🚀 go-pugleaf

Jo-Ann,
My feeling is that keeping the amount of material you present in an introductory
 class to a minimum is an excellent idea. We usually teach classes that are only
 two hours long, and only demonstrate one subject directory and one search
 engine and one metasearch engine.  After each demonstration we have time for
 hands on.  When we present the participants with the search engine chart, it is
 to let them know how to access some of the many other search engines, if and
 when they want to do this later, on their own time.  That is why we find the
 chart so useful--it saves us from having to demonstrate too much in one
 session, but we feel
better being able to send them away with the additional information we didn't
 have time to go into.

-Jan Alexander

Jo-Ann Benedetti wrote:

> Janet (et al)
>
> I like your charts, and know that a lot of time and effort went into them.  I
 also use charts, and I get a lot of positive feedback about my chart....but I
 think I'm going about it the wrong way.
>
> My outline USED to go something like this:
>
> 1.  explain what a search engine is
> 2.  describe the limits of a search engine (what is indexed, what is not)
> 3.  define the following terms (with examples) on the board
> boolean
> +/- syntax
> phrase searching
> proximity operators
> field searching
> case sensitivity
> truncation
>
> 4.  start the hands on portion:
>
> How to find a site
>
> 1.  educated guess  (www.merck.com;  www.harvard.edu)
> 2.  Yahoo (then I describe what it is, that humans index it....yadda yadda) &
 we search a broad topic like "pediatric surgery"
> 3.  briefly mention Inktomi (doing a specific search on Yahoo (like pyloric
 stenosis) throws you into Intktomi's huge db, but results are not ranked &
 often irrelevant)
> 4.  Go to Alta Vista simple search (demonstrate +/-, phrase, field searching,
 ) then to advanced search for Boolean and proximity
> 5.  go to Excite (demonstrate boolean with AND, OR and reiterate phrase
 searching) show advanced search drop-downs quickly
> 6.  go to Infoseek (demonstrate +/- again, reiterate phrase searching)
> 7.  go to Northern Light (you can use +/- or Boolean, truncation, phrase
 searching
> 8.  go to Hot Bot to briefly discuss stop words, demonstrate drop downs.
>
> Doing it this way, the students LOVED the chart, because it kept them
 straight.  (Let's see, plus/minus syntax in Infoseek, but Boolean in
 Excite...oh yes, it has to be in uppercase)  I just don't think they are
 learning the concepts, and I think they end up confused a week later.
>
> (as Sean said: "if you are trying to impart some valuable take-away
> strategy to casual users in a brief show-and-tell type session, there
> may not be time to effectively teach separate techniques and query
> language quirks for each SE (at least not anything an audience will
> remember next week).")
>
> This, I think, has been my mistake.  I'm thinking of telling them less about
 the quirks of each engine, and just focusing on what the engines have in
 common.  By the way, my audience is medical students, physicians, nurses,
 medical staff, biomedical researchers, and administrators (secretaries, clerks,
 temps, )  They are, for the most part, impatient about getting results....they
 don't care that AltaVista and ask Jeeves have partnered so that queries will go
 through an "AskJeeves"  even if you don't want them to.  No, just tell them how
 to find clinical practice guidelines for the management of type II diabetes.
 Skip the fluff.
>
> Anyway, I know this is long, but I need to revamp, and I know that many of you
 have great courses you're offering.
> I enjoy hearing how the rest of you are doing this....when I revise the course
 I'll send out the outline.
>
> Jo-Ann
>
> Jo-Ann Benedetti
> Education and Technology Librarian
> Albany Medical College
> benedej@mail.amc.edu
> 518-262-6058