ANSWERING
REFERENCE QUESTIONS
USING EBSCO
DATABASES
Question
#1: Locate a fulltext article on minimal computer skills for
online students or web-based learning.
Analysis: The question requires a fulltext article. This aspect can be accomplished by
indicating fulltext in the search options.
There are actually a number of concepts that have to be covered. The broadest concept is [education] for
which there might be multiple terms used as noted in an earlier Dialog
assignment question. That concept
needs to be narrowed to [online] delivery, again with a number of possible
terms. We need to find articles on
[minimum computer skills] which can actually be divided into three concepts with
several terms each. Finally, we
need this information about [students].
Search Type and
Terms: Since the EBSCO search engine
has limitations on how many keywords it can search at one time and still present
the user with complete results, it will be necessary to perform several separate
searches and then combine them. It is difficult to tell just what the limitation
is, because it is not posted in Help, and it seems to vary with the search topic
(in other words, the size of the set from which the results are being
drawn.) Warnings that all results
had not been recovered were received with only five truncated terms in one
search. EBSCO does automatically
search both [web-based] and [web based] when the hyphenated term is entered, but
it may actually count them two separate terms. The following table presents the various
concepts with alternate terms although it will probably not be necessary to use
all of them to find a single article.
|
educat* |
online |
minim* |
comput* |
skill* |
student* |
|
program* |
web-based |
require* |
tech* |
competenc* |
learn* |
|
course* |
distance |
|
|
literacy |
|
|
class* |
|
|
|
knowledge |
|
|
learning |
|
|
|
|
|
Databases: The most appropriate databases are ERIC, where there
might well be a digest on the subject, and Academic Search Premier. I also follow up with the business
databases to make sure there is not a better article, or one that is not
PDF.
Strategy: There are
so many concepts and sub-concepts, and multiple terms within them, that it will
be necessary to either drop some of them, or perform several searches and
combine them. (The limitations of the EBSCO search engine are described in the
search term section.) Since we are
only looking for one article, searching just a few of the terms might be
effective, but I choose to do multiple searches. After getting error message when trying
to combine all eight of the terms in the first two concepts, I divided even that
into two searches:
(online OR web-based OR distance ) AND (educat* or course* or
class*)
(online OR web-based OR distance) AND (program* or
learning)
S1 and S2 together contain
53,377 results and may of course have duplications.
(minim* or require*) AND (comput* or tech*) AND (skill* or
competence*)
(minim* or require*) AND (comput* or tech*) AND (literacy or
knowledge)
S3 and S4 yield 334 results,
but it becomes apparent that the EBSCO engine does not have the capability to
combine result sets as in Dialog, I resort to searching
the terms from concepts two and three with S1 and S2 separately.
S2 AND (minim* or require*) AND
(comput* or tech*) yields 81 results, one of which has a good discussion of the
topic.
Answer:
The following article provides
a discussion of a study which assessed what computer skills faculty thought
students should possess before attempting online classes, along with a survey of
students to assess which of these skills they actually felt they
had.
Osika, Elizabeth Reed and
Sharp, Douglas P. (2002) Minimum technical competencies for distance
learning students. Journal of Research on Technology in
Education, v. 34, no. 3, Spring 2002,
p.
318, 8p, 3 charts, 1 graph.
Since the full text is a PDF
file, I can not cut and paste it.
It can be access through EBSCO. The following is the author produced
ABSTRACT:
The technical
requirements for students have increased drastically as the use of the Internet
and the World Wide Web has grown as an educational tool. (Mory, Gambill, &
Browning, 1998: Schuster, Collins, Hall, & Griffen, 1999) Without solid technical skills, students
may have trouble succeeding in web-based learning environments. Through a survey
of a faculty at a midsize regional commuter campus in the Midwestern United
States, an inventory has been established of minimum technical competencies
faculty believe students should posses to be successful in Web-based
instruction. Additionally, students
at the same university were surveyed to determine how well they though they met
the minimum competencies outlined by the faculty. What was found confirmed the faculty’s
concerns (L. Hopp, D. Camin, & E. Wignall, personal communication, November
1999) that students often did not possess the technical skills required to be
successful in a Web-based course. (Keywords: academic achievement, computer
literacy, student characteristics.)
