OPAC Hunt:

Hidden Treasures to Make

Research More Effective

Designed for Junior English Researchers

By Kristel Shutt James
CIMT631: Summer I 2010
Here it is…
…the time you’ve all been waiting for…
…and dreading.
It’s time to begin the process of
collecting evidence to support your
thesis for your English argumentative
synthesis paper. In order to convince
your readers that the position you have
taken is correct, you will need to
provide them with lots of specific
examples, statistics, and expert
opinions.
So what’s the point?
The purpose of this activity is to show you
how our media center can help you in your
search for this information.
You may feel this exercise exploring the
OPAC is a waste of time, that you would be
far better served if we would just get out of
your way and let you begin searching on
your own.

If you did, how would you begin? Most of

you would start with Google. So let’s see
how that works…
Think you know this already?
Skip this review information – just
click on the Google icon – and go
directly to the practice.

If not, go through this information

and then complete the practice that
follows.
The Google Search
For the sake of our exercise, we’re going to
research the topic of sex education.

You recognize this: the Google search box.

I added my search term – sex

education. Now let’s see what
happens.
 Is this what you had in mind?

85,900,000 matches?!

There are so many results because Google

has located resources tagged with the
words “sex” and “education.” So let’s make
our search more specific by searching only
for “sex education.” We can do this by
putting quotation marks around “sex
education.”
Better? We’re down to 4,850,000
matches… Ready to start looking?

If all those searches aren’t intimidating

enough, there’s one more catch…since
our topic deals with sex, if you are
working on a computer located on school
grounds, our school filter will block many
of your results.
Google Practice Word 2007
Document

Record the answers to these questions on the Answer Sheet that’s

been provided. You can access that Answer Sheet by clicking here.

Conduct a Google search for resources related to capital

punishment.
1. How many hits do you find when you type capital punishment in
the search box?
• List the name and URL of the first search result.
2. How many hits do you find when you type “capital
punishment” in the search box?
• List the name and URL of the first search result.
3. How many hits do you find when you search
“capital punishment” and “deterrence”?
• List the name and URL of the first search result.

Need more help than you thought? Click

on the logo to back through the tutorial.
So what’s the alternative to Google?

Welcome to the OPAC!

First the review: You know that OPAC
stands for Online Public Access Catalog
and that our OPAC is often called the CAT,
a nickname applied to the online catalog
used by virtually all schools in the
state of Ohio. You
can reach this page
by clicking on the
CAT logo on the
Library home page.
You’ve got this already?
With a click on the OPAC icon,
you can skip this review
information and go directly to the
practice.

If not, go through this information

and then complete the practice
that follows.
You’ve reached the INFOhio Online
Catalog search page. Let’s cover the
review first: Results provided from this
page (generally books) are housed in our
school library. Therefore, unless
someone else has checked out the book,
you know you can get your hands on
these resources immediately.
 A Quick Review of Quick Search
A title search brings up
In a keyword search, the search
resources whose title matches
term could be listed anywhere in the
your search request.
record (author, title, subject) for a
resource to appear in the result.

In a subject search, the search

An author search brings up term must be listed as a subject
resources written by the writer you for a resource to come up. Subject
supply. searches must fit a controlled
vocabulary list and usually elicit more
specific requests.
If we search for sex education using the keyword
search, here’s what we get. What can we learn from
these results?
13 books
match our
search request.
This one
looks good.
Nonfiction and
current –
published in
2007.
These sources are
Fiction (marked by the F)
and aren’t appropriate for a
research paper.
 Advanced Search Tips
Your teacher is requiring you to use a book from the At
Issue or Opposing Viewpoints series. The Advanced
Search can help you find these books…and more.

Click here to
access the
Advanced Search
tools.
Input your search
terms here.
What kind of results do we get?

Let’s focus on the bibliographic entry. There’s lots of

information here too. The Brief Description tab gives us
basic identifying info as well as info about the book’s
availability. This icon tells us
that we can access
a summary.
This one takes
us to reviews.

…and more
reviews.
These related
subjects may
It’s in and on the
provide access to
shelf. Location
other helpful
is noted by call
resources.
number.
 A Look Inside…
provides a
summary and a
review.

Full Description provides

bibliographic information.
Sometimes this tab also provides a
table of contents.
OPAC Practice
Record the answers to these questions on your Answer Sheet.

1. Go to the OPAC. Conduct a title search for “Does

capital punishment deter crime?”
• What is the call number of this book?
• What series is it a part of?
• Check the Table of Contents. Which chapter
numbers can we know deal with deterrence
based upon their titles?

