Inform As mati ssig ion gnm Lit men tera nt acy - DeVry University

Information
Literacy
Assignment
Library Resource Overview
Nicole Wilson, Director of Library Services

Assignment Purpose:
To ensure students are:
• Aware of library resources and services available through DeVry University
• Adequately able to locate library resources and services available through DeVry
University
Sample research topic:
Student Success Factors
Directions:
Using the topic of “student success factors”, locate information using the following resources:
• Library Catalog
• NetLibrary
• EBSCOhost
• SIRS (Social Issues Resources Series)
• Arizona Republic/Newsbank
Select a controversial topic of your choice using the following resource:
• Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center
What are these resources?
• The Library Catalog is a tool used to locate library resources such as books, eBooks and
other materials in the DeVry Library system. Users are able to limit searches to a
specific campus or select all DeVry campuses. Users may search by subject, title, author
or keyword.
• NetLibrary provides access to DeVry’s collection of thousands of electronic books
(eBooks) on a wide variety of topics in a variety of disciplines.
• EBSCOhost offers full-text access to articles in a variety of subject areas.
• SIRS (Social Issues Resources Series) provides relevant, credible information on social
issues, science, history, government, the arts and humanities.
• Arizona Republic/Newsbank contains news from various newspapers such as The
Arizona Republic, Fortune, Money, Time and many more. Each paper provides unique
coverage of local and regional news, including companies, politics, sports, industries,
cultural activities and people in the community.
• Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center is a one-stop source for information on today’s
hottest social issues, featuring viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine,
academic journal and newspaper articles, statistics, and more.

Library Catalog Search Example
For the purpose of this assignment, let’s use “motivation” as an example of a student success
factor. Go to the DeVry National Library Resources page at: http://library.devry.edu/. Click on
Library Catalog. Using the online library catalog, locate a book using the topic of “student
success factors and motivation”. Locate the book’s title and call number.
Online catalog search page
After entering your search terms and either clicking the Search button or Enter on your keyboard,
the results page will display all the results relating to the terms you had entered (notice that there
are over 6,000 records retrieved relating to the search terms entered):
Online catalog results page

By default, the results are displayed in order of relevance to your search terms. The first title fits
the search terms I had entered and based on the title, appears to be just what I am looking for,
Motivation and learning strategies for college success: a self-management approach. Clicking
on the title will display the resource’s information. The title and call number may be located
here:
Catalog record

NetLibrary Search Example
Go to the DeVry National Library Resources page at: http://library.devry.edu/. Click on
NetLibrary. Using NetLibrary, locate an eBook using “student success factors”. Check out the
book and locate the book’s title and ISBN (International Standard Book Number that is a 10-
digit number uniquely identifying books and book-like products published internationally).
Also, while the book is checked out, locate and print the table of contents page.
*IMPORTANT!* Please ensure to “Close Item” (in other words, return the book) before exiting
NetLibrary:
NetLibrary search page
Notice there are over 400 results. Let’s narrow these results down a bit using the limiters on the
right side under Related Topics. This will assist in locating resources that more closely match
what I am searching for:
Results page

For the purpose of this example, I selected the limiter, Education to narrow my results. I now am
able to see 55 results that more closely fit what I am searching for. The second title, The Art of
Learning: A Self-help Manual for Students is just what I am looking for:
Narrowed results page using limiters
To locate the eBook’s detailed information and to find the ISBN, click on Show Details and
select the drop-down link Full Metadata:
eBook detailed information page

To check out the eBook, simply click View this eBook. Clicking on View this eBook is the
same as if you were to walk in to your local DeVry library and check out the book at the front
desk, only the eBook is displayed in PDF format. The Table of Contents is located on the left
side of the screen:
Remember to “return”
the book by clicking
Close Item
Table of Contents
Viewing an eBook

EBSCOhost Search Example
Go to the DeVry National Library Resources page at: http://library.devry.edu/. Click on
EBSCOhost. Using the EBSCOhost database, locate a full-text article on the topic “student
success factors and motivation”, listing the article title and date of publication. For the purposes
of this example, let’s use the EBSCOhost Advanced Search feature:
EBSCOhost enterance page
The EBSCOhost Basic Search feature allows users to see a simple search screen. Users are able
to select which database in EBSCOhost to search in. For this topic, the databases Vocational
and Career Collection and the Professional Development Collection will work nicely. Above
the text box, click Choose Databases to select the two databases listed above. Simply click the
check box near the names of the databases and click OK at the bottom of the page to return to
the basic search page:

Choose Databases screen
Enter the search terms “student success factors and motivation” in to the search box:
Basic search page
There are over 70 results relating to the search topic “student success factors and motivation”.
There are limiters to the left and right of the results. Users are able to limit results on the right by
date range, and on the left by subject, database:

Results page
Scrolling down the list of results, the article School Structural Characteristics, Student Effort,
Peer Associations, and Parental Involvement: The Influence of School – and Individual-Level
Factors on Academic Achievement fits nicely in to our research topic of choice. Clicking on the
article title will display the article information where the title and date of publication may be
located:
Article Information

SIRS Search Example
Go to the DeVry-Phoenix local library webpage at: http://www.phx.devry.edu/library/. Click on
SIRS. Using SIRS, locate an article on the topic of “student success factors and motivation” and
provide the title and date of publication of the article. Enter the search terms in to the search box
and select the button Keyword/Natural Language to search using the keywords provided:
SIRS search page
There are over 160 results related to the search terms “student success factors and motivation”
(146 are magazine articles and 21 are newspaper articles as you can see at the top of the screen):
SIRS
results page

Scrolling down, the article, Why We Quit fits nicely in to the topic of “student success factors
and motivation”. Clicking on the article title will display the article if it is available in full-text,
th e title of the article and date of publication:
Article and article information
Arizona Republic/Newsbank Search Example
Go to the DeVry-Phoenix local library webpage at: http://www.phx.devry.edu/library/. Click on
Arizona Republic/Newsbank. Using Arizona Republic/Newsbank, locate an article on the topic
of “student success factors and motivation” and provide the title and date of publication of the
article:
Click
on Arizona Republic, The

Conduct a search using the search terms “student success factors motivation”:
Arizona Republic/Newsbank search page
There are 20 results. For the purposes of this example, click on the article, Education Pays Off
in Hard Cash as it encompasses what we are interested in, “student success factors”. The article
ti tle and date of publication may be located here:
Article and article information

Opposing Viewpoints Search Example
Go to the DeVry-Phoenix local library webpage at: http://www.phx.devry.edu/library/. Click on
Opposing Viewpoints. Using Opposing Viewpoints, choose a controversial topic of your choice
and list the topic. Popular topics of interest are located on this main search page. Users may
also use the Basic Search on the left to enter in a controversial topic of choice:
Opposing Viewpoints search page