Development of information search expertise: Research students' knowledge of databases

Purpose - This paper sets out to report on a study of 12 postgraduate research students' development of information search expertise. It focuses on students' perceived importance and growth of knowledge of different databases as they progress through their studies. Design/methodology/approach - Taking an in-depth longitudinal approach, this study makes use of surveys, direct observations of students' searching of various databases, students' verbalization of their thoughts while searching databases and interviews during a one-year period. The paper focuses on analyzing the data from surveying and interviewing the students with regard to their use of databases. Findings - It was found that many students were initially unfamiliar with many of the databases important to them and that the familiarity developed during the year contributed importantly to their development of information search expertise. This suggests that much work has to be done to inform and instruct students about these "treasures". Research limitations/implications - This study adopted an in-depth longitudinal approach to study 12 students. Although it reveals various interesting observations and findings, it lacks the power of generalization due to its small sample size. Based on the results of this study, it would be meaningful to carry out further studies with a bigger sample to see whether the findings identified in this study will still hold true. Originality/value - Based on the findings, this paper further identifies features that may increase the usefulness of a journal database and makes suggestions on ways to improve library support for the effective use of databases.postprin

An Academic Search Engine for Personalized Rankings

Rapidly increasing information on the Internet and the World Wide Web can lead to information overload. Search engines become important tools to help WWW users to discover information. Exponential increases in published research papers, academic search engines become indispensable tools to search for papers in their expertise and related fields. In order to improve the quality of search, an academic search engines' capability should be enhanced. This paper proposes a search engine for personalized rankings. In order to evaluate the performance of personalized rankings, thirty-five graduate students from the Department of Web Engineering and Mobile Application Development at Dhurakij Pundit University are participants in the research experiment. Participants are asked to use a prototype of an academic search engine to find and bookmark any research papers according to their interests, which would guarantee that each participants' list of interesting research papers could be recorded. Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain (NDCG) is used as a metric to determine the performance of the personalized rankings. The experiments suggest that the personalized rankings outperform the original search rankings. Hence, the proposed academic search engine with personalized ranking benefits research paper discovery

Investigating perceived digital literacy skills of master students: A case study at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences

Introduction: Researchers and students, who play an essential role in promoting education and research, must inevitably use various information sources to obtain information in order to meet their information needs. However, to use digital resources, they need the ability to use digital technology, referred to as digital literacy . Objectives: This research aimed to examine the digital information behaviour and digital literacy of master\u27s students at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences. On this basis, it will be possible to determine web users\u27 level of expertise and knowledge in utilizing the information available on the web. By determining the current situation, appropriate solutions and training will be provided to improve the information behaviour of this group. Methods: This study cross-sectional study was carried out using a five-point Likert questionnaire developed by the researchers. The population of this study comprises 36 master\u27s students at the University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences. Results: The results of this study revealed that the digital information-seeking ability and literacy of students at the University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences are generally weak. Conclusion: It is advised that internet search training sessions be offered to the students and that the degree of development in their abilities is closely studied so that their inability to locate information using online resources may be precisely discovered. A timely subscription of databases, as well as an increase in periodical subscriptions based on the user demands, seem to be necessary

MEDLINE Metric: A method to assess medical students' MEDLINE search effectiveness

Medical educators advocate the need for medical students to acquire information management skills, including the ability to search the MEDLINE database. There has been no published validated method available to use for assessing medical students' MEDLINE information retrieval skills. This research proposes and evaluates a method, designed as the MEDLINE Metric, for assessing medical students' search skills. MEDLINE Metric consists of: (a) the development, by experts, of realistic clinical scenarios that include highly constructed search questions designed to test defined search skills; (b) timed tasks (searches) completed by subjects; (c) the evaluation of search results; and (d) instructive feedback. A goal is to offer medical educators a valid, reliable, and feasible way to judge mastery of information searching skill by measuring results (search retrieval) rather than process (search behavior) or cognition (knowledge about searching). Following a documented procedure for test development, search specialists and medical content experts formulated six clinical search scenarios and questions. One hundred and forty-five subjects completed the six-item test under timed conditions. Subjects represented a wide range of MEDLINE search expertise. One hundred twenty complete cases were used, representing 53 second-year medical students (44%), 47 fourth-year medical students (39%), and 20 medical librarians (17%). Data related to educational level, search training, search experience, confidence in retrieval, difficulty of search, and score were analyzed. Evidence supporting the validity of the method includes the agreement by experts about the skills and knowledge necessary to successfully retrieve information relevant to a clinical question from the MEDLINE database. Also, the test discriminated among different performance levels. There were statistically significant, positive relationships between test score and level of education, self-reported previous MEDLINE training, and self-reported previous search experience. The findings from this study suggest that MEDLINE Metric is a valid method for constructing and administering a performance-based test to identify mastery in searching the MEDLINE database. The test's reliability needs to be established

A Multicultural Approach to Evaluate Information Literacy Skills of the University Students of the Remote Areas of Pakistan.

