LITA October 2005 (San Jose, CA) 'Falling Down the Porta

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FEAR AND LOATHING OF IMPLEMENTATION Examining
the Instructional Issues Surrounding the Rise of
Federated Searching

• Lynn D. Lampert, MLIS, MACoordinator of Library
  Instruction Information LiteracyCalifornia
  State University Northridgepresented at the
  California Clearinghouse for Library
  Instructions Spring Workshop Challenges to
  Instruction in the Age of Federated Searching and
  Google May 12th, 2006 - Menlo College

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Why fear AND loathing?

• Paranoia is just another word for ignorance
  of technology ?)Kingdom of Fear Loathsome
  Secrets of a Star-crossed Child in theFinal Days
  of the American Century (2004) That's the
  common delusion of undergraduates everywhere.
  They think that in using Google, they're getting
  relevant materials and a sufficiency of relevant
  materials to write papers and to do research--and
  it's simply not true. ALA President Michael
  Gorman One College Librarian Worries About
  'Atomizing' Books .Source Chronicle of Higher
  Education 6/3/2005, Vol. 51 Issue 39, pA25-A25,
  2/3p, 1c

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Google, Federated Search User Perceptions of
Libraries Information Resources

• Success of metasearch and federated search
  is often spoken about as if it is tied to
  libraries collective futures. Federated search
  is seen as pivotal and with it we are being
  judged on, Our ability to meet the expectations
  and needs of the Google Generation (Luther,
  2003).Yet the public still largely sees
  libraries as linked to dusty booksold fashioned
  and not keeping up.OCLC. (2006). Perceptions of
  libraries and information resources A report to
  the OCLC membership Retrieved May 2, 2006, from
  http//www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm

Source OCLC. (2006). Perceptions of libraries
and information resources A report to the OCLC
membership. Retrieved May 2, 2006, from
http//www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm
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Perceptions of libraries and information
resources A report to the OCLC membership.

• Most information consumers are not aware of, nor
  do they use, most libraries electronic
  information resources.
• 62 of the college students surveyed are aware
  that libraries have databases, but 31 are still
  not sure.
• 84 total use search engines to begin an
  information search.
• 90 of respondents were satisfied with their
  search engine search results. Source OCLC.
  (2006). Perceptions of libraries and information
  resources A report to the OCLC membership.
  Retrieved May 2, 2006, from http//www.oclc.org/re
  ports/2005perceptions.htm

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• Topic MySpace.com and the Socialization of
  the WebImplications for libraries discussed by
  Dr. Noshir Contractor, University of Illinois
  Urbana ChampaignThe way people interact,
  access, and share information is
  changingfriending, smart-mobbing, changing
  content creation and theway we think about
  curating content are all different.
• Some of the opportunities and challenges for
  traditional librarians are the changing
  taxonomies we are seeing higher educationa
  massive departure from pre-organized taxonomies
  classifications of books old search engines to
  the technology getting and giving students the
  ability to shape information organically into
  folksonomies (not passive web sites).
• Students tag information like they tag
  bands, activities, people(social
  tags).Accessed from http//kcrw.com/cgi-bin/ra
  m_wrap.cgi?/tp/tp060412MySpace_and_the_Grow
  5/9/2006.

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Examining the trends more closely and thinking
about our fledgling federated search pilots

• OCLC respondents to the survey generally seem to
  choose electronic resources in the same ways they
  choose other types of information resources.
• 61 identify friends as their top choice in
  identifying new electronic resources to use.
• lt15 of the respondents indicate that they
  discover new electronic resources from librarians
  or teachers.Source OCLC. (2006). Perceptions
  of libraries and information resources A report
  to the OCLC membership. Retrieved May 2, 2006,
  from http//www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.h
  tm

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Are students looking for a metasearch tool?
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Steven J. Bell Submit or Resist
Librarianship in the Age of Google

• Googlelizing our resources will no doubt
  satiate the end user's need for an easy,
  convenient gateway to databases bloated with full
  text where there are no requirements for critical
  thinking or search preparation...But these
  strategies will ultimately fail if our mission is
  to triumph not over Google and search engines,
  but over the real obstacle we now confront as a
  profession--getting our end users to care about
  the quality of the information they obtain (Bell,
  2005, 69-70).

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Competing with Google?
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Or are we competing to thrive as teachers within
the shifting landscapes of users interest
information seeking behavior?
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Thinking Deeply about the Future

• Dr. Ilene Rockman Reference Services Review
  Vol. 31, No 1, 2003.
• When we examine the metasearching behavior of
  users, we know they prefer intuitive, clearly
  designed interfaces. Portals that are
  interactive and instructional are powerful
  learning tools. More importantly, if designed
  well, such portals can help the user spend less
  time searching for information, and more time
  evaluating its qualityThis brings me to the
  point of reasserting the teachingrole of the
  librarian.the increasingly confusing roleof the
  Internet increases the valuable role that we
  playas information selectors, organizers and
  teachers. We must continue to firmly,
  consistently and creatively assert our
  expertise.