Need more help than

you thought? Click on
the logo to back
through the tutorial.
2. Conduct a keyword search for “capital punishment.”
• How many results do you find?
• How many of these results are nonfiction? How can you tell
they are nonfiction?
• How many of these nonfiction books are dated
after 2005?
3. Conduct an Advanced Search using the keyword
“capital punishment” and the series “Opposing
Viewpoints.”
• How many results do you find? Given the
parameters your teacher has set up, which of
these two resources would be best for you to
use for this project? Why?
• Examine the acceptable result. Using the Full
Description tab, locate the two chapter titles
that relate to capital punishment and
deterrence. What are these titles?
Other Resources

Click here to
unlock the hidden
One of the great things treasures.
about our OPAC is that the
treasures it holds are not limited
to those we find housed in our library building.
Let’s uncover some of them.

Other Resources is the key. Let’s open it up.

If you are accessing this off campus, you

might need to use the username: think and
password: infohio.
 If you know it all,
INFOhio is a treasure! skip to the practice
with a click of this
button.

We’re going to follow

the Grades 9-12 links.

INFOhio, the Information Network for Ohio

Schools, is our state’s virtual PreK-12 library.
It provides electronic resources, library 
automation, and other services to Ohio schools.
 Grades 9-12 Tools This button will take
you to a screen that
describes all resources
available.
Prepare
to be
amazed!

All these tools are available to you, but we’re going

to focus on the EBSCO Databases, since they will
be the most helpful tools for you as you complete
your research synthesis essay.
 EBSCOhost Databases
A click on the All EBSCO Databases button gives us
access to 23 different databases. The periodicals that
are included in these databases are well-respected, so
you don’t need to worry about whether they are reliable
and verified. And that’s not the only advantage.
Searching in EBSCOhost is easy…if you know some
tricks.

Pick me,
pick me!
EBSCO Images is a great
resource when you are doing
a project that requires
photos or other graphics.
Each of these databases collects
materials from thousands of magazines,
newspapers, and journals, so if your topic
is specific, you can save time by
choosing a database that fits your topic.
For instance, Alt Healthwatch is a good
match for a paper on childhood obesity.
Since the topic of sex education focuses on education,
let’s select ERIC, the Education Resource Information
Center, as well as two more general databases:
Academic Search Premier, a multi-disciplinary
database which accesses over 4600 periodicals, and
MAS Ultra – School Edition, which is designed
specifically for high schools.

Remember what happened when we

searched sex education in Google? Let’s
use the quotation marks here to avoid that
again.
 So what do we get?
Just over 7800
matches is better than 8
million, but it’s still a lot
to filter.

There are clues here to help us narrow our

search further:
• Zanzibar? We want info about sex ed in
the U.S.
• 1916 is too long ago. Your teacher says
our info has to be from 2005 or newer.
 Using Advanced
Search, we can limit
Limiters search results to those
covering the U.S.

While we’re at it,

let’s look only for full-
Scholarly articles text articles, not just We can further
reflect a higher level of summaries of articles. limit our results by
research. Let’s see selecting resources
what we can find with dated 2005 or later.
those parameters.
 Much better!
Results We can wade through
66 articles much
faster than we can
7800!

Do we have any other options that could

make this even more specific? How about
considering what aspects of sex ed we want
to research?
If I look at the Thesaurus Terms drop-
down menu, I can see other related search
terms. Abstinence is listed here, and I’ve
thought about focusing on the effectiveness of
abstinence-only sex education. What
happens if I use that as a limiter?
Eleven hits! Hot dog!
And all of them focus on
the specific research
topic I’ve chosen!
 If I click the title of the first article, here’s what I find…

Specific
identifying
An abstract that
information
summarizes the article
about the
to allow for further
article’s
evaluation.
original
publication

The URL that

provides access to
this article into
perpetuity.
A click on the PDF
Full-text button
brings the article to
the screen.
Some articles are
available in HTML
format.
It’s a keeper, so now I need to look for ways to …or save
save this article. it to a
I can flash
print… drive.
And here’s my favorite…
EBSCOhost will create the citation
for me in MLA or APA format.

…email the
article to our
own email
account…
EBSCOhost Practice
Record the answers to these questions on your Answer Sheet.

