BINDURA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION LIBRARY INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT

Transcription

1 BINDURA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION LIBRARY INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT INFORMATION LITERACY SKILLS TRAINING

2 Foreword This training module was developed using the American Library Association (ALA) information literacy skills (ILS) standards and the Eastern Cape Higher Education Association (ECHEA) benchmarks on ILS. The course is designed in such a way that the reader would independently learn step by step the necessary skills and knowledge with regards to ILS. It is expected that at the end of the course, the reader would be information literate. By this we mean that after going through all the sections of this course, the reader is expected to: 1. Define his or her information need; 2. Find the needed information; 3. Evaluate the information s/he would have found; 4. Appreciate economic, legal, ethical and social issues surrounding the use of information; and, 5. Effectively communicate the information s/he has. It must be noted that information literacy skills are not just necessary for academic purposes; the skills are highly necessary for lifelong survival. The course is split into the sections as follows: Introduction Unit 1 defining your information need; Unit 2 finding the required information; Unit 3 evaluating the information found; Unit 4 using information legally and ethically; and, Unit 5 communicating information effectively.

3 Introduction Definition of information literacy There are many definitions of information literacy. Theories have also been developed on this concept. We are going to concentrate on two definitions of information literacy before we move on to highlight the key aspects expected from an information literate individual. The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) defined information literacy as knowing when and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and communicate it in an ethical manner. (CILIP 2011). Others defined information literacy as a new liberal art that extends from knowing how to use computers and access information to critical reflection on the nature of information itself, its technical infrastructure, and its social, cultural and even philosophical context and impact (Shapiro & Shelley 1996). According to Information literacy competency standards for higher education of the Association of College and Research Libraries (2000), an information literate individual is able to: Determine the extent of information needed; Access the needed information effectively and efficiently Evaluate information and its sources critically; Incorporate selected information into one s knowledge base; Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose; and, Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally. Information literacy in not just important for you to be a competent library user but it is a lifelong skill that everyone ought to have. We are living in an information economy (or knowledge economy) in which information plays a pivotal role. Information literacy skills training is fast becoming a trend in many academic institutions the world over. In some institutions it is conducted on a one-on-one basis while in others it is conducted in groups. In some situations, it is part of the library s user orientation programme whereas in others it is done at a later stage during the course of the academic programme. Some libraries, particularly university, college and research libraries have developed intensive training programmes which include an examination at the end. University libraries, in particular, have gone to an extent of incorporating ILS training in the curriculum. Zimbabwean university libraries offer ILS as an examinable component of communication skills, introduction to computers or some other related course offered by the university. At Bindura University of Science Education, ILS is offered as part of Communication Skills, a course done university-wide by all first year undergraduate students. This ILS training shall have five units which are: Unit 1 defining your information need; Unit 2 finding the required information; Unit 3 evaluating the information found; Unit 4 using information legally and ethically; and, Unit 5 communicating information effectively After going through these five units, one is expected to be an information literate individual. It is also anticipated that such an individual would be in a position to successfully sit for the ILS examination.

4 To make the learning of the skills easy, some self check activities will be posed intermittently in each unit. In addition to that, each unit shall have a summary of key concepts covered so that the reader can do a self assessment at the end of each unit.

5 References Association of College and Research Libraries (2000) Information literacy competency standards for higher education. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. (2011). Information literacy: definition. [WWW document]. URL 1 June Shapiro, J.J. & Shelley K.H. (1996). Information Literacy as a Liberal Art. Educom Review, 31, (2) (Mar/Apr).

6 Unit 1 Defining your information need Just like in our daily lives where a problem cannot be properly solved unless it is fully understood, the same applies to getting required information; one has to realise that an information need exists prior to looking for information to cater for that need. The first measure that one has to take is to acknowledge that an information need exists. Having done that, the next aspect would be to define that information need. There are a number of reasons one would require information. There are three broad categories why one would need information, viz: 1. Work-related or occupational some people need information to carry out a task at work. As an example, a human resources officer may need information on contemporary ways of retaining staff following an alarming staff turnover at her organisation. 2. Academic or intellectual an individual often requires information to write an assignment, prepare for an examination or to write up a research project proposal. 3. Recreational information can be needed for leisure purposes, for instance, a tourist looking for more information about hotel facilities in a resort town. Activity Considering that information need vary depending on type of need, i.e. occupational, academic or recreational need, how can this affect the way you would look for the information you want? The process of defining the information need One cannot just jump into the process of looking for the information, there is need to clearly define the information need. By defining the information need we mean describing what one exactly wants; in other words one should have a clear picture of what s/he really needs. How do I start? A good starting point would be to ask yourself what you already know about the information need. This is helpful because it would be a matter of adding to what you already have in your knowledge base. Besides, past information searches could lead you to what you would be looking for. It is also important to come up with the clear scope of the information need; the depth and breadth of each information need vary and such depth and breadth determine how the information is searched for. In view of this, consider the following: Is the information you want general or specific? Is it a statistic that you want? Is it history? Is it information that could be influenced by bias? If so will that affect what you expect? How detailed would you want the information to be? The above questions are important as you develop ways of getting the information you want. You also need to do some general reading about the topic so that you have some knowledge and understanding of it. The general reading also helps you to come up with accurate keywords you would use in executing the search later. The best tools that would help you in getting the best keywords include dictionaries, encyclopaedias and thesauri. These are often available in the reference section of libraries or in electronic formats from websites such as