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Emerging Schools of Thought Within Librarianship
about Federated Searching Products

• One group admonishes that federated/metasearch
  technologies will further exacerbate students
  habitual pattern of not critically evaluating
  retrieved information.
• The other group feels that this new way of
  packaging our full text resources is the best
  way to compete with Google and reach our newest
  generation of students - the millennials or
  digital natives. (Prensky, 2001)
• The learning styles of millennials have triggered
  increased speculation about their impact on the
  future teaching role of librarians

Digital natives- perceive technology as their
friend and rely on it to study, work, play, relax
and communicate (Culligan 2005). Digital
immigrants- are those who were not born into the
digital world but have, at some later part in our
lives become fascinated by and adopted many
aspects of the new technologies (Prensky, 2001).
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The Role of the Librarian as Teacher The
Challenges of IL Instruction

• Not a new concept but it is receiving increased
  study, as is our role to perform as teachers in
  Learner Centered Universities
• If all libraries are now teaching libraries,
  then all librarians can benefit from thinking
  about what research and practice has taught us
  about instructional improvement S. Walter RUSQ
  Spring 2006.
• Have we librarians retooled our instructional
  approach past a database analysis tour to a
  research process style sage on the stage vs.
  guide on the side constructivist approach.
• Targeting single or multiple ACRL IL Student
  Learning outcomes in one-shot and beyond.

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Federated Searching is Gaining on our Rear View
Mirror Reflection

Future Presentations Today at WILU 35 Speaker
Patrick R. Labelle, Concordia University
on Federated searching's potential impact on
information literacy ALA 2006 -
Federated Search How Do We Teach It? - a
pre-conference workshop with
Christopher Cox, University of Wisconsin, Eau
Claire Special Issue of Internet
Reference Services Quarterly on
Federated Searching. The issue (12 1/2) will
tentatively be published 2/07 Past
Presentations The Myth, Magic and
Reality of Federated Searching Implications for
Reference Instruction, CARL South
Mini Conference December 9. 2005.
LITA October 2005 (San Jose, CA) "Falling Down
the Portal Undergraduate Adventures
in Federated Metasearch Technology at
California State University Northridge L.
Lampert K. Dabbour.
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Federated search technologies, Academic Libraries
and Information Literacy

• Webster, Peter. (2004) Metasearching in an
  Academic Environment Online, v. 28, no. 2
  (Mar./Apr. 2004).
• McCaskie, Lucy (2004) What are the implications
  for information literacy training in higher
  education with the introduction of federated
  search tools?, University of Sheffield (M.A.
  Thesis)
• Zimmerman, Devin (2004) Metasearchings Teaching
  Moments. Library Journal Sept 1, 2004
• Tallent, Ed. (2004) Metasearching in Boston
  College Libraries A Case Study of User
  Reactions. New Library World, Vol 105, No 1/2
  69-75.

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What do we know already and/or need to think
moreabout when it comes to Federated Searching?

• Federated searching is one of many changes that
  signals a shifting paradigm within higher
  education and the academic library landscape by
  providing users with the opportunity to search
  simultaneously across multiple databases, library
  catalogs and search engines from a single
  interface.
• Federated search tools appeal to novice
  searchers who, faced with an overwhelming number
  of resources, remain unfamiliar as to which tools
  will best meet their needs.
• Federated searching's potential impact on
  information literacyrepresents a serious and
  real concern for instruction reference
  librarians.
• The role of teaching, pedagogical renewal and
  creative integration of IL into the curriculum
  in light of the emergence of Federated Search,
  other technologies and our users growing
  dependence on search engines is more important
  than ever.

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Librarians Teaching Roles MetasearchThree
Assessment Projects

• Two focused on librarians reactions to
  metasearch technologies from a reference and
  information literacy perspective.
• One user survey that attempted to capture early
  student experiences with metasearch.

Lampert, L.D. Dabbour, K.S. Librarian
Perspectives on Teaching MetaSearch and Federated
Search Technologies (Working title),Internet
Reference Services Quarterly 12 (January/February
2007). Expected 2007
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Initial Survey of Librarians Attitudes Toward
Federated Searching

• 2005 LITA National Forum Data10 open-ended
  questions
• Online Survey distributed to
• ILI-L (Information Literacy Instruction Listserv,
  ACRL/ALA),
• CALIBACA-L (California Academic Research
  Libraries Listserv, ACRL/ALA),
• CSULIB-L (California State University Librarians
  Listserv, California Academic and Research
  Libraries)

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How many libraries had implemented federated
search?

• 34 of the respondents in this survey
  answered dont have or stopped using to the
  first question about when their libraries first
  offered federated searching to their patrons.

