Web-based (Moodle) course - Register to work -at-your-own-pace anytime
Learning Activities:
In this hands-on workshop you will learn to employ powerful Web reference strategies. We'll begin with the basics: What is the reference question? What are the reference tools available to you? Is the Web the best source for the answers to your reference question given your patron's information needs, etc.? After clarifying that the Web is the best information source we'll continue to identify and learn to use core Web resource directories/electronic libraries (e.g., OPLIN), and Web search engines with advanced search features. Just as it is sometimes a more powerful choice to use licensed databases (that are accessible to the librarian and patron) or print resources, it is also sometimes more efficient to go directly to known subject specific free Web databases. We'll learn the core free Web databases for selected subject areas. Basic search skills will be reviewed and discussed. Advanced search skills will be introduced and practiced.
The hands-on learning activities provide practical experience in comparing and evaluating Web resource directories, e-libraries, Web search engines, and subject specific free Web databases in terms of their practical use in answering real-life reference questions.
This course is specifically designed for experienced library reference staff who want to make the best use of Web resources in answering reference questions.
Participants should know how to use e-mail and a current standard Web Browser, e.g.,Mozilla/Firefox, or Internet Explorer -- current versions are best.
Register anytime to work-at-your-own-pace with a Web teacher through e-mail, chat and Moodle. $50 tuition.
Diane K. Kovacs is President of Kovacs Consulting - Internet &Web Training.She has been a Web Teacher and Consultant for nearly 20 years. She designs and teaches Web-based and in-person courses for organizations and individuals including UIUC GSLIS LEEP, ACR, MLA, NEO-RLS, NTRLS, SEFLIN, WNYRLC, and others. Diane has been designing and teaching Web-based and in-person MLA Approved CE Courses since 2001
Her most recent book is The Kovacs Guide to Electronic Library Collection Development: Essential Core Subject Collections, Selection Criteria, and Guidelines, 2nd Edition (2009) Neal-Schuman Publishers. The Virtual Reference Handbook: Interview and Information Delivery Techniques for the Chat and E-Mail Environments Neal-Schuman Publishers (2007) was published concurrently in the United Kingdom by Facet Publishers (2007).
Genealogical Research on Web was published in 2002. How to Find Medical Information on the Internet: A Print and Online Tutorial for the Health Care Professional and Consumer (2000) (Library Solutions Press) and Building Electronic Library Collections: The Essential Guide to Selection Criteria and Core Collections (Neal-Schuman) were both published in 2000.
Diane's first book The Internet Trainer's Guide was published in 1995. The Internet Trainer's Total Solution Guide was published in 1997. She has also co-authored with her husband Michael Kovacs, Cybrarians Guide to Successful Internet Programs and Services which was published by Neal-Schuman in 1997.
Diane Kovacs is the 2000 recipient of the "Documents to the People" award from the Government Documents Roundtable of the American Library Association. She was also the recipient of the Apple Corporation Library's, Internet Citizen Award for 1992 and was the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science Alumni Association's first recipient of the Leadership Award in 1996.
Diane received an M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois in 1989 and an M.Ed. in Instructional Technology from Kent State University in 1993. She has a B.A. in Anthropology also from the University of Illinois, 1985.