INFS 112

Introduction to information management

Session 10 – Information Retrieval and Dissemination

Lecturer: Dr. Perpetua S. Dadzie, Dept. of Information Studies

Contact Information: psdadzie@ug.edu.gh

College of Education
School of Continuing and Distance Education
2014/2015 – 2016/2017
 Session Overview
At the end of the session, the student will be
able to:
• Explain the types of information retrieval tools
• Explain importance of information
dissemination

Dr. Perpetua Dadzie, Dept of Information Studies Slide 2

 Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as
follows:
• Topic One - Manual Retrieval Tools
• Topic Two – Electronic Retrieval Tools
• Topic Three – Information Dissemination

Dr. Perpetua Dadzie, Dept of Information Studies Slide 3

 Reading List

Dr. Perpetua Dadzie, Dept of Information Studies Slide 4

 Topic One

MANUAL RETRIEVAL TOOLS

Dr. Perpetua Dadzie, Dept of Information Studies Slide 5

 Manual Retrieval tools
Two types of Information Retrieval tools: Manual and
Electronic
• Manual tools: Catalogues, bibliographies, indexes,
abstracts, thesaurus, directories.
• Electronic tools: CD ROM, Online retrieval services,
Databases, websites, subject directories etc.
The Catalogue
• contains bibliographic printed on cards; known as card
catalogue. Today information captured in machine
readable form called Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC)
 Manual Retrieval tools (2)
Card catalogue – 3 major access points :
• Author index – alphabetical arrangement of author’s
surname
• Title index – alphabetical arrangement of titles of
materials within collection
• Subject index – alphabetical lists of subjects covered by
library
• User can search using author, title and subject indexes ;
• Subject entries done with lists such as Library of Congress
Subject Headings or Sears List of Subject Headings.
 Manual Retrieval tools (3)
• Two basic types of catalogues
• Classified catalogue –entries arranged by some recognized
system of classification symbol;
• Dictionary catalogue – arrangement in one straight forward
alphabetical sequence.
• Classification - arrangement of knowledge in logical order.
• Classification Scheme – General or Special
• General schemes used in public, academic, national libraries
ex. Library of Congress (LC), Dewey Decimal Classification
(DDC)
 Manual Retrieval tools (4)
The Catalogue …
• Special schemes – restricted areas of knowledge such as education,
law, chemistry etc
• Schemes adopt symbols as class marks to represent classes and
divisions;
• symbols known as notation – represents subjects and
relationships; use numbers or letters or both
Some Notation in DDC
• 000 Generalities
• 100 Philosophy and related disciples
• 200 Religion
• 300 Social Sciences
 Manual Retrieval tools (5)
Some Notation in LC
• Class H Social Science
• Class J Political Science
• Class K Law
• Class L Education
• Class M Music
Indexes –alphabetical list of names, subjects, etc., with
references to places where they occur; something that
serves to guide, point out, or otherwise facilitate reference
• Types - author index, title index, subject index
 Manual Retrieval tools (6)
Some Notation in LC
• Class H Social Science
• Class J Political Science
• Class K Law
• Class L Education
• Class M Music
Indexes –alphabetical list of names, subjects, etc., with
references to places where they occur; something that
serves to guide, point out, or otherwise facilitate reference
• Types - author index, title index, subject index
 Manual Retrieval tools (7)
• Subject indexing – deciding what document is about
and translating conceptual analysis into index terms
which act as identifier for subject matter of
document
• Index term must be controlled for retrieval purposes;
thus controlled vocabulary
• Controlled vocabulary – list of approved terms from
which indexer must select
• Cross – references – to facilitate retrieval of groups
of like documents, semantically related.
 Manual Retrieval tools (8)
• Search file or index created - physical form such as
printed book, catalogue cards, magnetic tape or disk;
or by method of file organization eg. Alphabetical,
classified
• Index useful as reduces number of documents to
consult after a search
 Video
• Info. Literacy 5. Using a library catalog
• <iframe width="420" height="315"
src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6WHRA0Ne
3I0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 Activity
• Visit any library and use their catalogue to find
information on any author of your choice; the
number of books written, the subject areas. You are
expected to use author, title and subject indexes
 Topic Two

