Finding information online
Information literacy lecture
Delivered by Dr. U. D. Onuoha
• Surrounded by too much
information
• Beyond what we can process
• “Information explosion”,
“Information overabundance”, “information
overload”, “Infobesity”.
• Consequence= distraction
Develop a focused search strategy
Be specific about your information
need
• Too broad
• University education in Nigeria
• More specific
• Funding university education in
Nigeria
Use of keywords
“comparison of information seeking using search engines and social
networks” might be broken down into:
• Information seeking
• Use of search engines
• Social networks
Phrase searching
Retrieves two or more words only when they appear next to each other
as a phrase.
• use quotation marks around the phrase, e.g. "higher education"
• Use phrase searching with care: searching for a phrase could also
eliminate useful records. For example, a search for "language teaching"
may not find the words "teaching of language".
Link search terms/keywords with AND (+)
eg: soccer and injury
Use OR when there are alternative terms to describe
your topic.
• e.g. woman or female, or when you are interested in
either term
• e.g. knee or ankle. Records will be retrieved if either
(or both) term is present.
Practical example
Topic: Effect of television violence on young adults (focused topic)
Step 1: Pull out the key words or major concepts
• EXAMPLE: television violence young adults
Step 2: Create a list of synonyms
• Television: TV, movies, cartoons, news.
• Violence: guns, murder, rape, gangs, war.
• Young adults: teenagers, adolescents, teens, youth.
Step 3: Use and (+) (or) where applicable
• (television OR TV OR cartoons OR news) AND (violence OR guns OR murder)
AND (teenagers OR youth OR adolescents)
Step 4: Use phrase searching to tighten your search
• “Television violence” + (teenagers or young adults) where you want the
exact phrase “television violence” to appear in your search
• Using any topic of your choice do a
web search using the strategies
discussed
• To what extent is your search result
improved?
•Know your sources
Encyclopedias for basic understanding of topics
Dissertation/Projects
http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/search.html
• Using any subject of your choice,
download a dissertation/project
Books
• http://www.doabooks.org/
• Using any subject of your choice,
download a book
Journal articles (academic source) @ https://scholar.google.com/
A search for challenges of education in Nigeria using Google scholar
• Using Google scholar find the
latest articles on insurgency in
Nigeria
Lecture notes
• Take advantage of open courseware (OCW)
• Course lessons created at universities and published for free via the
internet
• http://www.nou.edu.ng/NOUN_OCL/
open courseware
Other sites
https://www.oercommons.org/
http://sharecourseware.org/
• Using any open courseware
of your choice, download a
lecture note in your field of
study
Make use of open libraries
elibrary USA @ https://nigeria.usembassy.gov/
The British Library is not left out @http://ethos.bl.uk/Home.do
• Register with an open
library