Competency 6: Successive Fractions

For the successive fractions search I chose the WorldCat database. This database is very user friendly. I checked out the help function to see what it would have and it gave a lot of good ideas. One idea is to use the index to check or verify your spelling. Another idea is to use the Library of Congress Subject Headings to find additional terms to refine your search before you begin. It even had a link button on the website to do this. I did use the LC Subject Headings to find additional terms. This is a useful tool for anyone who has a broad topic to search.

I began my search with the term "library research skills." This resulted in 2194 hits, which most of the top 25 applied more to teaching skills in a classroom than a library. I then refined my search by adding "technology OR computers." Results were narrowed to 266. Last, I added the term "teacher." Thirty-five hits came back for this search. The number one hit from this list was in the top ten from the previous search. I chose this hit because it is a book made from a library conference that contains ideas presented by a lot of different librarians on using technology in the library. The name of the book is The impact of technology on library instruction: papers and session materials presented at the Twenty-First National LOEX Library Instruction Conference held in Racine, Wisconsin, 14 to 15 May 1993. It is authored by Linda Shirato. The link to this information is http://online.twu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_13_1. Some ideas were about teaching the students and others were about teaching the teachers. Here is a brief list of presentations:

Impacts of electronic reference on instruction and reference / Carol Tenopir -- Guidelines for creating user-centered instructions for novice end-users / Diane Nahl -- Cooperative learning : a guided discovery workshop / Lizabeth Wilson "Striking it rich with the Internet" : an interactive workshop for teaching faculty the Internet / Donna L. Miller and Michael C. Zeigler -- Teaching the teachers in an electronic environment / Sandra Duling and Patrick Max

Overall, it was a good database to use and had a lot of helpful tools to make the search easier.


Shirato, Linda. The impact of technology on library instruction : papers and session materials presented at the Twenty-First National LOEX Library Instruction Conference held in Racine, Wisconsin, 14 to 15 May 1993 . Ann Arbor, Mich.: Learning Resources and Technologies, 1995. http://online.twu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_13_1.