INFO LITERACY

Everything You Probably Didn’t Think You Needed to Know about

Gathering Information

Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION• What is info literacy?

GETTING STARTED• Defining your topic

USING DATABASES• Opening the Database• Limiting Your Results• Selecting Tabs• Spot Reading• Evaluating Sources

RECORDING• Recording Facts and Info• Recording for Citation

Purposes

USING SEARCH ENGINES• Using Search Engines• Limiting Your Results (again)• Spot Reading (again)• Evaluating Sources (again)

• Sources

INTRODUCTION

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE INFORMATION LITERATE?

Information literacy is• knowing how to find and how to use information.

It concerns how people answer these questions: • When do I need to seek new information?• Where and how do I find new information?• How do I know if the new information is useful

for my purpose?• How do I use the new information I found?

WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT INFO LITERACY?

What Good Information Gathering looks like:

• 6 basic steps1. Defining your topic2. Looking in a general information source3. Looking in a source that is specific to the subject4. Looking in sources that have differing points of

view on the subject5. Looking at magazine and newspaper articles on

the subject6. Searching the internet of websites on the subject

1. DEFINING TOPICSTEP ONE:

For one minute, list everything you know about CEREAL.

What did you list?

You might have listed • Types of cereal• What some cereals are made of• When its eaten

• Over the course of your life, you have stuffed a lot of knowledge in your brain.

• Have you ever had to look up information for a project at school?

• It’s likely that you already knew something about it, either from what you had learned in class or from what you had figured out on your own.

• When you begin gathering information, you always have to begin with figuring out what you already know on the topic

• This is the first step in gathering information: gathering knowledge you have stored in your brain

• One easy way to start the information gathering process is to use a KWL chart. It looks like this:

• You will complete one of these charts as you practice the information gathering process.

• The “K” column is useful because you can save time if you can identify what information is already known

• The “W” column is important, too. Why do you think so?

• It’s important because good researchers have a plan for what kinds of information they need to find.

• If you know what things you need to know, you can save time because you’ll know when you have all the information you need.

• One of the best places to look when figuring out what you need to know is to look at the guidelines for an assignment.

• Look at the things the teacher wants you to know or do for a project to guide you in filling out the “W” column.

• Also, the “W” column is for you to put any questions you have on the topic, or areas you don’t know.

• For this task, you will need to find out information about __________.

• On the KWL chart provided to you, please take 5 minutes and brainstorm everything you know about the topic.

2. Opening the Database

•You are about to be shown the key to information about any topic you could have interest in.

•With this tool you will be able to retrieve information on topics of interest focusing around school related material, life related material, and just about anything worth knowing more about.

•Do you think your ready?

•You do realize the impact that this is going to have in your life and study don’t you? Maybe you should take a few moments to prepare yourself.

•When you think your ready go ahead and click to the next slide.

The Tool to Knowledge

DATABASES ARE THE TOOLS TO KNOWLEDGE!

DATABASES•Databases as shown on the slide before provide information from credible sources that Google and other search engines can not guarantee.

•Academic databases such as INFohio and its numerous databases are structured by age level guaranteeing you that the information provided will be relevant to your age and to your educational level.

•Did you know that Google only searches about 1/3 of the sources available on the internet? That means your missing 2/3 of information sources that might be relevant to your topic of interest!

But your so use to using Google and have no clue how to open these databases. Don’t Worry! The following slides will show you how to open the databases and how using a database is similar to using Google!

features That Search Engines and Databases

have in Common

Search Box/Bar: User types in topic here, hits search, and receives best-matching information to topic.

Google Search Box/Bar…doesn’t it look very similar to the search bar in the database? (The answer here is yes and guess what it works just like the Google search box/bar!

Toolbars: Provides additional functions in which to enhance the search

Ex: Browse Science Resources (blue arrow above) allows for user to search topic according to diagrams, experiments, timelines, and videos and animation.

Google toolbarGoogle toolbar Google toolbar

Though the items/words in the database toolbars may be different than Google’s toolbar the setup and purpose of them is very much the same.

Advanced Search: Allows for user to specify what type of search to be performed on a given topic. Allows user to limit the return of search results.

