ICONN The Connecticut Digital Library

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ICONNThe Connecticut Digital Library
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What is ICONN?

• ICONN, the Connecticut Digital Library, provides
  free access to a collection of information
  databases and other electronic resources to
  support teaching and learning.

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How will students and staff access ICONN?

• Schools access the databases directly through the
  Connecticut State Library web site
  www.iconn.org.
  
• Students and staff may also access the same web
  site at home by entering their public library
  card number.

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How will students and staff benefit from using
ICONN?

• ICONN provides a range of quality on-line
  information resources including reference,
  periodicals (popular academic), newspapers and
  library catalogs.
• ICONN provides information on a variety of
  subjects to support the content areas.

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How do I encourage teachers to use ICONN?

• Practice using the databases to become familiar
  with the content and search strategies.
  
• Analyze local curriculum maps or the state
  frameworks and trace maps to identify links
  between curriculum and the content of the
  databases www.state.ct.us/sde/dtl/curriculum/inde
  x.htm.
• Publish information about ICONN in school
  newsletters and post on the school web site.
  
• Develop workshops for teachers that focus on
  their content area.
  
• Emphasize the opportunity to differentiate
  learning.

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Lets Look At The ICONN Homepage
www.iconn.org
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Which databases are available in ICONN?

• General Reference Center Gold
• InfoTrac Kids Edition
• InfoTrac Junior Edition
• InfoTrac Student Edition
• Expanded Academic ASAP
• InfoTrac One File
• Informe
• Professional Collection
• Business Company Resource Center
• Health Reference Center
• reQuest
• What Do I Read Next?

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General Reference Center Gold

• Use this general interest/business database to
  search magazines, newspapers, and reference books
  for information on business, industry, current
  events, the arts, science, entertainment,
  etc.   

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InfoTrac

• Use this database designed for schools, to search
  magazines, newspapers, and reference books for
  information on current events, the arts, science,
  popular culture, health, etc. Curriculum
  based.   
• Kids Edition
• Junior Edition
• Student Edition
• One File

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Expanded Academic

• From arts and the humanities to social sciences,
  science and technology, this database meets
  research needs across all academic disciplines.
  Access scholarly journals, magazines and
  newspapers - with full text and images!

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Informe
Investiga las noticias y eventos más corrientes,
la información de negocios del momento, los
artículos de salud más importantes, temas de
cultura popular y muchas otras materias incluidas
en las revistas hispánicas más populares.
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Professional Collection

• Full-text periodicals for teachers and school
  administrators.   
  

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Health Reference Center - Academic

• Use this database to find articles on
  Fitness, Pregnancy, Medicine, Nutrition,
  Diseases, Public Health, Occupational Health
  Safety, Alcohol and Drug abuse, HMOs,
  Prescription Drugs, etc.The material contained in
  this database is intended for informational
  purposes only.

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reQuest

• reQuest is the Statewide Library Catalog of
  Connecticut. In reQuest, you can search over
  three million titles located in over three
  hundred Connecticut libraries at once. You can
  also place interlibrary loan orders for items in
  reQuest if your home library offers the service
  through reQuest.

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What Do I Read Next?

• Readers advisory tool for all age groups.     

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New York Times
Search the past 12 months of the New York Times
electronically by title, headline, date, author,
section or other assigned field.
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Lets look at search strategies
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Effective Search Strategies
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TYPES OF SEARCHES

• Subject
• Relevance
• Keyword
• Advanced

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TYPES OF SEARCHES

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SUBJECT SEARCH

• Subject Search looks for info by topic
• Subject
• Event
• Personal Name
• Company/brand name
• Organizations
• Government agencies
• Legal statute

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TO INITIATE A SUBJECT SEARCH

• Enter the subject term(s) into the search box
• Select any desired search limiters (date, journal
  name, etc.)
  
• Click the Search button

Sample Page
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WILDCARDS

• Wildcards are truncation characters
• The Asterisk () matches any number of
  characters
  
• The Question Mark (?) matches an exact number of
  characters
  
• The Exclamation Point (!) matches one or no
  characters

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EXAMPLE OF WILDCARDS

• The Asterisk

Veget
?
vegetable vegetables vegetation vegetarian
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EXAMPLE OF WILDCARDS

The Question Mark (?)
?
Psych????y
Psychology
Psychiatry
(but NOT psychoanalysis)
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EXAMPLE OF WILDCARDS
The Exclamation Point (!)
?
Cat!
Cats
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LOGICAL (BOOLEAN) OPERATORS

• Logical operators (and, or, not) can be used to
  create relationships between two or more search
  terms, with the effect of expanding or narrowing
  your search results.

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LOGICAL (BOOLEAN) OPERATORS

• Using the Boolean operator and restricts
  results
  
• Example
• The search string frogs and toads will only find
  articles that have both of these terms.
  
• Documents which have just one of the terms will
  be ignored.
  

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LOGICAL (BOOLEAN) OPERATORS

• Using the Boolean operator not restricts
  results to articles indexed under some search
  terms but not others
  
• Example
• Tax not income finds articles indexed
  under tax but not income
  

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LOGICAL (BOOLEAN) OPERATORS

• Using the Boolean operator or expands results
• Example
• The search string aerobics or exercise will find
  articles that have either of these terms.
  
