Online Searching

Karen Markey is a professor emerita in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Her experience with online searching began with the earliest commercial systems, Dialog, Orbit, and BRS; the first end-user systems, CD-ROMs and online catalogs; and now centers on today’s web search engines and proprietary search systems for accessing surrogate and source databases of full texts, media, and numeric and spatial data. Since joining the faculty at Michigan in 1987, she has taught online searching to thousands of students in her school’s library and information science program. Cheryl Knott is a professor in the School of Information at the University of Arizona. Her experience with online searching began in 1988, when she became a reference librarian at the University of Texas and access to online databases involved dialing in via an external modem. For two decades she has taught online searching in undergraduate courses designed for end users and graduate courses designed for master’s students in library and information science programs. Her book, Find the Information You Need! Resources and Techniques for Making Decisions, Solving Problems, and Answering Questions (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), is designed for undergraduates.

• List of Figures, Textboxes, and TablesPrefaceAcknowledgments1. The Age of Search2. Accessing Quality Information at the Library Website3. The Reference Interview4. Selecting a Relevant Database5. Presearch Preparation6. Controlled Vocabulary 7. Free-Text Searching8. Web Search Engines9. Known-Item Searching10. Assessing Research Impact11. Search Strategies12. Working with Results13. Performing a Technical Reading of a Database’s Search System14. Interacting with Library Users15. Online Searching Now and in the FutureGlossaryIndexAbout the Authors

Markey’s all-inclusive textbook on online searching, first published in 2015, is now available in a third edition, revised by Knott. Knott’s revisions add variety to Markey’s authoritative voice, ensuring that this work will continue to be an essential part of LIS curricula…. This text abounds with succinct yet comprehensive instruction that maintains relevancy for today’s students and practitioners. For example, the chapter “Assessing Research Impact” contains information on Dimensions AI, an increasingly popular AI-based scientific research database. Knott and Markey also provide thoughtful guidance on conducting the reference interview. Librarians may appreciate the reminder to know when to stop searching, which brings to mind the adage “Librarians like to seek, users like to find.” Though written with LIS students and faculty in mind, this volume will be of use to any librarian wishing to update their online searching skills.