7 As you read about the topic, write some brief notes and do some brainstorming around the topic. This would help you choose the best keywords to use in searching for the information needed. Brainstorming As you read and think about the topic, write down the key terms you identify. After identifying these terms, think of other terms that would mean the same. These are called synonyms. Synonyms are important because you can then use them to search for what you want in different databases. Different databases use different terms hence the need to brainstorm and write down as many synonyms as possible. Some terms are too broad or general to be used as search terms whilst others are too specific to yield any results. This is where the concept of broader and narrower terms comes to play. Hint: when you get to the point of searching for what you want and you retrieve too many results/hits, consider using narrower terms and when you retrieve very few results, consider using broader terms. Below is an example of some brainstorming that was done: Suppose you would like information on Human Migration, after brainstorming on the topic, the following could come out: Migration Voluntary migration Involuntary migration / Forced migration Slave trade Human trafficking Emigration Immigration Commuting Tourism Pilgrimages Illegal migration Job migration International Organisation for Migration (IOM) The above terms can then be subdivided as follows: Broader terms Narrower terms Related terms Migration Voluntary migration Involuntary migration / Forced migration Emigration Immigration Commuting Illegal migration Job migration International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Slave trade Human trafficking Tourism Resettlement The narrower terms can also be broken down into specific disciplines; this would depend on how exhaustive one would want to go. Activity You have been given an assignment to research on pan-africanism. Can you do some brainstorming on the subject? Come up with broader, narrower and related terms for the concept pan-africanism.

8 Spelling variations You should take note of words that have spelling variations as you brainstorm and read about your topic. Some words are spelt differently depending on the language used. For instance, British English and American English have some variations in spellings. Here are some examples: British English Colour Favourite Honour Analyse Criticise Centre Theatre Analogue Dialogue Cheque Defence Licence Jewellery pajamas Tyre Programme Plough American English Color Favourite Honor Analyze Criticize Center Theater Analog Dialog Check Defense License Jewelry pyjamas Tire Program Plow You should, therefore, take note of the spelling variations that may arise depending on whether the database is using British or American English. Activity Choose any three words from the examples of spelling variations provided above and go to your library s online public access catalogue (OPAC) and try using the words interchangeably for keyword searching. Note down the effects of changing the spellings against the results you get. Summary This unit covered issues relating to defining an information need and included reasons for searching for information, brainstorming so as to derive keywords and breaking down these keywords into broader, narrower and related terms. Issues relating to spelling variations were also covered.

9 Unit 2 Finding the required information Introduction In this unit, we will be looking at three major aspects of finding the required information. The three aspects are: 1. Information searching techniques; 2. Information finding tools; and, 3. Information sources. Information searching techniques There are various ways by which one can search the libraries online public access catalogues (OPACs), Internet search engines, CD-ROM databases and other online databases. In this section, we will be looking at: Keyword searching; Phrase searching; Boolean logic; Truncation; and, Wildcards. Keyword searching Keywords help us retrieve the articles we want. When given a topic, brainstorm and come up with a number of keywords or phrases that you may use to search for the information you want. Ask yourself whether the keyword you would have chosen is the best. For instance, would Agriculture be a better keyword instead of Farming? Also note that different databases use different keywords; be familiar with the keywords used by the databases you use. Phrase searching Instead of using keyword searching, one can use phrase searching so as to retrieve a string of words. An example could be organised crime. For this example, you will be looking for search results where the two words appear either together or separately. When you want the words to appear next to each other, phrase searching would require the phrase to be in quotation marks. In that case, the example above would be entered as organised crime or organised crime depending on the database being used. Boolean logic The Boolean logic enables you to combine, limit or widen the variety of items found using link terms which are AND, OR, and NOT. AND AND narrows the search, for example: Agriculture AND Technology retrieves articles where the two terms appear.