-----------------------------------------------------
Question
#2: What is
the U.S. General Services Administration doing to increase opportunities for
small business?
Analysis: The concepts in this question are the [U.S G.S.A.] and
[opportunities] and [small business].
It may or may not be necessary to include [increase] as a
concept.
Type of Search and
Terms: In this case a subject search
may help if available, followed by an Advanced Search. Possible terms are as follows, with the
last term being an optional addition if the other three combined are not
successful. As I understand the
EBSCO search engine strategies, using the complete agency name will result in
all abbreviations being searched as well.
|
( General Services
Administration |
opportunit* |
small
business |
increase* |
|
GSA |
possibilit* |
|
improv* |
Databases: Lacking a
government database in the SCSU collection, Business Source Premier seems the
appropriate choice, but when searching the terms there doesn’t result in a large
number of hits, I add Academic Source Premier, ERIC, and Regional Business News
as well.
Strategy: During the initial search of Business Source Premier, a
thesaurus is available. I search [government agenc*] to see if
there is an appropriate sub-heading for this topic. The thesaurus sends me to
[administrative agencies] but that heading and the exploded results are not
particularly helpful so I return to Advance Search and try [General Services
Administration] which results in.932 hits.
When combining the first three concepts in one search is not very
successful, I search S1 AND [“small business*”] and S1 AND {opportunit*]
separately. These results provide
me with enough information to answer the question.
Answer: The General Services Administration’s presence on the
Internet has helped small businesses in several ways. First, they, along with other
individuals, can bid to purchase government surplus, which may save them money.
(1) Commerce flows in the opposite direction when small businesses bid on
government contracts. This process
is easier on the Internet as well.
The GSA Virtual Store, offers access, forms, and
advice for this process. (2) A move to speed the awarding of contracts can have
both positive and negative affects on small businesses. If awarded a contract, a small business
will begin seeing revenue faster, however, since the
process moves so quickly and requires getting on approval lists, it may pass
small business owners by completely. (3)
Additional assistance to
small business in the contracting process is provided by rules which favor them
in certain areas of commerce. One
example is in the travel industry where certain regions are restricted to small
business contractors only. (4) One article entitled “Ask Uncle Sam, provides a long list of agencies that support small
business efforts. One suggestion is
a link to the GSA’s website. Using this link, a user will find a long article
about the Agency’s focus on small business that begins prominently on the
homepage.
(1) Auctions by other names
(2001) Government Executive, v. 33. no. 6, May
2001 p 3, 4p.
(part of article on subject
below)
--------------------------------------------------------
Question
#3: Locate a picture of
Analysis: If I understand this question correctly, all that is
needed is a picture of
Type of Search and Search
Terms: The most efficient search would
entail going directly to the image collection. The single concept
[
Databases: Any database that offered access to the image collection
would work for this search. Academic Search Premier, the default choice will
work fine. It does have an “image”
button on the top toolbar.
Strategy: I initiate
an image search by clicking on the “Images” button on the main toolbar. Although one can indicate a type of
picture, I search [“
Answer: An image of
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Question
#4: Provide the names and pictures of the last two (not the
present) secretaries of the treasury.
Analysis: To answer this question we need three names and two
pictures. It is necessary to
establish the name of the current secretary of the treasury, and find out when
the term began in order to find the two sought.. It
will be best to use fulltext information. The main concept is [secretary of
treasury]. To find the current one,
2003 publications only can be searched.
Once that name is established, concept one AND [“swear in” or confirm]
will probably find the beginning date of the term. Concept one with the time period
preceding the date just found will produce another name, and the process can be
repeated to find the third name.
When the strategy has revealed both names, they can be searched in the
image collection.
Search Type and Search
Terms: This question will need both
Advanced Searches with date limiting, and Image searches. Terms to search fulltext are as
follows:
S1 [“secretary of treasury”] in
2003 publications
S2 [name from S1] and [“swear
in” or confirm]
(replaced by [senate confirmation])
S3 [“secretary of treasury”] in
6-month period just before date located in S2
S4 [name from S3] and [“swear
in” or confirm]
S5 [“secretary of treasury”] in
6-month period just before date located in S4
S6 [name from S3] in Image
file
S7 [name from S5] in Image
file
Databases: My
first feeling was that Academic Search Premier would be sufficient, but when S1
did not find any results in that database, I added Business Source Premier,
ERIC, and Sociological Abstracts to cover a wide variety of journals for this
information. The Image collection
will be used for the picture search.
