If there's one thing you learn today, let it be this: keywords. Not specific keywords but the idea of them. If you whisper the correct keywords into the algorithm, you will achieve relevance. If you don't achieve relevance on the first try (which is super common), imagine you're an academic with a specialization in a super-niche disciplinary area…

Modern composition instructors often use and teach research methods for Internet search engines and electronic databases. It is not their intent to turn back the clock. However, if they can help students connect the world of Internet searches and the university library, they can promote information literacy in its broadest sense by developing…

Discusses the incorporation of CD-ROM technology into Georgia State University's William Russell Pullen Library, and considers its impact on reference services and bibliographic instruction. Concludes that technology increases the need for critical thinking skills, faculty-librarian interaction, and human resources for reference and technical…

Presents an overview of the library's use of online systems in the areas of library user instruction, query analysis, and public access to library information. (FM)

Describes two conceptual teaching models that facilitate end users' interrogations of online information retrieval systems. These models represent the systems' internal structures and functional outcomes based on the users' experiential frameworks. (16 references) (Author/CLB)

Describes the overall design, content, and use of Chemical Literature Exercises and Resources (CLEAR), a set of materials which introduces students to the chemical literature. Indicates that, overall, student evaluations of the CLEAR materials were very positive. (JN)

Discusses the integration of knowledge and how librarians can help achieve integration through various information access tools. The use of subject headings and descriptors in different indexes is described, the use of specialized tools versus more general tools is discussed, and examples are provided. (Contains nine references.) (LRW)

Describes the attempt by State University of New York at Stony Brook to create a Web page that guides students through researching legislative history. Provides explanations of unfamiliar terms, the library location of needed items, and direct links to important legislative sites. Surveys other similar and related Web pages that have recently been…

Highlights a set of professional competencies that need to be developed by library and information professionals. Topics include collection development skills; collection processing skills, including knowledge analysis, knowledge synthesis, knowledge repackaging, and knowledge retrieval; collection service skills; user education skills; and…

Describes principles underlying the development of guides for electronic indexes such as the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index (CPLI): begin with basic steps, keep it simple, answer questions most frequently asked, be consistent, emphasize search techniques that use the strengths of the index. Includes a copy of the guide for the CPLI on…

Describes several projects that integrate the Internet and specific Internet resources into undergraduate teaching and learning. Problems are discussed, including trying to retrieve specific and useful information, questions of reliability and accuracy of information, the need to become more user friendly, and demands on libraries for training and…

The success of Computer Science Applications 109, Information Retrieval Skills, at Doane College (Nebraska) is the result of a team effort. Until the fall of 1993, the class was taught by a single instructor. During the training of a new librarian, it was discovered that a team approach might benefit the students as well as the library faculty,…

Identifies six successive stages in model of the library research process developed from the findings of study of high school seniors using library for two assigned research papers: initiating research assignment, selecting topic, exploring information, forming focus, collecting information, preparing to present. Assessment of the research process…

Identifies problems inherent in using a "live" database search in initial instruction of online users and discusses the advantages of using prerecorded videocassette database searches as produced by University of California Berkeley's School of Library and Information Studies. A videotape explaining use of the online catalog…

Discusses lifelong learning and the need for information retrieval skills, and describes how Northwest Missouri State University incorporates a heuristic model of library instruction in which students continually evaluate and refine information-seeking practices while progressing through all levels of courses in diverse disciplines. (Author/LRW)