10 Agriculture Agriculture AND Technology Technology OR OR widens the search, for example: Horticulture OR Botany will retrieve articles containing either of the two terms or both. Horticulture Botany NOT This operator restricts the search by excluding some terms from the search for example: Road transport NOT Rail transport retrieves articles containing the former term but do not contain the latter. Road Transport Rail Transport Activity Go to and execute a search using the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT. What is the effect of each operator on results retrieved? Truncation (*) Truncation uses word stems to retrieve several words or phrases. As an example, Librar* retrieves articles containing the following: Librarian Librarians Librarianship Libraries Library Library schools Library science

11 Wildcard (?) Wildcard is used to retrieve articles using different spellings (usually British and/or American spellings). Examples: Neighbo?r for Neighbor and Neighbour Colo?r for Color and Colour. Information finding tools We will focus on three information finding tools which are: Online public access catalogue (OPAC), The Internet; and, Research databases. Online public access catalogue (OPAC) An online public access catalogue (OPAC) is an electronic database of titles a library has in stock. The titles include books, journals, compact disks and any other sources of information the library has in its collection. Before getting to the libraries shelves, for instance, it is advisable to check what the library has in stock by consulting its catalogue. The catalogue guides a library patron to the library s holdings. There are three main ways of searching for a library s holdings on the OPAC. These are: Author Subject Title The author is the creator of the information source. An information source may have two or more authors. Some titles also have editors. These can be used for searching whatever information source one wants (as long as the author(s) or editor(s) is/are known. The subject refers to some form of controlled keyword. Librarians do not just assign keywords to cover certain disciplines; they use some form of agreed and standardised keywords or phrases which are known as subjects or subject headings. Each information source has got a title and that title may be used to locate the information source using the OPAC. We now turn to some examples. We are going to use the example of the Bindura University of Science (BUSE) Education Libraries OPAC. The OPAC for BUSE libraries is Internet- or web-based hence it may at times be referred to as a WebOPAC. Getting access to BUSE OPAC Step 1 Go to the BUSE home page available at Here is how the page looks like:

12 Step 2 Click on the Library link to be directed to the Library s web pages.

13 Step 3 Here is a screenshot of the BUSE Library home page. You then click on the link titled Library Catalogue. This will take you to the BUSE WebOPAC shown in Step 4 below.

14 Step 4 On clicking the titled Library Catalogue link, the BUSE Web OPAC page appears. Below is the screenshot of the home page of the BUSE WebOPAC: Suppose we know the author of the book we would like to search for, here are the steps.

15 Searching for an item in the Library Step 1 a) Type the author s surname in the search box. b) Narrow down the search by clicking on the icon for AUTHOR to indicate that you are searching for an information source through the author s name. In the example provided we will use the author Pete Giacoma. Author s surname NB: search is limited to an Author search Click on Search to execute search

16 Step 2 After retrieving the brief results, click on Details to get the bibliographic details of the item. This would take you to more information on where the book is available. If it is on loan, you get details on when it will be returned to the library. Here are the details for the book by Pete Giacoma we are looking at:

17 Activity Using the demonstration provided above, go to the library and search for the following: a) Books written by Yvonne Vera b) A book entitled Historical dictionary of Zimbabwe c) Books on agricultural economics. The above process can be done when searching for information sources by subject and title. You can also open up the search and conduct a general search by opting for searching Anywhere. An anywhere search, then, will not be restricted to the author, subject or title field. The Internet The Internet provides access to billions of information sources available the world over. The information could be in the form of text, audio, video, etc. Books, journals, reports and so on are available on the Internet. More details on the Internet shall be dealt with in the Information Sources section later in this unit. Research databases A research database is a standardised collection of information on a given subject discipline or a number of disciplines. The databases could include book chapters, indexes of journal articles, theses and dissertations. In formation searching techniques earlier discussed are often used to search these research databases. Some research databases are accessible free of charge whilst others are accessible upon payment of a subscription fee. Examples of research databases include Google Scholar, Scirus, Scopus, Oxford Journals Online, Emerald Insight and Academic Search Premier. There different types of research databases as described below: Type Description Bibliographic databases These provide citation details of the full text articles in journals, newspapers, etc Full text databases Such databases provide full text access to the articles. Examples include Oxford Journals Online and Sage Journals. The full text articles could be in varying formats that include portable document format (pdf) and hypertext mark-up language (html) format. Numeric databases Numeric databases provide numerical data such as statistics. Hybrid databases Hybrid databases provide a blend of records that include abstracts or full text or both. Information sources Information sources can be said to be primary, secondary or tertiary. The category in which information sources belong is based upon originality of the information and its proximity to the source or event it records. Primary sources are at times referred to as grey literature and as Saunders (2003) put it, they are the first occurrence of a piece of work. Examples of primary sources of information include autobiographies, diaries, patents, interviews and surveys, newspaper articles written at the time of the incident, photographs, music and art work, law reports, and parliamentary papers and debates. Such