ELECTRONIC RETRIEVAL TOOLS

Dr. Perpetua Dadzie, Dept of Information Studies Slide 16

 Electronic Retrieval tools
• Information is stored electronically on different
media eg Online information retrieval, CD
ROM, RAM, Databases
• Online information retrieval eg Dialog, OCLC -
involve searching remotely located databases
with help of computers and communication
channels.
• Online search services assessed after payment
of subscription fees through examples:
 Electronic Retrieval tools (2)
Online information retrieval….
• OCLC First Search (http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch)
provides access to core collection of reference
databases. Includes WorldCat, CAMIO, Electronic
Books and OASIster
Full text journals and books:
• EBSCO Information Service (http://www.ebsco.com).
Provides access to large collection of full text and
bibliographic databases
 Electronic Retrieval tools (3)
• ProQuest (http://proquest.com/about)
contains millions of articles originally
published in magazines, newspapers and
journals
 Electronic Retrieval tools (4)
Basic steps in online search
• Study search topic, develop clear understanding of information
requirement
• Get access to online search service
• Login in to service provider
• Select appropriate database
• Formulate search question
• Select appropriate format for display
• Reformulate your query if necessary
• Select mode of delivery; download records online to send
offline request
 Electronic Retrieval tools (5)
CD ROM retrieval
• CD ROM - optical storage devices which allow users to view
collection of files; allow users certain common search features such
as:
• Keywords search - user conduct search with one or more keywords
• Phrase search - multiple word phrases searched
• Boolean search – search operators AND, OR, Not used for searching
• Truncation – shortening word or eliminating some characters from
longer term to pick up variants. Left, right and middle truncation
exist
 Electronic Retrieval tools (6)
• Index and /thesaurus support – indexes
allow users to select search terms or phrase
from term index; thesaurus allows users to
get map of chosen terms in order to widen
or narrow down given search
 Electronic Retrieval tools (7)
Web information Retrieval
• URL (Uniform Resource Location) – address of
website eg. UG go to URL http://www.ug.edu.gh
• Search engines –search terms, keywords/phrases that
are run against database containing information on
web pages collected automatically by programs called
spiders;
• Ex. Google (http://www.google.com) Altavista (
http://www.searchalta.com) Ask Jeeves
(http://www.askjeeves.com)
 Electronic Retrieval tools (8)
Web information Retrieval …..
• Meta search engines – search more than one search
engine at a go. Ex. Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com);
Metacrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com)
• Just like CD ROM, search engines can perform
keyword, phrase, proximity searches
Subject directories – human-selected Internet resources
arranged and classified in hierarchical topics. Ex
 Electronic Retrieval tools (9)
Subject Directories….
Beaucoup http://www.beaucoup.com
Yahoo.com https://www.yahoo.com/
Information Gateway Retrieval -
• Communications service which provides single point of access
to networks such as Internet. Ex
• INTUTE: Social Sciences (
http://www.esrc.ac.uk/research/data/intute.aspx
• provides access to a selected source of relevant, high-quality
internet resources for social science researchers, academics
and practitioners.
 Activity
• Get access to the Internet and search all websites
listed in this session
 Topic Three

INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
TOOLS
Dr. Perpetua Dadzie, Dept of Information Studies Slide 27
 Information dissemination

• Information dissemination creates awareness of products and

services, improves knowledge base of users, enable users
make better decisions, provide feedback for administrators
• Two types: Current Awareness Service (CAS) and Selective
Dissemination of Information (SDI).
• Current Awareness Service – keeping up-to-date with
information about recent developments, particularly those in
a researcher’s own subject field
• Alerting service informs user about what is being published in
area of interest
• CAS offered at two levels – personalized and general.
 Information dissemination (2)

• Personalized level – user approaches library, select

and collect relevant information from catalogues,
books, periodicals, bibliographies, indexes etc
• General level – implementation of well planned
information service design made from time to time
• Ex of CAS – announcement of titles recently acquired,
contents list of periodicals, relevant indexes and
abstracts from secondary periodicals and digests,
• In-house CAS provided in form of Information
Bulletin
 Information dissemination (3)

Bulletin may include

• Bibliographic citation of books – author’s name, title,
year, subject
• List of periodical articles under authors arranged by
specific subject areas indicating title of journals, vol.
no. issue number ,dates, page nos.
• Subject index, keywords
• Keyword index or descriptors
• Subject-wise list of pamphlets, reports, thesis,
dissertations, fieldwork, survey reports, etc
 Information dissemination (4)

Selective Dissemination of Information

• personalized information service intended for
selected users of high priority group
• Users usually research or R & D personnel who
require carefully selected information for specific
purposes
• Email, electronic bulletin board, CD ROM essential for
SDI services
• Two profiles created – user profile, document profile
 Information dissemination (5)

• User profile – comprises identity of SDI user and

subject interests on specific areas of research or
investigation.
• User identity include name, address, telephone nos,
email and other communication means
• Subject profile – technical terms significant to query
of user
• List of significant terms or keywords to determine
areas of interest
 Information dissemination (6)

• Information specialist/library designs or constructs

individual search profiles for SDI service
• Users search profile may change from time to time
• Document profiles consists of:
• Bibliographic and non bibliographic information in
machine readable form;
• External databases
• Selection of searchable files
• Storing information for individual user in mailbox
 References

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