1. Use Academic Search Premier to look for articles on

capital punishment and deterrence. (Remember the
password and user name?) Limit your search to full-
text articles in scholarly journals that were
originally published between 2008 and
the present. Copy the MLA citation
for each and paste them in a your answer
sheet.

Not as easy as you thought?

Go back to the beginning of
the EBSCO section.
2. Begin a new search. Use only Newspaper Source
and conduct a search using “capital punishment.”
Limit your search to full-text articles published from
January 2010 to May 2010. How many results do
you find?
3. Use the Advanced Search tool to further limit your
search. Maintain the same time parameters but add
“execution” and “United States” to the limiters.
• Now how many results do you find?
• In what format is the result available?
• Copy the MLA citation and paste it in your
answer sheet.
4. Use Academic Search Premier to search
for “childhood obesity.” What other
Thesaurus terms are also available to
find resources?
 Other INFOhio Treasures
Go back to the INFOhio homepage and let’s explore
some other goodies.
World Book Advanced offers all the information you
would expect from an encyclopedia and a lot more.

Still smarter than

this presentation?
Skip all this.
World Book Advanced
As you conduct your research, you are likely to
encounter new ideas,
people, and events. A quick
search in World Book
Advanced can help you
understand these new ideas
so your research
reading makes
more sense.
 World Book’s
dictionary allows
you to look up
unfamiliar words you
encounter in your
research.

The Primary Sources include

trial transcripts for important
cases like Gregg v. Georgia, the
1976 case in which the
Supreme Court ruled the death
penalty is constitutional.
 And there’s more… A link to
the e-book A Dictionary
of American History, which
A table that can be searched using a
shows the status keyword search.
of capital
punishment in
each of the 50
states.
A special
report called
A link to the website “Marking Time
“Capital Punishment on Death Row.”
Statistics.”
In this case, World Book Advanced
even provides a research guide to capital
punishment that includes links to
encyclopedia articles, articles on study
skills, a special
report on death
row, and 25
magazine articles
from EBSCOhost
databases on the
topic of capital
punishment.
Like EBSCOhost, World Book Advanced provides a
citation maker.
The citation
maker is attached
to each
encyclopedia
article.

Just copy and paste into your Works Cited

or click the Help link for more assistance.
World Book Advanced Practice
1. Go to World Book Advanced. (User name and
password are the same as for EBSCO.)Search the
encyclopedia for information on “bullying.”
• What is the URL for the article called “Bullying”?
• Copy and paste the citation for this article on your answer
sheet.
2. From this page, follow the link to
magazine articles.
• How many magazine articles can be accessed
from this link?
• How many special reports are there?
• Name the one that you believe would be most
helpful in research on bullying in schools.

Need some help? Go back to

the beginning of this section.
Other INFOhio Treasures
The Digital Video
Collection provides
instant access to
video appropriate to
school. While most
are designed for use
in classroom
instruction, you
might find something
that relates to your
research topic.

Skip it all if
you choose.
For instance, you
can download two
videos on childhood
obesity in just
moments.
The Internet Public Library for Teens
(ilp2) offers lots of support, both academic
and emotional.
 A+ Writing
Research
Paper Guide
provides lots
of writing
support as
well as links to You can even
other support Ask a Librarian a
sites. question!

If your topic is
Reading & Writing health-related, you may
links connect to find resources from the
young adult reading Health & Sexuality
lists and writing icon.
guides.
 Topics that have an historical
element could be researched at the Ohio
Historical Society, Ohio Memory, and
the Library of Congress American
Memory project.
Government
data can be
A.D.A.M. collected from
and FirstGov and
MEDLINE Ohio.gov.
plus provide
research on
medical
issues.
INFOhio Treasures Practice
1. Search the Digital Video Collection for “HIV.”
• What is the name the video available on this topic?
• In what year was it released?
2. Search ipl2’s Health & Sexuality links for “childhood
obesity.”
• List the resulting link and URL of the result.
3. Search MedlinePlus for “childhood obesity.”
Click on the Cluster on Defining/Trends in
Childhood Obesity.
• List the link and URL that would help provide
statistics on obesity.
4. Search FirstGov for HIV statistics.
• List the link and URL for a resource that
Need some help?
provides basic stats on HIV from the CDC.
And there you have it…
…the tools you need to successfully navigate
the school’s OPAC and many of the resources
available through INFOhio, the state’s virtual
library and storehouse of information. If you
need additional help with any of these tools or
want more practice opportunities, see
Mrs. James or Mrs. Smith. We are
always happy to help.

Good luck and happy hunting!