18 sources of information have the major advantage of providing first hand and in depth information. They may also be helpful in identifying other sources of information to consult. Secondary sources analyse, interpret and comment on primary information. Other examples of such sources include biographies, newspaper articles offering commentary or opinions and literature reviews. Tertiary sources of information. These are used to identify and locate primary and secondary sources of information. Others prefer to call them reference sources or search tools. We are now going to look at various sources of information which fall into the categories stated above. Dictionaries A dictionary contains an alphabetically arranged list of words and their meanings. Dictionaries fall into the category of tertiary or reference sources. These are available in the reference collection of a library. There are various types of dictionaries as shown below: Type of dictionary Examples Language dictionary Oxford English dictionary, English-Shona Dictionary, Dictionary of contemporary slang Subject dictionary The Concise Oxford dictionary of botany, A Dictionary of philosophy Biographical dictionary (a dictionary providing an account of people s lives An African biographical dictionary, The Australian dictionary of biography NB: please note that dictionaries can be available print or electronically on CDs and on the Internet. Dictionaries available on the Internet are often referred to as online dictionaries. Examples of online dictionaries include The Australian dictionary of biography online and Cambridge dictionary online. Encyclopaedias An encyclopaedia is a book containing articles of different topics. The topics are often arranged alphabetically. Encyclopaedias can be broad and general or subject specific. One encyclopaedia can be a set of several volumes of books. Encyclopaedias are reference sources of information. Here are some examples of encyclopaedias: Type of encyclopaedia Examples General encyclopaedia Subject encyclopaedia The Cambridge encyclopedia The social science encyclopedia, Philosophy of education : an encyclopedia Atlases An atlas is a book containing maps. It may, however, contain related information in the form of charts, tables and statistics. It provides information on places or locations and populations. Atlases may be general or subject specific as some deal with history, religion, language, the human body, etc. Atlases belong to the category of reference sources of information. Examples of atlases include Harare street atlas, Philip's atlas of the world and World atlas of desertification. Almanacs Almanacs are books containing factual information of various subjects such as population statistics, politics, sports, etc. These are often published annually. Examples include The world almanac and book of facts.

19 Yearbooks Yearbooks often contain general information and in some cases they may accompany encyclopaedias. Yearbooks provide information on historic events that took place during the year, political events, etc. A good example is The Europa world yearbook. Books Books, which are sometimes referred to as monographs, are usually written to serve a specific audience. They are usually of an academic nature and have a broader scope as compared to journals. Some books are now available electronically whereas others have learning support material available via the Internet. This is usually meant to cater for the changes that take place after the book has been published. Some important sections of a book Let s have look at some sections of a book that are of importance. The cover the cover wraps a book and protects it. The cover could be a hardback or paperback. Some hardbacks may then have a book jacket or dust jacket. Title page this page provides details such as the title and sub-title, the author(s) and/or editor(s), the publisher and in some cases the date of publication and series title. You should then critically look at the title to determine whether it reflect what you will be looking for. However, some titles are misleading. You must, therefore refer to other sections of the book such as the contents page to get more details. Imprint page is also referred to as the verso page. This page provides information about editions and reprints, copyright notices, and other details that would have been left out on the title page. The imprint page is of good use especially with regards to the currency of the book. The date of publication may be verified on this page. Contents page provides the outline of the book include the pages where the information is available. The contents page provides an excellent overview of the usefulness of a book. The contents page is helpful not only for pointing on the specific location (pages) where to get the required information but also for the detailed information on what the book has. Index an index is located at the back of a book and it provides an alphabetical list of people, organisations, topics and sub-topics that were covered in the book. The index also refers the reader to the specific page where s/he would the indexed entry. If you have got some keywords already, the index becomes a very useful tool you can look up your keywords in the index and go to the specific pages where the information is. Find on book and identify the important parts of a book that have been described above. Suggest how each of these sections would be of good use to the reader. Electronic books Books are more and more becoming available in electronic format on CDs, localised databases and on the Internet. Google Books provides access to some electronic books. Another Internet-based source of electronic books is the Ebrary. Periodicals/journals Journals are sometimes referred to as periodicals. These are printed on a regular basis that is why others would also call them serials (but not all serials are journals!). Most of them are available in print

