EWP Library Workshop Lesson Plan

Date:​ 2/5/18 Librarian and Instructor: ​Conor Doyle &

Nolie Ramsey

Library Classroom: ​OUGL 102 Number of students:​ 23

Materials
● ~25 activity printouts
● Markers
● Whiteboard
● ~25 Corgi sheets

Course Assignment
● Create an annotated bibliography with at least ​FIVE​ secondary sources.

Learning Objectives
● Students will understand primary and secondary sources, and scholarly and popular
● Students will generate keywords and construct search strings
● Students will be able to select appropriate search tools (UW Website/Google Scholar,
Academic Search Complete)

Assessment
● What assessment method will you use?
● What are the goals of the assessment? How do they align with learning objectives?
● How will I adapt or make changes as a result of the assessment?

Instruction Plan
● 9:30 - 9:32 Introduction and session goals
● 9:32 - 9:35 What is your assignment? What is a secondary source?
● 9:35 - 9:40 What is a scholarly source? What is a popular source?
● 9:40 - 9:45 Keyword Activity
● 9:50 - 9:55 University of Washington Library (The history of soda)
● 9:55 - 10:00 Google Scholar
● 10:00 - 10:05 Academic Search Complete
● 10:05 - 10:20 Search Time & Corgis

Reflection
● How have I engaged different types of learners?
● What did students take away from this session?
● What was most effective about this session?
● What can I do differently next time I teach this session?
 Keyword Development Exercise

Write down your research topic or question:

Now ​underline​ key terms that you think might be good to search with.

For each of these key concepts, try to write down some:

● Broader concepts- for too few results

● Narrower concepts- for too many choices
● Related concepts – other possibilities
● Synonyms/similar terms to help guide further searching

Keep this list of terms for your database searching.

Key Concept Broader Narrower Related Concepts Synonyms/Similar Terms

concepts Concepts
 Research Vocabulary: Creating Search Strings

1. Try connecting two or three of the concepts in your research question at a time using the
operators below. These strings are what you will use to search databases and some search
engines. (Keep in mind, not all these operators work in every database or search engine.)

2. Remember that most of searching is trial and error – if one attempt doesn’t work, try a different
search string, a different database, or both. (Hint: tweaking your search string is a common fix if
you are receiving too many or too few relevant results.)

Operator Function Example

AND This will narrow your results to
items that contain two specific
Works in Google concepts. ​(Great for: making sure
unrelated key concepts show up in
the same search.)
OR This will broaden your results to
items containing one concept or
Works in Google the other. ​(Great for: synonyms or
related concepts.)
NOT This will narrow your results by
excluding concepts from your
In Google, use – (minus) search. ​(Great for: Cutting down a
before the word long list of results that are
unrelated.)
“” (Quotation Marks) This will make sure your phrase
gets searched in the exact order
Works in Google that you typed it. ​(Great for:
multiple word concepts.)
* (Asterisk) Truncation operator. This will
search for all the variations of a
In Google, this symbol is a word ​after​ the asterisk. ​(Great for:
wildcard instead of a words or concepts that have many
truncator. related forms.)
Homosexuality AND sports​ will return items
that have both these concepts included in the
same document.
Earthquakes OR seismic activity​ will return
items related to both those concepts in the
same set of search results.
“Genetically modified organisms” NOT food
will return items about inedible GMOs (or
ones not tagged with the word “food.”)
“Soft drink”​ will search for those two words
together, instead or “soft” and “drink”
separately.
Femini*​ will search for:
● Femini​ne
● Femini​st
● Femini​sm
● Femini​ity

Example: ​ “livestock industry” OR livestock AND “water pollution”

Example:​ ​“gender equality” AND men OR males NOT femini*
Example:​ ​Homosexuality AND “National Football League” OR sports

Search String 1:
________________________________________________________________________________

Search String 2:
________________________________________________________________________________

Search String 3:
________________________________________________________________________________
 ENGL 131

w/ Librarian Conor Doyle

February 5, 2018
Today’s Agenda
1) Review learning outcomes
2) Types of Sources
3) Keyword Generation Activity
4) Finding Sources
a) UW Libraries
b) Google Scholar
c) Academic Search Complete
What is a scholarly source?
Scholarly Sources vs Popular Sources

Scholarly Sources: Journal articles,

books
-- Written by experts in the field
-- Written for an academic audience
-- Includes citations
-- Technical language
-- Usually includes: abstract, literature
review, methods, results, conclusion,
bibliography
-- Also known as “peer reviewed”
Peer Review
Scholarly Sources vs Popular Sources

Popular Sources: Magazines,

newspapers, Wikipedia

-- Written by journalists/professional
writers
-- Written for a general/broad audience
-- Rarely includes citations
-- Non-technical language
-- Shorter than most scholarly sources
Popular sources can be tricky...
Popular sources can be tricky...
Popular sources can be tricky...
Scholarly Sources vs Popular Sources
Scholarly Sources: Journal articles,
books
-- Written by experts in the field
-- Written for an academic audience
-- Includes citations
-- Technical language
-- Also known as “peer reviewed”
Popular Sources: Magazines,
newspapers, Wikipedia
-- Written by journalists/professional
writers
-- Written for a general/broad audience
-- Rarely includes citations
-- Non-technical language
-- Shorter than most scholarly sources
Keyword Exercise - 5 mins!
● Consider: Who, Where, When, and What Perspective?

● Broaden your ideas (Excalibur-->Legend of King Arthur-->Kings of

England-->English History)

● Narrow your ideas (Desserts-->Ice Cream-->Chocolate-->Mint Chocolate)

● Find related concepts (Family-->Friends-->Community-->Coworkers)

● Explore Synonyms (Country-->State-->Society-->Region)

Putting it all together...
1) UW Libraries Search: http://www.lib.washington.edu/ (for
books, movies, newspapers, articles, everything)

2) Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/ (for articles,

many are academic)

3) Academic Search Complete: http://guides.lib.uw.edu/az.php

(for academic articles on many topics)
Explore Databases

It’s your turn to explore!

Where to Get Help

OWRC AskUs! Chat 24/7 Help Desks @ Suzzallo

& Odegaard