Ex: Can limit results by type of source (Video), date of publication of results, etc.

Google Advanced Search

Just as with the search bar/box and toolbars, the Advanced Search feature in the databases is eerily similar to the Advanced Search feature you will find in Google! OHHH that’s scary!

Example of a Advanced search page

By Date of Publication

By type of source

By wording (more about this later!)

Advanced Search Pages are very similar in all databases and Search Engines. Most of them will give you the option to search by wording, date of the source, and type of source.

Opening a Database

The next slides will orally tell you and demonstrate how to open a database.

How to Open a Database(Orally)

• Enter web address into web address bar (ex: www.infohio.org) or select INFohio icon on computer desktop.

• Choose “Resources for Grades 9-12” on homepage.• Choose content-specific database related to topic or

interest.– Ex: Science Online, Literature Online

• Enter username/password to gain access to the database.– Username: think Password: infohio

Demonstration of opening a database

Enter web address into web address bar (ex: www.infohio.org) or select INFohio icon on computer desktop.

Choose “Resources for Grades 9-12” on homepage.

Choose content-specific database related to topic or interest.– Ex: Science Online, Literature Online

Enter username/password to gain access to the database.– Username: think Password: infohio

• That doesn’t sound to hard now does it?• Good news is sometimes when you enter

a username and password for one database and then go to another database you don’t have to reenter the information! (Yepee)

Time to Practice• The practice exercises for this section are

located in the student manual.• Please refer to the student manual now to

perform the practices exercises for this section.

• Once the practice exercises are completed please move on to the next section in the instruction.

3. Limiting results: Boolean operators, drop down menus, and advanced search feature tabs!

I CAN’T FIND ANYTHING ON THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES? ARGH, I

QUIT! •I’ve been searching for 15 minutes and have not found one result related to my topic of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.

•Just look at my search results to the left. Not one of them is about the baseball team.

•I typed in the word “pirates” in the search box but all I get back is irrelevant results.

•It’s not worth my time…I QUIT!

HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?

1. Has the scenario on the previous page ever happened to you?

2. Have you ever searched for something and haven’t been able to find relevant material to your topic?

3. Have you ever just wasted time searching for a topic that you swear does not exist?

• If you answered “yes” to any of the questions above don’t feel bad. Everyone has experienced this same scenario at least once in their lives!

• Don’t worry though…these days are over! The following slides are going to provide you with the tools you need in order to combat this problem from ever happening again!

WORDS AND SYMBOLS THAT WILL HELP YOU IN

YOUR INTERNET SEARCHES!

What are the meaning of these words? how do they

relate to searches?• “And”-Used to connect words, phrases, or

clauses TOGETHER in a sentence.• “Or”-Used to connect words, phrases, or

clauses together as ALTERNATIVES in a sentence.

• “Not”-Used to DISCONNECT words, phrases, or clauses together in a sentence.

They work the same way in sentences as they do in

internet searches!• Just as you use “and” “or” “not” in sentences

you can also use them in search bars to limit results, increase results, or receive more relevant returns on your searches! – The use of these words in internet searches is

called “BOOLEAN OPERATORS”! (Remember This)

Boolean Operators and other symbols that help limit results in internet

searches?• Boolean Operators- “And”, “Or”, “Not”

– Searches by the relationship between words or group of words. (as mentioned in the previous slide)

• “ ”-Searches for phrases as a unit• ( )-Searches phrases that go together• *-Will search for all words that begin with the

same word stem

Disclaimer for The boolean operator:

not• Most search engines and databases will recognize the

Boolean Operators “And” and “Or” but some do not recognize “Not”.

• So if you but the word “not” into your search and it doesn’t provide you with the results you want don’t fret!

• Most search engines and databases offer a feature called Advanced Search (mentioned in Opening databases slide) that allow you to apply the Boolean Operator “Not” along with the other two. (More on this in a few slides!)

Example of Boolean Operators used in a search

bar

This user is searching for information about George Washington the president. So the user used the Boolean Operator “And” in order to limit their returns to results that have to have information about George Washington and President in them.