20 form but recent developments have seen many of them being available electronically. Some table of contents and abstracts for journals are available on the Internet with those subscribing gaining full text access. It is highly recommended that you use refereed academic journals that are peer- reviewed prior to publication. These contain scholarly and scientific information. Bear in mind that not all journals are refereed and some journals belong to some professional bodies and may therefore be biased. Examples of journals include the Journal of Engineering Education, American Educational Research Journal, Sociology of Education, MIS Quarterly, Reading Research Quarterly, Southern Africa Journal of Science Education and Technology (SAJEST), Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research (ZJER), Organization Science and Strategic Management Journal. We now take a step-by-step approach to getting information from electronic journals. Step 1 Go to the BUSE home page available at Here is how the page looks like:

21 Step 2 Click on the Library link to be directed to the Library s web pages.

22 Step 3 Clicking on the Library link takes you to library home that looks like the screenshot shown below. Click on the link titled Electronic Resources. The link takes you to the list of electronic databases the library has access to as shown in Step 4.

23 Step 4 You then select the databases of your choice, click on the link and you will be taken to its website. In this example, Sage Journals Online was chosen as highlighted.

24 Step 5 You need to log on to the website of the database you want. In this example we will be using Sage Journals Online available at After logging in, the website must recognise you as a visitor from Bindura University of Science Education. This only applies for electronic databases that provide access by Internet protocol (IP) recognition. Some (like AGORA, HINARI & OARE) are accessible through password login whereas others (like DOAJ are on open access)

25 Step 6 Once logged in (whether by on IP-based / password-based or open access databases), you must then enter your search term. The search term could be a keyword, a phrase, an author s name etc. In our example provided below, the search term is citizenship education. You then click on Go execute the search. NB: There are several other options on how to get to the full-text articles including browsing the journal s list from where you would then select a journal title of interest, select a volume, then issue, until you finally reach a full-text article of desired interest. Once logged on to a database, the links available usually help you to navigate through until you get what you need.

26 Step 7 After executing a search, some search results or hits come out. The results are often ranked by relevancy. There may be options to also rank the results by date, author, etc. You then go through the results list and click on the respective links to get to the full-text articles. Some articles are available in HTML (hypertext mark-up language) format, which appears like an ordinary Internet webpage or in PDF (portable document format) in which you would require Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the article. In our example, below, the full-text article is in PDF.

27 Step 8 The author chose the article by Aaron T. Sigauke entitled Citizenship and citizenship education: a critical discourse analysis of the Zimbabwe Presidential Commission Report. Below are the details: Article title Author Bibliographic details Link to full-text article in PDF

28 Step 9 After clicking on the link to the full-text article, the full-text article is retrieved as shown below. Here are the bibliographic details of the article on the first page of the full-text article.

29 Step 10 You can then read the full-text article online if you want. There are options to print, save and at times the article as shown by the icons below. Print Save As shown in the screenshot above, many electronic journals publishers provide an abstract of the fulltext article for the readers. Activity Go to Search for articles on Zimbabwe. From the articles you retrieved identify the oldest and latest articles. Newspapers Newspapers play a pivotal role in providing information on current and topical events. Some newspapers are published daily, others weekly. They also provide some detailed information on current developments and reports on special issues. Many are now available online. However, it must be borne in mind that newspaper articles are not peer-reviewed (even if they go under some editorial process). Therefore, such articles cannot be equated to journal articles.

30 Below is a list of some newspapers published in Zimbabwe and their Internet addresses: Newspaper Website Address The Herald The Sunday Mail The Standard The Independent The Financial Gazette Newsday Daily News Internet The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web (Wikipedia, 2008). The Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks, linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, etc. In contrast, the Web is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and uniform resource locators (URLs). The World Wide Web is one of the services accessible via the Internet, along with various others including , file sharing, online gaming and others (Wikipedia, 2008). According to Bradley (1995), the Internet took off as a project named ARPAnet that was meant to network scientists and researchers from the government, military and universities in the United States. The network continued to grow with more organisations joining. As Bradley states, the Internet grew much rapidly in the 1990 s and this saw the number of Internet users rise to between 20 million and 30 million in Features and Functions of the Internet Unlike the misconception that many people have that the Internet and the World Wide Web are synonyms; the Internet is comprised of a number of features and functions that include the World Wide Web. Below are some of the widely used ones: Electronic Mail Electronic mail is one of the widely used functions of the Internet. It is affectionately known as . is a function that is used to deliver messages anywhere on the Internet or other networks with an Internet connection (Bradley 1995). Usenet Usenet is short for user network. It is a network of newsgroups or bulletin boards accessible via the Internet and at times on other networks (Bradley 1995). On a newsnet, people participating share views and discuss on topics of interest. Others call such Usenet newsgroups discussion forums. Mailing Lists Mailing lists are almost similar to Usenet newsgroups. However, for mailing lists one has to subscribe to get access to the messages. The messages are sent directly to one s account.

