User Education & Teaching Myself: A Library Tutorial

Şemsa Olşen Güzeldere, Gönül Baysal, Dilek Rendeci, Feryal Öcal

Middle East Technical University Library

ABSTRACT This poster reports on a collaborative effort

undertaken between METU reference librarians and Janet Lamki, a subject librarian for the Institute of Health and Community Studies in the Bournemouth University to develop an online tutorial for first year students. When new technology has become so embedded in library services, most of the students do not know how to find and use the library electronic resources, online OPAC and information on the WEB in general. The main goals of this tutorial are to increase user knowledge of library resources, to help our user become effective information seekers and able to find and evaluate information efficiently and effectively. In this poster presentation, we will review the objectives of the project, its design and instructional content, WEB implementation.

INTRODUCTION METU Library was selected as a pilot for

“Performance Budgeting” project initiated & supported by the World Bank and Ministry of Finance of Turkey. Our Goals, which are related with this project, are to give better service to our users and equip them with the tools needed for a proactive role in their education and for lifelong learning.

Students enter university with little knowledge of basic library tools, procedures or terminology. The result is that the vast majority of new students are handicapped in a stressful environment.

In order to guide the students, the reference librarians at METU Library:

• Organize library orientation tours• Prepare library instruction• Prepare course-related instruction • Prepare special instruction• Prepare library instruction materials

PROBLEM

• The current instructional methods that do not allow the user to master electronic resources and library research methodologies in a self-paced manner

• Rapid changes in technology• Limited number of reference librarians• Limited time and place

OBJECTIVE

• To increase user knowledge of library resources

• To help user become effective information seekers

• Able to find and evaluate information efficiently and effectively

METHOD

To over come the problems and achive the objectives:

Firstly, reference librarians in Information Services and Periodicals Department worked together with Janet Lamki, a subject librarian for the Institute of Health and Community Studies in the Bournemouth University. First we made a brainstorm about what we do in the user education, what kind of information must be in the tutorial, how can we made the tutorial interactive and understandable. Then we determined the schema of the tutorial. And then we gave a name to it called Teaching Myself: A Library Tutorial which contains 7 modules. Finally, we developed the content for the tutorial.

Secondly, we prepared guides and descriptions of the electronic resources in collaboration with members of Anatolian University Libraries Consortium (ANKOS) which has licensed 28 online databases and has 78 members.

Analysing and Finding Information

• Identifying your topic, keywords, synonyms and related words

• Identifying the type of information

• Identifying search strategies and other search hints

• Understanding the reading list

• Finding databases, e-journals, books, and other materials related with your topics

Using METU Catalog (OPAC)

• What it does contain? And what it doesn’t?

• Screen shots of demo search on Web METU Catalogue

• Demo books and journals search show search techniques

Using Electronic Resources

• What is an e-journal?

• What is a database?

• Understanding the types of different databases

• Demonstrations of e-journal and databases

• Basic search techniques

• Finding out articles from full- text and bibliographic databases

General Information About METU Library

• Library opening hours, photocopy service, getting help

• Learning about library rules and policy

• Learning the types of materials held in METU Library

• Layout of the library and web site search

Finding Web Sites

• The types of search engines

• Evaluation criteria for web sites

Finding Other Types of Information

• Finding patents

• Finding standards

• Finding newspapers

• Finding maps

• Finding thesis

• Finding audio-visual materials

TEAM Lead Person: Şemsa Olşen GüzeldereRole: Overall project co-ordination

Team Members: Gönül Baysal, Feryal Öcal, DilekRendeci, Cevat GüvenRole: Autorship of modules, reportingto lead person

Web Author:Köksal Yücesoy Role: Web authering and advise,reporting to lead person, liaising withother team members

CITATIONS & PLAGIARISM

• Citations

• Plagiarism

CONCLUSION

• Develop their skills as an independent self-paced learner

• Identify and locate library resources using the OPAC

• Know how to analyse and find information

• Search and evaluate Internet resources for research

• Learn how to find journal articles from databases and e-journal collections