The results please!•By using the Boolean Operator “And” this searcher was able to limit his/her results to include both George Washington and President.

•Boolean Operators can be used in almost all search engines and databases.

•Most Advanced Search features in search engines and databases are set up in a Boolean Operator way.

Here is a YouTube Demonstration of Boolean

Operators with Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich that will enchance your understanding of them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfvDPpnV0Pg

DROP DOWN MENUS AND HOW THEY WORK

A DROP DOWN MENU IS EXACTLY WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE.

ITS PURPOSE IS TO GIVE YOU MORE OPTIONS RELATED TO A

CERTAIN TOPIC OR WORD.

THINK OF A DROP DOWN MENU AS YOU WOULD WHEN YOU

ORDER FOOD FROM CHIPTOLE!

Drop Down Menus and Chipotle’s menu. WHAT?

• Think of how you order food from Chipotle when thinking of how drop down menus work. – First: Choose what you want. Ex: Burrito, Taco, or Salad– Second: Drop down to what type of meat you want. Ex:

Chicken, Steak, Barbacoa– Third: Drop down to what type of salsas or toppings you

want. Ex: Mild salsa, lettuce, sour cream – Finally: Drop down to choose drink. Ex: Water

• Drop Down Menus work exactly the same way as ordering food from Chipotle!– First: Either click on item/word or put cursor over

item/word and a group of words will drop down.– Second: Move cursor over one of the items/word

that drops down and click item/word to access it.– Third: You will then be redirected to the page

relevant to your choice. Your Burrito is done!

Example of Drop Down Menu

This user put their cursor over “Resources” first (Green Arrow) and then the drop down menu opened up with options for Archives/Library, Education Services, Local History, etc. (Yellow Arrow)

ADVANCED SEARCH FEATURES

THE ADVANCED SEARCH FEATURES HELP ENHANCE YOUR SEARCH AND PROVIDES YOU WITH MORE RELEVANT RESULTS ON

YOUR SEARCHES !

MOST ADVANCED SEARCH FEATURE OFFER THREE MAIN OPTIONS (ALONG

WITH OTHERS) TO ENHANCE YOUR SEARCH:

1. SEARCH USING BOOLEAN OPERATORS

2.SEARCH BY DATE OF PUBLICATION 3. SEARCH BY TYPE OF SOURCE

WHAT THE THREE MAIN ADVANCED SEARCH OPTIONS MEAN !

1. SEARCH USING BOOLEAN OPERATORS-ALLOWS YOU TO APPLY BOOLEAN OPERATORS WITHOUT ACTUALLY USING THE WORDS IN THE SEARCH BOX TO PROVIDE YOU WITH MORE RELEVANT RESULTS. (HERE IS WHERE YOU CAN APPLY THE IDEA OF THE BOOLEAN OPERATOR: NOT)

2.SEARCH BY DATE OF PUBLICATION -ALLOWS YOU TO SEARCH FOR RESULTS ACCORDING TO WHEN THE ARTICLE OR PAGE WAS PUBLISHED.

3. SEARCH BY TYPE OF SOURCE-ALLOWS YOU TO SEARCH FOR RESULTS ACCORDING TO TYPE OF SOURCE. EX: PICTURES, VIDEOS, NEWSPAPER ARTICLES, ETC.

Disclaimer for The advanced search feature

• Not all search engines and databases have the advanced search feature but most of them do.

• Wording and structure of the advanced search feature are often different per database and search engine but for the most part they will have the three main options mentioned before.

• Most advanced search features will offer more options than the three mentioned before but this is a good think because it gives you more options to enhance your search….SO EXPLORE!

Example of a Advanced search page

By Date of Publication

By type of source

By wording (This is where you can apply the Boolean Operators functions such as “not”)

Advanced Search Pages are very similar in all databases and Search Engines. Most of them will give you the option to search by wording, date of the source, and type of source.

Back to the Pittsburgh pirates search

• Do you remember how frustrated the person was searching for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team in the search engine?

• Lets try that search again using the Boolean Operator “and” in the phrase “Pittsburgh and Pirates” to see if we get more relevant results.

Ahhhh it’s a miracle!