31 Telnet This is a remote login facility for users who are connected to the Internet or are on a network. Telnet allows one to login a remote computer and execute some commands as if one is using the actual host machine (Bradley 1995). Ftp As Bradley (1995) puts it, ftp stands for file transfer protocol. Ftp is a method that can be used to transfer files from one computer to another on the Internet and other networks. Anonymous ftp Using the ftp protocol, one can login to a remote computer so that s/he can transfer some files. With this function, one can have access to files in various formats such as text and audio. Archie Archie is a method of finding files on the Internet for anonymous ftp (Bradley 1995). Gopher Gopher is described as a method of accessing the Internet using menus (Bradley 1995). Veronica Veronica is short for very easy rodent- oriented net-wide index to computerised archives. Veronica is a tool used to search gopher menus on the Internet (Bradley 1995). The World Wide Web The World Wide Web allows one to search information using hyperlinks and it is the most used component of the Internet. Internet Relay Chat This is real time chat facility available through the Internet. Using this facility, people can converse over the Internet real time. Note: our major concern when undergoing information literacy skills training is using the Internet to access information resources. Activity Of the features and functions of the Internet discussed above, which one if popularly used at your university? Why is that so?

32 Basic Internet Explorer Icons We are going to look at some of the basic Internet Explorer icons that are useful as you navigate on the Internet. Icon Icon Image Description Back Button Clicking the back button will take you back to page you were previously viewing. Forward Button Stop Button This button will take you forward to the next document if you have previously browsed several pages and had then backed-up to the page you are currently viewing. The button halts current operations by the web browser. Refresh Button Home Button This button will reload the current document that you are viewing. It is recommended to use it whenever a page fails to load. This button will take you to the page you have selected as the default start-up page for Internet Explorer. Favourites Button By clicking the button you will open the Favourites menu. Favourites are pages you are interested in and may wish to visit later. You can add pages of interest to the favourites menu. Getting information on the Internet You need to locate information available on the Internet. There are tools for that; below is a liof some of them: Search engines Meta search engines Subject directories How do search engines work? Search engines allow you to look for Web pages containing some words or phrases from an automated search index. Words appearing in Web pages are indexed by the search engines. The search engines use software called a crawler, spider or robot to do the searching. Most of the search engines do not, however, index common words such as a, and, in, to, the (Schwartz 2005). Recommended Search Engines The author would like to recommend the following search engines: 1. Google; 2. Ask.com; and, 3. Yahoo! Search. However, it must be noted that some more search engines are emerging and the strength of the search continues to change from time to time. It is advisable to keep on checking on the strengths of each search engine from time to time. Explore two of the search engines you know. How do they differ? Which one do you prefer and why?

33 Meta-Search Engines Meta-search engines transmit your search query simultaneously to several individual search engines and their databases available on the World Wide Web. Results presented are retrieved from all the search engines queried. Meta-search engines simply query search engines and their databases and give you the results. Examples of meta-search engines that one may consult include the following: and, 4. The advantage of using meta-search engines is that one can simultaneously conduct a search and get results from a number of search engines over a short time. This is helpful if one has limited time. However, the results retrieved might be too many for the searcher to have time to browse through and decide on the best hits to take. Directories Whereas a search engine allows you to search the Web using words and phrases, a web directory is more of a subject index, a library s indexed catalogue or a book index. The index for a web directory is determined by a human being (Schwartz 2005). Some of the most used web directories include the following: 1. Librarians Internet Index available at: 2. Infomine available at: infomine.ucr.edu; 3. About.com available at: 4. Google Directory available at: directory.google.com; and, 5. Yahoo! available at: dir.yahoo.com Grey literature All literature that is not accessible through the normal book selling channel is referred to as grey literature. Grey literature includes, but is not limited to, trade literature, reports, technical notes, brochures, pamphlets and ad hoc publications. Grey literature can be a good source of current information that may not be available through the usual publishing channel. Broadcast media Broadcast media refers to communication means like television, radio, newspapers, magazines and other materials supplied by the media and press. Latest information, such as speeches, documentaries, interviews, financial markets is available through broadcast media. Spot FM, Radio Zimbabwe and National FM are among some of the Zimbabwe s radio stations where one can tune in to get latest information. Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation also cast television programmes such news bulletins such as Good Morning Zimbabwe, Lunch Time News, Nhau, Indaba and News Hour. Conference papers and proceedings/reports A conference is a large official meeting where participants having the same interests come together to discuss their views on a subject(s). Conference papers and proceedings offer valuable information that is often up to date such as research and its findings by specialists in a given discipline. Examples of conferences whose proceedings may provide valuable information include the Agricultural and Biotechnology International Conference, International Conference on Science in Society, Distance Education & Teacher Education in Africa, International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and