• You can broaden it even more by using or more
  than once

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LOGICAL (BOOLEAN) OPERATORS

• Order of Operations
• and, not
• or
• To override the above order, use nesting
  operators

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NESTING OPERATORS ( )
?
Iraq or Kuwait and Iran
Iraq or Kuwait and Iran (both)

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NESTING OPERATORS ( )(cont)
However.. (Iraq or Kuwait) and Iran
?
Iraq and Iran (both) or Kuwait and Iran (both)


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RELEVANCE SEARCHES

• Relevance Searches lets users look for
  articles containing a word or words, and ranks
  each one by its relevance to the search terms.
  

Sample Page
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EXAMPLE OF A RELEVANCE SEARCH

• Christmas trees
• Christmas trees (highest relevance)
• Christmas tree (high relevance)
• Christmas (less relevant)
• trees (less relevant)
• tree (less relevant)

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SEARCHING TECHNIQUES

• Searching for exact words or phrases Use
  quotation marks - Christmas trees
  
• Ensuring inclusion of specific terms Use a plus
  sign before the word or terms
  
• television actors
• Ensuring exclusion of specific terms Use a
  minus sign before the word or terms
  
• -football shoes

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THE CITATION LIST

• Results of a relevance search are evaluated by
• Where the words appear in the article (title,
  text, etc.) and
  
• How closely the words match the search terms
• Relevance is given a percentage with 100
  indicating the highest relevance
  

Sample Citation List
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KEYWORD SEARCHES

• Looks for articles containing a word or
  words specified by the user, and presents the
  results in reverse chronological order newest
  to oldest.
• You must indicate your choice of
• Titles, citations, and abstracts or
• The entire article content (citations, abstracts,
  text, etc.)

Sample Page
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KEYWORD SEARCHES

• Use keyword searches for
• Common phrase or slogan
• Topic not in the Subject Guide
• Article author
• Book title and common phrases
• Product name

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TIPS FOR KEYWORD SEARCHES

• Limit search expression to no more than a few
  terms
  
• Check your entry for mistyped or misspelled
  words
  
• Use wildcards
• Use operators to expand or narrow your search
  results

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ADVANCED SEARCHES

• Offers the greatest flexibility - Can search
  for
  
• Specific indexes such as title, date, company,
  source, and author
  
• Browse specific indexes
• Refine, merge, or expand prior result sets
• Specific database components

Sample Page
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ADVANCED SEARCHES

• In addition to using wildcards, logical
  operators, and nesting operators, you can use
  
• Proximity operators
• Range operators and
• Restoration marks

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PROXIMITY OPERATORS

• Indicate how far apart two search terms can or
  must be from each other in any articles
  
• There are 2 proximity operators W and N
• Each proximity operator consists of
• A letter to indicate direction
• A number to indicate distance

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EXAMPLES OF PROXIMITY OPERATORS

• W (second term must follow the first)
• e.g., family W2 values
• N (terms may appear within either
• direction of each other)
• e.g., fleas N6 dog

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RANGE OPERATORS

• Restrict numeric searches to a desired range.
  Range operators include
  
• since
• after
• gt or (greater than)
• ge (greater than or equal to)
• before
• lt or
• Le (less than or equal to)
• to
• - (hyphen)

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RESTORATION MARKS QUOTATION MARKS

• Prevent conflicts between search terms and
  search operators
  
• Example
• food not bombs

?
food but not bombs
however
?
Entire phrase is searched
food not bombs
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INFOMARKS

• To create an InfoMark, go to your browsers book
  mark function, and bookmark it!
  
• Uses include
• Predefined searches
• Links to articles
• Search setup
• Reading list

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LETS TRY A SEARCH TOGETHER
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Cooperative Learning - Jigsaw

• Each group has a folder with 3 task sheets and is
  assigned 2 databases to explore
  
• Two of the sheets are structured searches
• One is for you to search on a topic of your
  choice within one of the 2 databases you are
  assigned

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Lets try a task together
Content Standard Local, U. S. and World
History Essential Question How did geographical
features impact westward expansion?  
Database to Search General Reference Center
Gold Keywords to Search on westward expansion
  Other Search Instructions Limit search to ar
ticles with full text only What information did
you find that helped you form your response to
the essential question?
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How did geographical features impact westward
expansion  
What information did you find that helped you
form your response to the essential question?

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Who do I contact for help?

• Bill SullivanTelephone [phone]Email
  wsullivan_at_cslib.org
  
• Gail HurleyTelephone [phone]Email
  ghurley_at_cslib.org
  
• Jane EmersonTelephone [phone]Email
  jemerson_at_cslib.org
  
• Toll Free 1-888-256-1222

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Mark Four favorite Christmas trees.
      Better Homes and Gardens Dec 1982 v60
pF8(1) Mag.Coll. 15E2442.     100 christmas
trees, christmas, trees     View extended
citation and retrieval choices
Christmas tree care. Mark The New York Times De
c 10, 1988 v138 p16(N) p33(L) 4 col
in 99 christmas trees, christmas, trees, tree
    View extended citation and retrieval choices
 
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Thank you.