In today\u27s world, information is vital for decision making. However, in the 21st century the abundance of information is also causing issues for the people having less expertise and knowledge for synthesizing and using it. The abundance is merely due to advancement in technology including information media, internet and printed books. The advancement in technology particularly the source of communicating information have intensified information complexity, which is, people receive much information in excess of needed and get confused that on which information basis they should make decisions. In this regard, having information literacy is considered one of the most reliable methods assisting in the selection of accurate fact and figures from variety of available data in media and internet. Therefore, the current study conducted to assess the IL (Information Literacy) skills of under-graduate and post-graduate students of the Higher Educational Institutions of Balochistan. This study also conducted to check form and level of IL programs that are being taught to the students for their academic development. Moreover, this study also highlights the hardships students confront while surfing for needed data. The study uses quantitative approach of research relying on an extensive survey and for data collection a pre-tested questionnaire was used to measure students’ IL skills in the higher educational institutions of Balochistan. The study’s unit of analysis comprises of BS, Masters, M.Phil and Ph.D. enrolled students in all higher educational institutions of Balochistan. Non-probability sampling technique (convenience sampling) was employed to collect the data from 380 respondents. The collected data were analyzed through SPSS. Descriptive statistics were applied to calculate frequencies and percentages of the data. The findings show that the most of the respondents are not familiar to the term IL. They mostly search needed information without applying proper IL techniques. The said Higher Educational Institutions frequently use Face to face IL instruction for provision of IL instructions. In the light of the finding of the study it is mandatory for countering the hardships that the curriculum supposed to be reconstructed and arranged in a line with the ongoing technological trend to promote IL in students of the all higher educational institutions of the country. Moreover, it is suggested to organize training sessions, faculty development programs for instructors to develop interactional and IL content delivering skills efficiently at their institutions. Furthermore, IL contents should be included in institutions’ research courses being offered by various departments of higher educational institutions of the country

Developing an Information Literacy-Intensive Forensic Science Course

American Academy of Forensic Sciences 2018 Poster PresentationThe goal of this presentation is to demonstrate a model where forensic science educators can utilize resources at university libraries to promote scientific information literacy and lifelong learning strategies for their forensic science students that they can continue to use in their professional forensic careers. This presentation will impact the forensic science community by highlighting the benefits of forensic science faculty collaborating with subject specialist academic librarians to produce a course filling a gap in the education of future forensic science practitioners. This course facilitates the development of productive search strategies and how different types of scientific research and legal materials are relevant to various forensic science disciplines. This collaboration has demonstrated a need for promoting information literacy, specifically for open-access materials, on forensic science information to these students so that once they graduate they still can acquire the valuable information necessary for their job. As a result of this research, the researchers saw a need to expand this information literacy beyond the classroom and acquired National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funding to allow for the development of these materials as modules to be used by practitioners in crime laboratories to enhance available resources for their use. Forensic science is a multi-faceted field including expertise from a variety of disciplines. A challenge for creating a college course to address skills to develop information literacy competencies and encourage lifelong learning for future practitioners is covering those diverse disciplines. This presentation will detail how librarians at Texas A&M University developed a junior-level forensic science seminar in collaboration with a forensic science faculty member to meet the research needs of students in the forensic sciences program. The learning outcomes of this class include teaching students to describe problem-solving principles, organize typical operational protocols, recognize the scientific basis and application of tools and techniques in forensic science, compare capabilities and limitations, and to summarize and illustrate current scientific, ethical, and legal issues. The presenters will detail the steps taken to create six separate information literacy-intensive classes, including the development of the assignments, and how feedback was provided to the students. These classes included sessions on dissecting scholarly articles and case law, as well as classroom discussions to teach students how to use the structure of research articles and case law to easily evaluate information. By creating this information literacy course, instructors were able to better prepare students for their program’s research intensive courses with the amount of detail required that cannot be covered in a traditional one hour library instruction session. Such skills will be of value when working in forensic science fields and the need arrives for locating similar resources in relation to casework. Additionally, the presentation will address issues raised in class, such as open access, database access, and evaluation of science and legal materials, which helps the students translate current school work to their future careers. To further this concept of information literacy, as previously mentioned, the researchers received NIJ funding to determine how forensic scientist locate and evaluate information and to create educational materials aimed at enhancing these skills and increase awareness of other valuable informational resources. Locating and evaluating high-quality forensic science literature will help forensic scientists engage in quality science practices. Results from this class, which is now in its third year of evaluation, show that students who take this preparatory course are better prepared for conducting meaningful research for their writing-intensive senior-level classes both in their abilities to find relevant materials and how to utilize and cite these materials. Graduating students who go on to graduate or law school have also reported back that taking this course gave them a foundation for which to build on in their advanced studies.Grant funding provided by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, the United States Department of Justice through 2016-R2-CX-0054. Points of view in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the United States Department of Justice

