How to Help Anyone Use Licensed

Databases

Instructor:

Glenn Johnson-Graugjohnson@lmu.edu

An Infopeople Workshop

Summer/Fall 2006

This Workshop Is Brought to You By the Infopeople Project

Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project supported by the California State Library. It provides a wide variety of training to California libraries. Infopeople workshops are offered around the state and are open registration on a first-come, first-served basis.

For a complete list of workshops, and for other information about the project, go to the Infopeople website at infopeople.org.

Introductions

Introduce yourself to your neighbors Name Library Position Name a database you use and why

you like it

Workshop Overview Library subscription databases

hands-on practice, butfocus on teaching users

How to talk to users about databases Getting the material in a format useful to

the userAcrobat, printing, saving, etc.

New and forthcoming developmentsfederated searching and more

Using Bookmarks in Class

1. Go to: bookmarks.infopeople.org

2. Look for the licensed_databases_bkmk.html file

3. Click on it so it shows on the screen

4. With the class bookmark file showing in Internet Explorer, click the Favorites menu, choose Add to Favorites…

5. Notice the name in the Name: box so that you can use the Favorites list to get back to the class bookmarks for the rest of the day.

Question for the Group

When helping a user with a database, are you giving them a fish or teaching them how to fish?

What Users Think of Us (If At All) OCLC’s Perceptions of Libraries and

Information Resourcessee bookmarks for full report

Awareness of library resources low55% know of online reference works34% know of online periodicals

Usage is lower still27% use online databases annually84% begin with a web search engine

Database Usage in Libraries

Libraries are viewed favorablyboth physical and online presences

Our online resources are “worthwhile” Awareness and usage higher for 14-

17 & 18 to 24-year-olds41% of 18 to 24-year-olds use online

periodicals annually13% of over 65-year-old use them

The good news

People want a “usable answer”- not the best - not the most reliable

They are “satisficing”: working for a minimally acceptable result

What is a Database?

Database organized collection of information

made searchable by computer

Licensed Database database paid for by the library,

made available to usersnot free web resources

How do you learn a new database?

What do you need to know?

Talking About Databases

Users may not understand Library jargon

periodical? serial? abstract? Free web vs. licensed databases Which resources to use

why isn’t there just one database for everything?

Feel the Pain of the User“Most users do not care where the information they need comes from, or who provides it…nor should they have to” – Roy Tennant*

And yet we expect users to:► Know what type of information they want► Navigate library websites and jargon► Deal with the vendors’ brand names► Choose from many databases► Negotiate the un-Google-like interface

*http://infopeople.org/training/webcasts/02-08-05_metasearch.html

Ready for Reference

Friendly, approachable demeanor Active listening Open and neutral questioning Self-verbalization

i.e., thinking out loud Follow-up

“Does this answer your question?”

Reference Using a PC Assess user’s computer skills

make no assumptions Best at user’s workstation

get out from behind the desk and let the user drive

Behind the desk: co-browsingrotate screen to user, orbring user behind desk

Self-verbalizeexplain what you are doing, where you are

going, and why

Article Databases

What is your library’s main general database? EBSCOhost MasterFile

most widely used in public libraries

EBSCOhost platform for databases

links between EBSCOhost products

GaleInfoTrac or OneFile or PowerSearch?

Database Features

How do you explain: It’s Not Google®

boolean operators required Limit by

datepublication titlefull text only

Database Features:Printing & Emailing Results

How do you explain: Print preview? Framed pages? Copying and pasting into Word?

Dealing with Acrobat

Navigationpage by page scrollingjumping to a pagethumbnail pages as navigation toolsearching in documents

Zooming in and outdoes not change print size

tinyurl.com/jh79y

Acrobat Considerations

Printingalways use Acrobat’s print buttonvery important in database interfaces

• Ex. EBSCOhost & Gale

Savinglarge file sizes, particularly color docsusually will not fit on floppy drive

• some email systems may block large files

Reference Databases

This is where it gets trickygreater range of products with greater

number of interfaces• specialized tools

more products = more interfaces = more interface updates

Example:Biography Resource Center

• Gale database with custom interface

E-book Collections

What are e-books? Does your library have e-book

collections? Have you helped patrons use e-

books?

E-book Collections:Library Issues

Tradeoffs: convenient but clunky 24/7 anywhere access / awkward interfaces

Critical mass of titles necessary 80/20 rule: 20% of titles get 80% of use Best when integrated into catalog

rather than another database to search Collections get stale

require weeding

E-book Collections:User Issues

E-books are an alien concept for users.

They require: Practice on the interface level

with ebook reader Explanation of Digital Rights Management

(DRM) Printing, saving, emailing

• i.e. “Why can’t I print the whole book?” Often require an individual user account

personal email account

Federated Searching* AKA Meta or Cross-Database Searching

Search multiple sources simultaneously Simplified search interface Results ranked and (usually) deduped Not meant to replace searching specific

databases when appropriate

*Next two slides adapted from Roy Tennant webcast – See bookmarks

Why Federated Searching?

“Most users do not care where the information they need comes from, or who provides it…nor should they have to”

An interface that minimizes what the user needs to know to get what they want

Examples: WebFeat; MuseGlobalSerials Solutions CentralSearchInnovative Interfaces MetaFind

Group Discussion

How do you or how could you describe federated searching to the public?

New Database Features

Grouping results by subject, type of publicationex. subject terms pulled from resultsEBSCO calls it “clustering” Gale OneFile has similar feature

EBSCO Visual Searchinteractive visual map of results by topic

• Grokker software

Tell us one thing from today that you would

share with staff at your library.