondents were socially conservative or liberal affected media choice, as did perceptions of online and traditional media credibility. Searching for health information online corresponded to more frequently visiting health professionals. Conclusion: This study supports that young adults turn to a variety of media sources, traditional and online, during health crisis and that this information-seeking does correspond to visiting health professionals after

Upgrading search strategy skills: unit two: developing search strategies for CD-ROM encylopedias: a continuing professional development course for library and information service managers

This Unit Two focuses on the development of search strategies in using CD-ROM encyclopedias. A thorough introduction to the basics of searching with Boolean logical operators is provided in Unit One. CD-ROM encyclopedia publishers not only update their products annually but some now provide monthly online updating facilities from the Internet. In this very dynamic environment it is rather difficult to evaluate their search facilities as improvements take place constantly. The Unit develops strategies to take full advantage of the text and multimedia materials stored in the various indexes of an electronic encyclopedia, as well as methods for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of its search engines from an information retrieval perspective. Hands-on experience will be an important part of this Unit. These exercises can be conducted independently by the user

Flipping the One-Shot Library Workshop: Collaborations between Librarians and Writing Program Faculty

At UC San Diego, instruction librarians and the Muir College Writing Program (MCWP) director collaborated to redesign the one-shot library workshops provided to the college’s first-year students enrolled in a research class. Following their discussion about student knowledge gaps about conducting research, the library instruction coordinator suggested flipping the workshop so that, prior to coming to the library, students would complete an interactive online tutorial. The new flipped library workshops now consist of two sequential parts—an online interactive tutorial and an in-person workshop. Librarians created an online tutorial on database searching, made up of multimedia and active learning experiences for students to complete before the library workshop. After learning online about the research process, database search strategies, and full-text access, students find and annotate three scholarly articles. They then bring their source(s) to the in-person library workshop. During the workshop, librarians guide students through a topic mapping exercise, an open-ended research question exercise, and an introduction to the BEAM method to describe how their chosen source addressed their research question. Employing the flipped model provides benefits to both sides of this partnership. Librarians can see how well students implement the skills taught in the tutorial, while helping students begin to use their sources for the next phase of their research and writing process. This, in turn, alleviates part the instructors’ workload and fills an unmet need for the writing program. Students have responded positively to the two-pronged approach and are better prepared to succeed in their writing classes

Bringing Semantic Diversity to the Online Catalog with LibraryThing

While controlled vocabularies, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings, are an essential component of bibliographic classification, a controlled vocabulary excludes all possibilities of semantic variance by design. Also, a controlled vocabulary tends to lag behind the organic nature of language and does not account for the introduction of new or discipline specific vocabularies. These limitations present unique challenges for our users searching the OP AC. Can importing social tags in the online catalog effectively address the lack of semantic variance? As part of the Web OPAC redesign project at UNO, LibraryThing tags were added to matching bibliographic records in the online catalog. This presentation will cover the practical aspects of adding LibraryThing tags to most vendor-based OPACs, address the variety of tags employed and offer ideas for effective tagging. In addition, we will explore how a collaborative service learning project with discipline specific university classes encouraged patron participation. We will also examine the overall quality and utility of LibraryTiring\u27s folksonomy. Lastly, additional features to be added in the near future by LibraryThing\u27s developers will be discussed

Online Job Search: A Study on Optimizing Online Platforms to Facilitate Effective Job Search

Technological advancement along with the expanding number of users and internet-based businesses have created a worldwide market for both job recruiters and job seekers. This has drastically changed areas of job searching and job recruiting. Traditional methods of recruiting and job hunting have been obsoleting since the introduction of digitalized platforms to perform these tasks, leading to better results when matching the intents of job recruiters to job seekers. There are numerous online job search platforms but everyone one of them contains some major issues. We have examined the related studies and identified that these issues exist in the areas of screening job applications, optimizing job search queries, and demographic inequity in candidate selection. Although these topics have been researched independently, there is a lack of implementational solutions available to address all these issues together. As a result of our study on this deficiency, we have come up with a practical solution implemented as a web application addressing these issues and providing job seekers and job recruiters with an online platform with enhanced accuracy and user experience

Negotiating the 'grey area between normal social drinking and being a smelly tramp':a qualitative study of people searching for help online to reduce their drinking

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Delivering brief interventions for hazardous and harmful drinking on the Internet may broaden the availability of services and overcome some barriers to accessing help in person. The Down Your Drink (DYD) website, an extended brief intervention, attracted a large number of people looking to reduce their drinking. The aim was to explore the experiences of this e-help seeking population.  METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants in the DYD trial - an online trial of the effectiveness of DYD compared with an information-only website. Interviewees were asked how they came across the DYD website. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed by a multidisciplinary team using detailed thematic analysis.  RESULTS: Eighteen participants were interviewed. Most interviewees perceived their drinking to be a problem, which led them to search the Internet and register for the DYD trial in order to gain access to an intervention to help them reduce their drinking. The type of help required varied from information on the harms of drinking to help with a recognized problem. The privacy of the Internet was perceived as important when searching for help with drinking, as this avoids the stigma and embarrassment associated with help seeking in person. Almost all interviewees perceived a lack of services both online and offline for people wanting to moderate their drinking.  CONCLUSION: There is a perceived gap in services for hazardous and harmful drinkers wanting to reduce their drinking which could be addressed using online interventions

Analysis of automatic translation of questions for question-answering systems

Introduction. Multilingual question-answering systems can provide users with specific data in response to queries by searching for a minimal fragment of text that applies to the query, regardless of the language in which the question is formulated and the answer is found. The aim of this paper is to analyse the automatic translation of questions (intended as queries input to a cross-language, question-answering system) from German and French into the Spanish language. Method. The methodology used for evaluation, based on automatic and subjective measures, appraises whether the translation will serve as input to a system. That is, does the question retain its validity and fulfil its function, allowing a proper response to be found? Analysis. The main features of multilingual question-answering systems are described and then we analyse the effectiveness of the translations achieved through three popular online translating tools: Google Translator, Promt and Worldlingo. Results. Our findings serve to identify which is the most reliable translator for both pairs of languages overall. However, an even more reliable option would be to use two different translators, depending on which of the two source languages is being dealt with. Conclusions. The results contribute to the realm of innovative search systems by enhancing our understanding of online translators and their potential in the context of multilingual information retrieval