Strategy: As
with most searches, things do not proceed exactly as indicated by the analysis
of the question. One must analyze
the results as well. After adding more databases, the first search done for full
text with date restrictions produces 62 results. Unexpectedly, the first page reveals the
names of both the current holder of the office (John Snow) and the one before
that (Paul O’Neill). Proceeding to
the fourth step of the planned search, over 4000 results are retrieved. If this database included a “jump to the
___result” capability, perusing the end of the list (the oldest results) would
probably have been effective, but since it doesn’t a new term is necessary. [senate
confirmation] is suggested by the articles just found, and adding truncation to
[confirm*] will find that as well. It succeeds in bringing up only 3
results. One of them, a January
2001 article announces the confirmation of Paul O’Neill.
Proceeding to step five of the planned search, concept one with a Jun-Dec
2000 restriction produces an article only 3 months before O’Neill’s confirmation
hearings that names the Secretary of the Treasury as Lawrence Summers. Searching the Image file, Paul O’Neill
turns up immediately, particularly if one remembers to use “any word”
search. Lawrence Summers, however,
proves hard to find. Remembering
that the search terms must be found in the picture caption, I try various
things. After using the “Any Word” search for [Lawrence
Summers], [Secretary of the Treasury]. [U.S. Secretary of the Treasury],
and [
Answer: A
recently appointed John Snow is the present Secretary of the Treasury. Paul O’Neill was appointed when George
W. Bush took office and resigned in December 2002. Lawrence Summers preceded
him. Multiple pictures of O’Neill
are in the EBSCO database. The file
containing one of them is submitted with this document. Although Summers could not be located in the EBSCO Image Collection,
Google offers multiple photos.
Citations are below for the articles used to establish the names and
dates in this answer.
The
current Secretary of the Treasury was confirmed as John Snow in several
articles. The citation for one is
as follows:
Worldsources, Inc. pub. (2003) U.S. Senate panel approves Snow as treasury
chief. XINHUA,
The
beginning of O’Neill’s term was confirmed with the following article:
Blackwell, Rob and Garver, Rob. (2001) O’Neill,
no. 12, p.
4.
The Secretary of the Treasury
at the end of
Worldsource,
Inc. pub. (2000)
China-U.S. Joint Economic Committee Meets in
----------------------------------------
Question
#5: Provide a full text article that discusses Print Vs. Electronic formats of Reference tools decisions by
libraries.
Analysis: Again, full text can be handled by search
limitations. The other concepts are
[library], [reference tools] which I believe can be shortened to [reference] for
the purposes of this search. Since
there are many different kinds of [decisions] in reference [aqui* or puchas* or buy* or collection*] will more precisely find the
information desired. Since [print
vs. electronic] may be difficult as a search term, [format] will narrow the
results to at least those in which this aspect of the process is
mentioned.
Search Type and Search
Terms: Again, an advanced fulltext
search is needed. Terms are as
follows:
|
library* |
reference |
acqui* |
format* |
|
|
|
buy* |
|
|
|
|
collection* |
|
|
|
|
purchas* |
|
Databases: For this search, Academic Search Premier, Business
Search Premier, and ERIC will be sufficient, but I often also add Sociological
Abstracts and PsychINFO to library science searches.
Strategy: To avoid problems with number of keyword limits, I
choose to search the first three concepts and then add the last concept to the
results. librar* AND reference AND (aqui* or purchas* or buy*
or collection*) yield 678 results.
Adding
[format] reduces this number to 18. At least two of the recent articles
would meet the criteria of the question. I choose the longest one, with the most
references, and a comprehensive look at the evolution of format
decision-making. Though it focuses
on academic libraries, I think the principals discussed apply to any
library.
Answer: There are at least two good recent articles. Both of those are pulled from the ERIC
database. The most extensive
article is one that focuses on academic libraries, but the principals can apply
to any library. It has 73
references that could be checked as well.
The citation is as follows:
Miller, Ruth H. (2000) Electronic sources and academic libraries, 1990-2000: a historical perspective. Library Trends, v.48,
no. 4, Spring 2000, p.645-70.