School of Library and Information Science
21:122 Organization of Information Resources I
Summer 2004
Gregory Cotton, instructor

Purpose: To familiarize the student with different searches in library catalogs.

Procedure: Follow the directions for each problem below. Find and enscribe sufficient information to give a definitive answer to each question posed.

1. Using InfoHawk, determine whether the University of Iowa libraries own the video version of Shakespeare's Hamlet, starring Kate Winslet and Derek Jacobi.

• Do a keyword search to find locate the catalog record for the video.
• Locate the same record with an author search for Shakespeare. Was this attempt easier than keyword? Why or why not?

2. You have a patron who is researching the Palestinian Liberation Organization. An excellent book in your collection would be Arafat : a political biography, but neither you nor the patron know about it. Using the Cornell College OPAC, attempt to retrieve the above title using the following keyword searches:

• plo
• palestinian liberation organization
• palestine liberation organization

  Compare the results for each search? Why do you suppose they vary so wildly? Could you easily find the Arafat biography?

  Now, do a subject search (under the "Find Results In:") for plo. Follow the references shown. What is the "real" name of the PLO?

3. Again using the Cornell College OPAC, answer the perennial question, "What videos you got?" If the person could speak English, the words would have been, "Can you give me a list of the video recordings the library owns?" Try answering this question two ways:

• Do a keyword search, using whatever terms occur to you
• Do a subject search on the subject heading video recordings

  Which method is more satisfactory? Why?

4. Using the Cornell College OPAC and whatever search skills you have at hand, determine if the College owns a travel guide to San Francisco that has colored illustrations.

5. At the Cole Library reference desk: "There's a guy my professor keeps talking about-the name's Dricker or Drucker or something. I'm pretty sure his first name is Peter, and he wrote stuff in the Wall Street Journal. Do you have any books by him?" Using your by-now old friend, the Cornell College OPAC, find an answer to this question.

6. Consider Wagner's "Ring" operas. Using any search from the Cornell College OPAC, determine how many complete versions on video are owned by Cole Library.