Sharpening the Search Saw: Lessons from Expert Searchers

Many students consider themselves to be proficient searchers and yet are disappointed or frustrated when faced with the task of locating relevant scholarly articles for a literature review. This bleak experience is common among higher education students, even for those in library and information science programs who have heightened appreciation for information resources and yet may settle for “good enough Googling” (Plosker, 2004, p. 34). This is in large part due to reliance on web search engines that have evolved relevance ranking into a vastly intelligent business, one in which we are both its customers and product (Vaidhyanathan, 2011). Google’s Hummingbird nest of search algorithms (Sullivan, 2013) provides quick and targeted hits, yet it can trigger blinders-on trust in first-page results. Concern for student search practices ranges from this permissive trust all the way to lost ability to recall facts and formulate questions (Abilock, 2015), lack of confidence in one’s own knowledge (Carr, 2010), and increased dependence on single search boxes that encourage stream-of-consciousness user input (Tucker, 2013); indeed, students may be high in tech savvy but lacking the critical thinking skills needed for information research tasks (Katz, 2007). Students have come to rely on web search engine intelligence—and it is inarguably colossal—to such an extent that they may fail to formulate a question before charging forward to search for its answer. “Google is known as a search engine, yet there is barely any searching involved anymore. The gap between a question crystallizing in your mind and an answer appearing at the top of your screen is shrinking all the time. As a consequence, our ability to ask questions is atrophying” (Leslie, 2015, para. 4). Highly accomplished students often lament their lack of skills for higher-level searching that calls for formulating pointed questions when struggling to develop a solid literature review. In addition, many are unaware that search results are filtered based on previous searches, location, and other factors extracted from personal search patterns by the search engine. Two students working side by side and entering the same search terms may receive quite different results on Google, yet the extent to which this ‘filter bubble’ (Pariser, 2011) is personalizing their search results is difficult to assess and to overcome. Just as important, it can be impossible to know what a search might be missing: how to know what’s not there? This portrayal of the information landscape may appear gloomy but, in fact, it could not be a more inspiring environment in which to do research, to find connections in ideas, and to benefit from and generate new ideas. A few lessons from expert searchers, focused on critical concepts and search practices, can sharpen a student’s search saw and move the proficient student-researcher, desiring more relevant and comprehensive search results, into a trajectory toward search expertise. For the lessons involved in this journey, the focus is on two areas: first, the critical concepts— called threshold concepts (Meyer & Land, 2003)— found to be necessary for developing search expertise (Tucker et al., 2014); and, second, four strategic areas within search that can have significant and immediate impact on improving search results for research literature. The latter are grounded in the threshold concepts and positioned for application to literature reviews for graduate student studies

Аккредитация в НТУУ «КПИ» подготовки магистров по специальности 8.03030202 «Связи с общественностью»

У статті йдеться про можливість підготовки магістрів спеціальності 8.03030202 «Зв’язки з громадськістю» в НТУУ «КПІ» для забезпечення видавничо-поліграфічної та інших галузей фахівцями високого рівня цієї спеціальності, що покликано запитами ринку.Master’s trainings in 8.03030202 Public Relations helps to meet the staffing needs of publishing and printing and other industries in the social transformation’s period. Nowadays this work is focused on new needs and challenges brought by the development of electronic communication systems. Educational process organization for 8.03030202 Public Relations is based on the laws, state-supported Ukrainian higher education standards and other legislative acts and conducted according to the curriculum, schedule of educational process, students and professors timetables approved by the University’s Rector. Implementation of basic educational training for Master’s degree in Public Relations is provided with the necessary information base that reflects the achievements of science and technology in the field of publishing and printing. Teaching and methodological work at the Department of Publishing and Editing subordinated the practical realization of the educational goals in the Ukrainian state and within the University. This is provided via search of the most effective forms, means and methods of forming in students a broad scientific outlook of development of their science and culture, professional knowledge, skills and training for highly qualified specialists. Given the need for the publishing and printing industry in the editorial and publishing high-level personnel in National Technical University of Ukraine ‘Kyiv Polytechnic Institute’ logistical, research, and methodological basis ensured quality teaching subjects field of expertise in 0303 Journalism and Information was formed. Potential to constantly improve the training according to specialty social needs it is consider and appropriate to provide the National Technical University of Ukraine ‘Kyiv Polytechnic Institute’ accreditation for training educational qualification for Master’s degree in 0303 Journalism and Information with the specialty 8.03030202 Public Relations.В статье речь идет о возможности подготовки магистров специальности 8.03030202 «Связи с общественностью» в НТУУ «КПИ» для обеспечения издательско-полиграфической и других отраслей специалистами высокого уровня этой специальности, что вызвано запросами времени

Hypermedia learning and prior knowledge: Domain expertise vs. system expertise

Prior knowledge is often argued to be an important determinant in hypermedia learning, and may be thought of as including two important elements: domain expertise and system expertise. However, there has been a lack of research considering these issues together. In an attempt to address this shortcoming, this paper presents a study that examines how domain expertise and system expertise influence students’ learning performance in, and perceptions of, a hypermedia system. The results indicate that participants with lower domain knowledge show a greater improvement in their learning performance than those with higher domain knowledge. Furthermore, those who enjoy using the Web more are likely to have positive perceptions of non-linear interaction. Discussions on how to accommodate the different needs of students with varying levels of prior knowledge are provided based on the results