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Federated Searching Taught in Class?

• The second question asked if the librarian
  taught federated searching in a formal setting,
  such as during a library instruction session

Federated Searching Taught in Class?
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Why NO for 61 surveyed?

• Librarians who do not teach federated
  searching said that their biggest impediments
  were
• The loss of controlled vocabularies and
  specialized features of individual databases,
  such as limiting to peer-reviewed journals only.
  
• Suspicion of the precision and recall of
  federated search systems
• Thought it too time-consuming to teach in a
  50-minute session
• Perception that is was too confusing for
  students,
• Felt that they tended to reinforce the Google
  approach to searching and overlooking specialized
  databases.
• Barrier that not all library databases are
  available via a federated search system.

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For the 21 who said yes they do offer
federated search instruction

• Respondents explained that they found the
  ability to save citations and search strategies
  enables them to introduce undergraduate students
  to information management.
• Reported that they covered both the native
  interface and federated searching, outlining the
  disadvantages/advantages of each approach.
• Asked students to search both the native and
  federated interfaces to find out which students
  thought were more useful and to identify the
  differences.
• Librarians promoted federated searching as a
  starting point to identify relevant databases,
  controlled vocabularies listed in the full record
  displays, and to connect students to the native
  interface.

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Impact of Federated Searching on IL Skills of
Students

• Most of the respondents thought the impact was
  negative or neutral. For those who
  indicated a negative impact, common themes were
• That students could not recognize the benefits
  of using a particular database if they relied
  on federated search systems.
• Students do not know what they are searching,
  are overwhelmed by too many results.
• Have difficulty distinguishing between the types
  of sources retrieved.
• In addition, the librarians considered the
  concept of encouraging Google-thinking as
  negative.

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More Positive or Neutral Responses

• Some neutral impact responses related to the
  respondent not being sure yet because they had
  not thought about it and/or their library had not
  had federated searching long enough.A few felt
  the impact neutral because they considered it
  another tool in the students search option
  toolbox.
• For the 10 who felt it had a positive impact,
  one respondent said that it,Helped teach the
  variety of resources availableA quick and
  easy way to get students thinking about their
  resultsIf you teach both native and federated
  interfaces you give students a choice.

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Librarian Assessment Findings

• Q5 Are you confident teaching federated
  searching in instruction sessions and/or at the
  reference desk?

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Librarian Assessment Findings

• Q7 Do you prefer to teach the native interface
  for individual databases over federated searching?

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Librarian Assessment Findings

• Why librarians stated that they prefer teaching
  the native interface
• Limiting ability
• Sophisticated search options
• Distinguish easily between scholarly vs. popular
• Controlled vocabularies
• Most students dont need a lot of databases

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Quotes from open ended comments in Librarian
Assessment Findings

• Federated searching is a path of despair that
  assumes that either we do not have time or a
  venue to teach more sophisticated search methods,
  or our students are incapable or unmotivated to
  learn how to search with more sophistication.
  Federated searching produces muddled results that
  take us only a few baby steps beyond Google.
  Anonymous

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Martin Gordon (1986) Article Access -- Too
Easy? Serials Librarianship in Transition

• Lamentation of growth of online databases and
  stagnation of student research skills.
• The limited level of undergraduate subject
  knowledge and Lack of analytic selection from
  the resulting citations produced by the search
  as well as initial error in qualifying limitation
  placed on the search further exacerbate
  problems.
• It remains the responsibility of the librarian
  to see to it that important steps are not
  excluded in the assembling of the bibliography
  the realization of both expediency and
  comprehensiveness without the sacrifice of the
  true exercise in research that the library has
  always advocated the careful, conscious
  discrimination in the students selection
  ofsource material.

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Content Delivery Mechanisms for Higher
Education are Being Challenged

• All of Higher Education
• Pedagogical stretches
• Podcasts
• Online supplemental learning / tutorials
• (Elluminate) synchronous /asynchronous
• Student centered learning

• Library Specific Changes
• New multiple source formats for databases
• Built in citation formatting
• More information than ever in multiple formats
• Personalization My folders in several databases

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List of Problems to Think About for Instructional
Integration

• Students will click before they think
• Students wont know what databases theyre
  searching
• Not all databases can be included
• Cant use special features available on some
  databases (field limits, thesauri)
• Search reduced to the lowest common denominator
• Students wont understand what sources are
  included
• Cant recognize scholarly literature no limit
• Risk getting too many results
• Makes evaluation of information more complicated

C. Cox Federated Search How Will it Change the
Way We Teach? Brick and Click Conference 2005.
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Other issues that impact showing users metasearch
and other resources

• Speed of results
• Quality of results
• Students ability to discern content of results
  (scholarly v. popular type of resource
  location)
• Students feeling of being overwhelmed less is
  more -
• Student familiarity with library research
• How it works with the rest of the curriculum of a
  librarys instructional programming.
• Who is the target population (undergraduate,
  grad, faculty?)