By just adding the Boolean Operator “and” our searcher from the beginning was able to find relevant sources to his/her topic and save loads of time!

If you use Boolean Operators and other symbols or features mentioned in this instruction to enhance your search you too could save loads of time and find sources that are relevant to your topic!

TIME TO APPLY WHAT YOU LEARNED!

Take the topics in the following slides in the handout and use what you have learned to find relevant results from the searches.

Then do the Drop Down Menu and Advanced Search feature exercises also located in the handout.

Time to Practice• The practice exercises for this section are

located in the student manual.• Please refer to the student manual now to

perform the practices exercises for this section.

• Once the practice exercises are completed please move on to the next section in the instruction.

4. Spot reading

Spot Reading

Have you ever been assigned a research project and had to find relevent information among a million pages?

How did you know what information to use?

Would you like those three days you spent reading back?

Learning how to spot read can save you time during any sort of research…• School projects• On-line shopping• Internet searches on

celebreties, how electronics work or even seeing who mentioned you in their facebook pages

• Spot reading is like highighting – you only read the important words.

• Look for key words.

• Look for key phrases.

• Looks for words with odd letters or combination of letters.

• You already know an article has an introduction paragraph. If your topic is not in there, why read the entire article?

• If the introduction paragraph looks promising, look to see if the article is divided into sections. You may only need to read one or two sections.

Practice this skill whenever you read:

• Textbooks• Magazines• On-line articles• Newspapers• Instruction manuals

The more you practice, the more time you will save for the fun things in life!

5. Evaluating Sources

Evaluating SourcesThis was found on the internet:

"There is strong evidence that extreme low frequency (ELF) and radio frequency microwaves (RF/MW) are associated with accelerated aging, enhanced cell death and cancer, bad moods, depression, suicide, anger, rage and violence, primarily through alteration of cellular calcium ions and the melatonin/serotonin balance." - Dr. Neil Cherry, Lincoln University, New Zealand

It came from: http://www.geocities.com/northstarzone/PHONES.html

Is it true?

No

Do you feel betrayed or lied to?Did you ever get caught up in a rumor?

Some people make a living out of starting urban legends. Some people make a living out of ending urban legends. Have you ever heard of MythBusters?

Not only do they prove things wrong, they get to blow stuff up too!

How do you know if the information is real or credible? You don’t have the Mythbusters

budget?

You have to answer a few basic questions…

1. Does it make sense?

2. Do other sources support the information?

3. Who owns the website? Have you ever heard of them?

4. Is it a .net, .org, .com, .gov or .edu?

5. Does it even matter where the information came from?

• You can decide if the information makes sense.

• You know the source of information is important.

• You can even find other websites to support or disprove the information.

• If you search the home page you can find who owns the website.

• Next check the web site extention:

.net = network (usually internet service providers)

.org = organization – often nonprofit (but nonprofit doesn’t always mean trustworthy)

.com = commercial (for profit)

.gov = government

.edu = education

.edu & .gov are good sources

.net & .org are ok sources – you need to decide

.com may or may not be a good source – you need to decide

But how?

What comes before the .com, .net or .org is also important.

It tells you the website owners name.You can research the owner to find out more if

you are still unsure.

http://www.geocities.com/northstarzone/PHONES.html

Have you ever hear of geocites?

.com means this company is trying to make money. What do they want you to buy?

What is northstarzone? Who knows?

Notice this is in CAPS to get your attention.

Bottom line?

Are you comfortable with the source or does something

just not feel right?

6. Recording facts and info

Recording information

Did you know writing notes is a form of study skills?

It involves writing, reading and your brain switching between the two!

Have you ever seen a 5th grader highlight information?

How can you pick out important information if everything is highlighted? Taking notes is just like highlighting.

You probably already know somethings

about your topic.

Should you hightlight those?

No.

You already know how paragraphs are formed:

TS, EX, SSTopic SentenceExamplesSummary Sentence

So if you highlight PART of the topic sentence will you know what the rest of the paragraph is about?

What parts of speech are important?

Nouns? Conjunctions?Adverbs? Pronouns?Prepositions? Verbs?Adjectives?

What parts of speech are important?

Can you abbreviate in your notes?

