ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL SECTOR IN ESTABLISHING AND EXPANDING ONLINE RETRIEVAL OF INFORMATION by Roger K. Summit
Delivered at EUSIDIC Conference October 31, 1985 Bath, England
•ou or i n EDUCATIONAL stent n WTABLISITJB BPAIPIBG OHLIHB U T t H V A L Of XnOWATZOI
In our collective endeavor to ever Increase sales and profits, we soaetlaes confuse substance with shadow. The substance of our actlvitlea Is the provision of a useful service to society; the shadow (I.e.* profit) results If we can put the pieces together properly In terms of pricing* efficient resource utilisation, aarketlng, etc. nowhere he* the issue of substance been •ore neglected with respect to current Information technology then in its application to student needs. Although many universities utilise retrieval services, and mostly to support faculty* the student at the university and even more the secondary or high school level has long been all but ignored. Acadeaic instruction on the uae of information retrieval other than in library schools Is sll but non-existent. Today I would like to explore the issue of student use of online retrlevel to examine the following points: e
What role doea information retrieval play In the educational process
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What activltiee are currently underway (with a principal focua on secondary or high schools in the U.S.)
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What can be done to further encourage Incorporation of online retrieval in academic curricula
Information Retrieval and The Educational Process When Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century, there were so few literate people in Western Europe that exploitation of this invention languished for two centuries during which time/compulsory education produced a sufficiently large literate populace to justify mass production in printing. Analogously, modern information access technology depends solely on the training efforts of a handful of commercial and governmental services. The people who attend these classes, however, are those already convinced of the utility of online access. What is needed to creste mass demand is to incorporate technology into the core curriculum of secondary schools, both as a skill to be learned and as a tool to expand horizons of curiosity and intellectual endeavor. That Information retrieval is an integral part of societies' intellectual process can be fairly easily argued If you will accept a premise that a society can develop no faster than its ability to cumulate and disseminate -1-
ttamrleiam. If collective knowledge is srlasrlly represented es recorded information, sad if the quantity of Information avallabe in a society is substantially sore than any Individual can asslmulate, then access to knowledts becomes as critical to Its utilization as the Initial creation and recording of that knowledge. After all, what good la It so generate knowledge if its existence cannot be determined, and it cannot be selectively acquired as needed?
So much for justifying the fundamental value of the technology.
Current Activities in Secondary or High Schools Let me describe a handful of activities that are currently underway at the secondary school level, and summarize the results of these activities.* e
BATH COUNTY. VIRGINIA -
Small, rural county in extreme southwestern
Virginia. County has one high school and no public library facilities. School is using DIALOG to replace information resources not available in the local community.
CIP (Classroom Instruction Program) is used
for instructional purposes and regular DIALOG Is used for traditional reference. Open "windows to the world" for the children In the school and to the community at large. e
NATIONAL CATHEDRAL SCHOOLS. WASHINGTON. D.C. - Prestigious private school system operated by the Episcopal Church. Students include children of the Kennedy family, Jesse Jackson, CEO of TELENET, etc... CIP is required unit in computer science classes and is taught right after students learn programming via PASCAL.
Students whizzing
through market research project using DUN's, DISCLOSURE, etc. e
LYNCHBURG PUBLIC SCHOOLS. LYNCHBURG. VIRGINIA - CIP used In predominantly black school system to entice and excite lackadaslcal students to learn basic research skills and complete tern projects. Teachers report students respond naturally to using computers to find information and are beginning to have a real appreciation for the need to prepare logical, thoughtful queries.
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RADNOR HIGH SCHOOL. RADNOR. PA.
Incorporated online bibliographic
searching using DIALOG'S CIP Program In ninth grade library Instruction; begun in March 1980. Purposes are to provide student awareness of existence of such a technology to introduce the process of search
*
In the examples given, the DIALOG Classroom Instruction Program (CIP) is used. For databases in this program, database suppliers agree to forego royalties and DIALOG offers it at a nominal price of $15.00/hour. -2-
strategy and to eliminate the notion of "spectacular" or "magical" that aight otherwise exist in student minds.
Radnor is the first high school
in the United States to provide online retrieval training to students. e
MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEM -
Twenty-two high schools offered online
searching to students utilizing CIP in 1982. A section was added to library skills instruction to teach students to identify methods of accessing databases, to learn selection of the appropriate database, and to provide for the incorporation of online searching into other academic classes. Summary of Results The experiences of these organizations can be summarized along several lines: •
Program costs
•
Effects of online searching instruction
•
Implications for the future
High cost is often given as a reason for not including online searching in the classroom.
Montgomery County decided to allocate $0.50/student in budget
to each of the twenty-two high schools for teaching online searching, a process similar to the way they determine book budgets. Nearly 1000 searches were conducted by students over a period of two school years. At Radnor High School a total of $2000 was budgeted for the 1982-83 school year for searching which resulted in 800 student searches conducted at an average cost of $2.50 per search. Conclusions:
inclusion of an online retrieval unit utilizing
CIP is financially feasible. Some effects of online searchine instruction were fairly Immediate and apparent while others were, at most, only distantly anticipated.