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Federated Search and the Information Literacy
Competency Standards

• What are the real information literacy
  implications of federated searching?
• What is the most effective way of introducing it
  into our IL curricula?
• What are some examples of ways to bring this into
  the classroom?
• Which ACRL IL Standards are best to target when
  working with federated search tools?

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Standard Two is a key factor for IL instruction

• Standard Two
• The information literate
• student accesses needed
• information effectively
• and efficiently.
• 1. The information literate
• student selects the most
• appropriate investigative
• methods or information
• retrieval systems for
• Accessing the needed
• information.
• 2. The information literate student constructs
  and implements effectively-designed search
  strategies (problematic due to simplistic search
  capability).

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Evaluation

• Standard Three The information literate student
  evaluates information and its sources critically
  and incorporates selected information into his or
  her knowledge base and value system

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Integrating Federated Search Exercises into IL
Sessions

• Compare results from a search of an individual
  database (native interface) with a federated
  search and search engine.
• Discuss document retrieval types prior to
  introducing federated searching.
• Apply source criteria to evaluate federated
  search results list.
• Careful comparative analysis/annotation of
  results from databases included in a federated
  search and native search interface..
• Search term discovery exercise in native
  interface to deepen topic search before
  evaluating results in multiple databases.
• Set search queries for class, divide class into
  native search vs. federated and have them report
  back on results.
• Have students annotate results from comparative
  search using federated interface and native
  search interface.

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Exercises Like These Call for a Shift in
Instructional Philosophy

• Move from focus on what tool to teach
  (federated search or ) to how to get students to
  learn a concept)
• It makes no sense to decide how one is going
  to teach before one has made some study of how
  people learn.
• (Eric Sotto When Teaching becomes Learning 1994)

• Create a rich, problem-solving environment
• Present authentic contexts and tasks rather than
  predetermined (canned) instructional sequences
• Reflective practice needed (hands-on)
• Focus on knowledge construction not reproduction
  (deep versus surface learning)

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Lack of Curriculum Development?

• Enhancing the quality of library instruction
  is not about devising more brief activities or
  even slicker performances (video, Powerpoint,
  etc.) but about recognizing the need to build the
  learners' needs and priorities into induction.
• With this focus induction might look quite
  different engaging students in discussion about
  their expectations of the library or about
  experiences of using libraries, working to meet
  the information needs that students have at that
  time, ...or involving them in looking at how they
  currently find things in libraries.

Sharon Markless Learning about Learning rather
than about teaching. IFLA 2002
http//www.ifla.org/IV/ifla68/papers/081-119e.pdf
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Defining Key IL Issues Sadeh, T. (2004) The
Challenge of Metasearching New Library World, v.
105, no. 1198/1199, p. 104-112.

• Metasearching, also known as integrated
  searching, simultaneous searching, cross-database
  searching, parallel searching, broadcast
  searching, and federated searching, refers to a
  process in which a user submits a query to
  numerous information resources. The resources
  can be heterogeneous in many respects their
  location, the format of the information that
  they offer, the technologies on which they draw,
  the types of materials that they contain, and
  more.

• Key UndergraduateInformation LiteracyIssuesHe
  terogeneity of
• Locations
• Formats
• Technologies
• Materials

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To teach students how to learn how to use
federated searching tools we must engage the
learner

• Remember that learning is messy
• Learners interactions with information are
  complex and initially not always fully understood
• the search process has cognitive and emotional,
  as well as behavioural aspects
• confusion, hesitation and uncertainty must be
  acknowledged as part of the search process
• students need to own the search process it must
  fit into how they think and operate
  satisfycing may happen initially need to
  introduce comparisons.

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Market emphasize our deep understanding of the
relationship between people and information
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Other Issues Federated Search Technology at the
Reference Desk and in the classroom

• Steven J. Bell There needs to be a balance
  between integrating library resources into Google
  and educating users to understand that they
  sometimes need to be where the library is.
• The value of the reference interview and
  one-on-one instruction that works to develop
  student familiarity with resources, search
  concepts, and disciplinary research resources.

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Future Research Questions

• Student/User self ratings of IL skills pre post
  metasearch focus group
• Student satisfaction with IR results
• Citation analysis of bibliographies produced by
  students using a metasearch product
• Focus groups on what students want to learn at
  the reference desk/ and in information literacy
  sessions
• Metasearch/federated search assessments of user
  satisfaction

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Contact Information

• Lynn Lampert MLIS, MA
• Coordinator of Library Instruction Information
  Literacy
• Oviatt Library, 8327
• California State University Northridge
• Email lynn.lampert_at_csun.edu
• Phone [phone]
• Home page http//library.csun.edu/llampert