34 Biotechnology, Symposium on Environmental Management, Annual International Conference on Qualitative and Quantitative Economics Research, The International Society for the Social Studies Annual Conference and the International Conference on Distance Learning and Education. Government publications Materials published by government are called government publications. These include acts or statutes, law reports, government gazettes, commission reports and parliamentary debates. Government publications are good in that some are up to date, informative and at times are the only sources of information on a subject area. Here are some examples of government publications: Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act. Baseline study on the status of human capital development and training institutions in Zimbabwe: baseline data and statistical information. Census 2002: National report. Standards A standard is an established (or ratified) norm or requirement about technical systems, practices, or operations. They may be national or international and some are governed (and/or recognised) by professional, trade and industrial organisations. In Zimbabwe we have some standards from the Standards Association of Zimbabwe whilst the International Standards Organisations (ISO) has a lot of international standards. As an example, ISO standard 3929:2003 specifies methods for the direct measurement of the concentration of exhaust gas emissions from road vehicles during inspection or maintenance. Archives An archive is a collection of records, often historical; a place where such records are kept is also called an archive. Archives are useful sources of research information especially history. In Zimbabwe, the National Archives of Zimbabwe is responsible for collecting, managing and providing access to archives at national level. Quite a number of organisations (both public and private) may have their own archives too. Activity Go to your library or to the Internet and identify the following: a pamphlet, a conference report, an act of parliament and a standard. Are these important for your researches? In what way? Summary Unit covered a number of aspects with regards to getting the required information. In short the unit covered the following three broad areas which are information searching techniques, information finding tools and information sources. References Bradley, JC (1995) A quick guide to the Internet. Elmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing. Schwartz, L (2005) A+ research and writing for high school and college students [WWW document] URL 7 July The Wikipedia (2008) [WWW document] URL 16 April 2008.

35 Unit 3 Evaluating the information found After conducting a search, you may find lots of information. You do not necessarily need to use all the information you retrieve. You need to consider whether the information you have retrieved is suitable for your information need. Evaluation is meant to assess whether information accessed meets the needs of the reader or is able to help the reader to accomplish a task s/he has. Information must be of high quality besides meeting one s needs. This Unit is aimed at equipping you with some skills to evaluate information sources you would have managed to access. The following factors must be considered when evaluating information sources: 1. Relevance and scope; 2. Reliability and validity; 3. Authority; 4. Bias; 5. Currency; and, 6. Accuracy. Relevance Relevant information is needed so as to complete a task properly, for example answering an assignment question. The following should be considered when one is assessing the relevance of an information source, be it a book, website or an article in a journal: Recurrence of your keyword in the abstract or the article itself; Depth of information; References- usually these are expected to complement knowledge you have already; Language- the language used reveals who is the intended audience of the information. The more technical or complicated the language is, then the more distant the information is from being referred to by anyone apart from experts searching for detailed information on the subject. Reliability and Validity The best way to ascertain whether an information source is reliable is by checking its editorial control. If an information source goes through editorial control or peer-reviewing then its reliability is higher. Information sources that do not go through editorial control are prone to have a lot of errors such as grammar and spellings. It is, therefore, advisable to look for information that has gone through some editorial control. In this case, articles published in peer-reviewed journals would be ideal. Publishers such as Cambridge, Oxford, Taylor and Francis, Elsevier and Blackwells have their journal articles peer- reviewed by subject experts. Refereed journals have higher levels of accuracy and reliability since they seek to produce authoritative information. Authority It is important to know who the author of a book, article or website is. In varying situations, the author could be an individual, a group or an organisation. Information sources with anonymous authors carry less weight than those whose authors are known. Knowledge of the author of an information source is also useful in determining the authenticity of the information source. The author s biography on the information source e.g. in the preface or about the author section is important. A website might have a section entitled about us or about this site ; such information is key to determining the authoritativeness of an information source. Be wary of information sources without authors ascribed to them.

