Searching as Strategic Exploration

The Searching as Strategic Exploration frame describes searching as “nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops.”13 This section is a succinct summary of why we as librarians provide information literacy instruction. We work with students to increase their information literacy skills and subsequently an awareness of the scholarly conversation that is taking place around them, something that ChatGPT will not do. ChatGPT will not teach students how to evaluate itself. Librarians are still necessary to encourage learners to evaluate the information sources and tools that may not be familiar to them. For example, many students enter college having never searched for peer-reviewed, scholarly articles, so that skill may be entirely new to them. Their range of information sources grows when, through our instruction, we help them see the value in using academic databases for finding the information that they need in an effective, efficient manner. In addition, they will most likely have to take another look at their use of Wikipedia. Through information literacy instruction, they will gain a new understanding of how to use it effectively in a higher education context. ChatGPT is a brand-new source for information and our understanding of it is still developing. Our job, as teaching librarians, is not to shun the tool, but to embrace it and guide students toward using the tool responsibly and ethically. As with any new tool, librarians, as well as students, will need to show their flexibility and adapt to these new tools and resources as they become available.

Baker, Nicholson. 1994. “Discards.” The New Yorker 70(7): 64. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/04/04/discards (August 6, 2021).

Is it the case that subject searches are more interesting for syntopic work than other forms of generic reading?

It can't be a good sign that an academic who has spent over a decade studying notebooks and note taking still hasn't found the "perfect" organization method.

Else, H. (2021). Giant, free index to world’s research papers released online. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02895-8

Put focus on learning coming from partners

Compiling research materials.

Is there room for us to think about the iterative process; can we work with instructors to "reward" (or assign) students to alternate the searching, reading and writing.

This part of the process is interesting to me. Links topic selection to search (seemingly a single search).

It also seems a little misguided. What can we do in our lessons that could make tiny changes to this attitude?

This is an interesting tip. It can definitely be useful to connect your school to the Scholar Preferences so they can give you articles that you definitely have access to or books.

It is important to not be lazy when it comes to researching. Always look for quality posts rather than quantity no matter how many results turn up. Revision is key.

Learning how to search correctly can help to find more accurate information faster by using keywords and other searching practices.

Muckelbauer has a whole riff on nomads, traveling, and sophists in Future of Invention that resonates here and also above when Braidotti was talking about affirmation, negativity, and binaries.

For Muckelbauer, traveling and repetition are central to discovery (even if the travel is over the same ground). I particularly like when he says, "we cannot know what a sophist is before setting out" (86)--and that lack of knowing makes the search more difficult because how will one know the sophist when one encounters him or her? Repetition is even more important as one must continue searching even after one has found a sophist, if for nothing else to make sure it was really a sophist.

Search on a product description, gene name or gene systematic ID. Example of gene names: sty1, cdc2, atf1.

Caution: do not use the simple search to retrieve e.g. All protein kinases, instead use the advanced search for this.

The search box on Project Gutenberg uses a special syntax that actually allows more than just simple text searches. You can search by language, subject, author, and many others. For example:

• The search "l.german" will produce only texts in German.
• The search "s.shakespeare" will produce only texts about Shakespeare.
• The search "s.shakespeare l.german" will produce only texts in German about Shakespeare.

To see a more complete description of the syntax, go to the search page and click the "Help" button on the top-right of the page.

I haven't figured out how to search for terms with multiple words in these searches. Can someone figure it out? For example, how do you search for "william shakespeare" as a subject rather than just "shakespeare"? Or "old norse" as a language and not just "norse"?