At Radnor
online searching by students led to the addition of periodical titles to the library holdings in response to demand.
Also, the students were observed
to have a new and meaningful awareness of the wide variety of materials available at both general and technical levels. Whereas an earlier study showed a substantial majority of references cited in student papers were books, following the introduction of online searching, students began citing magazine articles more frequently.
Searching was felt to introduce
student, to a broader world of information, and lead them beyond their local -3-
library in searching source articles. A less anticipated effect was noted by a science teacher at Radnor: that online search training helps clear up fuzzy thinking.
The student learns to
take the key elements out of a statement and ask the right questions. Furthermore, online searching focuses emphasis on the need to spell. Both of these skills were felt to be important for the ninth graders. Another teacher described the frustrating experience of working with students whose initial topic choices for research papers are too broad and lack focus.
It appears that the
search definition process in online searching is a process similar to that of specifying a topic choice for a paper.
An example offered was a case in
which a student moved from "Ecology" as a starting topic to the "Effect of Acid Rain on Lakes" after being overwhelmed by the retrieval results from the word "Ecology." The implications of teaching online searching in these high schools have been several.
Montgomery County faculty reported that students introduced to online
retrieval in a junior or senior high school will certainly expect similar services at public and academic libraries as well as in their later professional life, which should lead to increased demand for such services. Another observation by the faculty at Radnor is that as a result of the introduction of online searching, both libraries and librarians are being perceived in a new and very positive way.
They now feel at the forefront of the information revolution
with a clear focus on service to students. They also observe a very positive effect on the student who can now tackle problems previously avoided and thus feels satisfaction at attaining a higher level of accomplishment. As an aside 1 can describe an example where use of online retrieval somewhat dramatically changed a high school student's outlook in education.
He had
been given a most difficult topic to research for an in-class essay the following day.
The topic was "What has replaced war as the ultimate barter
element in diplomatic negotiation since the advent of nuclear weapons?" His reaction was one of frustration and avoidance, blaming the teacher for a topic that was as impossible to understand as it was to research. outside chance he decided to try Magazine Index on DIALOG.
On an
By searching
titles in Magazine Index using terms such as diplomacy, negotiation, mutual assured destruction, nuclear and atomic, he identified several interesting magazine articles which he reviewed at the local public library. _4_
His in-class
••My was graded •• outstanding.
Thia student had found a tool and had
developed • technique which gave him the confidence to attack problema he had previously avoided. What Can Be Done? To further encourage training in online retireval in high schools and colleges, there are several actions to be taken by each of us. As a database producer, be sure your databases are included In classroom instruction programs. The cost to you is zero, and the long-term benefits can be enormous. Heavily used databases in the programs described above included Magazine Index, Medline, BIOSIS, ERIC, and Biography Master Index with 25 percent scattered over various other databases. Such broad usage indicates the wide variety of interests of secondary school students. Although most producers have agreed to participate in education programs, a few - for whatever reason - still do not. The Montgomery County Schools article reports, for example: "It should be noted that the databases of the Chemical Abstracts Service in the "Chemistry" category on DIALOG are not available on the Classroom instruction rate and therefore are not authorized for use by students." As an online retrieval service vendor, you can actively seek out and develop online searching within school districts. Although there is little to show for the marketing expense in the short run, the long-run effects can be significant. Finally, those of you who are information specialists or teachers will be the prime movers in developing these programs.
In each case reported above, there
were one or more program mentors who were convinced of the value and the need for online retrieval training.
It is most likely that this will continue to
be the case and that programs will be developed only where there are dedicated individuals willing to expend their personal time and energy in the formulation and support of such programs. It is hoped that through cooperative efforts between database suppliers, service vendors, and information specialists we can introduce training in online retrieval as a core requirement
in a majority of schools, rather than an
experimental program in the handful of schools we find today.
It is important
to move beyond short-run goals to develop strategic positions occasionally. Investment in the educational process will ultimately and inevitably pay high dividends to ourselves and society at large. -5-
REFERENCES
Caputo, Anne S., "Online Goes to School: "Instruction And Use of Online Systems in Secondary And Elementary Education", April, 1985.
Fiebert, Elyse Evans, "The Integration of Online Bibliographic Instruction into The High School Library Curriculum", Learning and Media, Winter, 1984. Mancall, Jacqueline C , "Training Students to Search Online: Rationale, Process and Implications," Drexel Library Quarterly, Winter 1984, vol. 20 #1, pp. 64-84. Pruitt, Ellen and Karen Dowling, "Searching for Current Information Online... How High School Library Media Centers in Montgomery County, Maryland Are Solving an Information Problem by Using DIALOG," Online, March 1985, pp. 47-60.
Smith, Bev., "Student Searchers: Are They Out There?" Information Today, March 1984. Wozny, Lucy Anne, "Online Bibliographic Searching and Student Use of Information: An Innovative Teaching Approach," School Library Media Quarterly, Fall, 1983.
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