36 Bias A bias is a predisposition or prejudice (Pearsall & Trumble 1995). Assess whether the information source is a marketing tool, has some political motives behind it or is merely advocating for a cause. Therefore, when evaluating the bias of an information source, it is ideal to consider why the information was produced (whether for objective reasons or not), the depth and breadth of the information (some information is just sketchy), and the language used (some information shows lack of in-depth knowledge about the subject discipline being dealt with). Information should be sufficient to cater for your needs. Verify whether the information is factual, an opinion or mere propaganda. Currency Depending on your research requirements, some researches require up to date information. Furthermore, some information is useful regardless of publication date, for example information on a historic event. The date of publication can be verified on the preliminary pages of printed sources such as books and journals. It is, however, different with online information sources such as websites. Websites have got a section (usually the bottom of the web page) indicating when the website or specific web page was last updated. With websites, you have to be careful with the last updated note because in some circumstances the owners of the website simply change the update this section alone without updating the rest of the content. Accuracy To verify the accuracy an information source, the following must be considered: Check whether calculations, if any, were done properly and error-free; Check whether there are no typing and grammatical mistakes; Check whether the author(s) cite(s) other renowned or reputable authorities (and are cited correctly without falsehoods); Check whether there are others who quote the source (this can be verified search engines such as Google); Check whether information was properly presented and easy to comprehend. Activity For the last assignment you wrote, take one information source you cited and evaluate it in terms of the following: a) Relevance and scope; b) Reliability and validity; c) Authority; d) Bias; e) Currency; and, f) Accuracy. Summary This brief unit looked at six key aspects that an information user has to consider when evaluating information. These are: 1. Relevance and scope; 2. Reliability and validity; 3. Authority; 4. Bias; 5. Currency; and, 6. Accuracy.

37 References Pearsall, J & Trumble, B (1995) The Oxford reference dictionary, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Saunders, M, Lewis, P & Thornhill A (2003) Research methods for business students. (3 rd ed). Patparganj, Delhi: Pearson Education,.

38 Unit 4 Using information legally and ethically When you have obtained the information that you want, you do not just use it. An information literate individual does not only have the skills to search and retrieve information. Information literacy goes beyond that; an information literate individual is one who is also able to communicate ethically the information s/he would have gathered. This implies that an information literate individual understands and respects intellectual property (including copyright) and is able to avoid plagiarism. There are some legal and ethical obligations that you need to take note of. Intellectual Property Intellectual property refers to property that is the result of creativity and does not exist in a tangible form, such as patents, copyright, trademarks, etc (Pearsall & Trumble 1995). Copyright Copyright is the exclusive legal right, given to the originator or his or her assignee for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material and to authorise others to do the same (Pearsall & Trumble 1995). The copyright notice reminds users that the work is protected and in most cases the copyright owner is indicated immediately after the copyright sign, for example: Bindura University Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act In Zimbabwe, the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act [Chapter 25:01] of 2000 governs the use of certain forms of intellectual property including: 1. Literary works- e.g. Journal articles, computer programs, poems, song lyrics, novels, tables of statistics; 2. Dramatic works- e.g. Plays, film scripts, choreography; 3. Musical works- e.g. Compositions; 4. Artistic works- e.g. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, architectural models; 5. Sound recordings and films; and, 6. Television and radio broadcasts. Some may then wonder whether any copyrighted information can be used. Yes, it can be used as long as that is done properly and fairly (fair dealing). Fair Dealing Fair deal simply means fair treatment (Pearsall & Trumble 1995). As someone using other people s ideas and creation, it would be fair to acknowledge them and use their intellectual property in a manner that would not deprive them of their rights and potential benefits. Fair dealing covers the following: 1. Using information for research or private study as long as there is no commercial gain; and, 2. Criticism and/or review of the information. More details on what fair dealing is are obtainable from the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act [Chapter 25:01] of Plagiarism To plagiarise is to take and use (the thoughts, writings, inventions, etc of another person) as one s own (Pearsall and Trumble 1995). Plagiarising may be avoided by citing all works that you use in your assignments, reports, etc. You will be accused of plagiarism if you fail to cite other people s ideas or if you cite incorrectly.