Yes!

Do you need complete sentences?

No!

Can you use diagrams or sketches?

Yes!

Does spelling count?

No way!

How would you highlight these sentences if you were looking for information on our new president:

• Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British.

• Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression, and then signed up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton's army. Her mother went to work on a bomber assembly line, and after the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and moved west to Hawaii.

• Barack's father eventually returned to Kenya, and Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii, and for a few years in Indonesia. Later, he moved to New York, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1983.

Is what you highlighted new information?

Is what you highlighted facts?

What parts of speech did you highlight?

How does this look? Any better?• Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. His father, Barack

Obama Sr., was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his own father, who was a domestic servant to the British.

• Barack's mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs during the Depression, and then signed up for World War II after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton's army. Her mother went to work on a bomber assembly line, and after the war, they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and moved west to Hawaii.

• Barack's father eventually returned to Kenya, and Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii, and for a few years in Indonesia. Later, he moved to New York, where he graduated from Columbia University in 1983.

Now isn’t this one much better?

Your notes are for YOU to remember what you read and a place for YOU to make

connections. What you write is up to you.

7. Recording for citation purposes

• Have you ever had someone steal your idea and use it like it was theirs all along?

• The reason it’s so exasperating is because someone’s ideas and their words belong to the person

• Taking those words or ideas is a big NO-NO. It’s called plagiarism.

• Let’s say a student named Eric had to do a project on Ancient Romans. He looked up information on-line and found facts on wikipedia and a great site called AncientRome.com. He put all of the information he found in his project and turned it into the teacher.

• And then he got an F.

• Why? He didn’t cite his sources. The teacher said he had cheated because he didn’t say where the information he found came from.

• Why?

• He didn’t cite his sources. The teacher said he had cheated because he didn’t say where the information he found came from.

• Now Eric didn’t mean to cheat. It was an accident. But it doesn’t change the fact that he completed his project incorrectly.

• So what should Eric have done?

• He should have kept track of where he went when he gathered information and what information he used

• He needed to make a list of works cited entries at the end of his project. They look like this: (next slide)

• What’s important about citing your sources is that it protects you. When you cite sources, you protect yourself from cheating by telling your teacher what ideas were yours, and what ideas and words you are borrowing from other people.

• When you gather information, you want to keep track of where you got the info

• Recording that info is pretty easy to do. You need to know a couple of basic things: – The title of the source– The author of the source– The publication information for the source

• There are certain rules to follow to cite the information properly, but that’s for another lesson.

• As you gather information you can chart the citation information in a chart like this:

8. Using a Search Engine

• See if you can answer these questions…

1.When was the first search engine created? 2.How does Google decide what sites should

show up first? 3.How many search engines make up 80% of all

search engine traffic?

• Answers:

• 1. 1990 (probably before you were born!)• 2. Google decides what links you see first by

ranking the sites by how many other sites link to that one. So your first links are popular because other sites linked to it.

• 3. Only 4!

• You are probably pretty comfortable in searching the internet using a search engine. But that doesn’t mean that you are using it to maximize your results

• When you go to a search engine—which one do you choose? Yahoo? Google? Ask? MSN? Or another one?

• The problem is, that each search engine gives you different results—there are so many different sites out there on a topic, that only one search engine will give you only a sampling of websites.

• That’s why a good internet search will utilize three different search engines—the most popular ones: Google, Ask, and Yahoo (GAY)

• Insert as many slides as you need for this cluster

• Insert as many slides as you need for this cluster

Recommendations: Always use those Boolean operators! See how the number of links drops dramatically:

• The fewer links you get from a search, the better

• Look for what links are similar• But explore unique ones that each site

provides

Boolean Operators

Use this bar if you need to search only .edu, .com, or .org sites

ESTABLISHING ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

STEP TWO:

CONTENT-SPECIFIC DATABASES

STEP THREE:

DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW

STEP FOUR:

SERIAL PUBLICATIONSSTEP FIVE:

SEARCHING THE INTERNET

STEP SIX:

Sources

• Infolit.org• http://www.dianahacker.com/pdfs/Hacker-

Daly-MLA-WC.pdf