HOW TO USE A PATHFINDER

TOPICS Lesson 1- What is a pathfinder? Lesson 2- What can you find in a pathfinder? Lesson 3- How to use a pathfinder References

What is a pathfinder? Pathfinders lead researchers through information jungles. They make sense of the huge variety of information buckets. They can suggest keywords and tags and call numbers. They can suggest books and journals to browse. They link researchers to critical readings and websites and blogs and wikis and portals and databases. They suggest strategies for searching and for documentation. .

What is a pathfinder? In the voice of the librarian, they make sure that student researchers know about the very best tools in their information toolkits. Pathfinders allow us to intervene in ways that offer learners the independence they crave. In the 70s we created them in print. I suspect some of us still do. In the 90s we began publishing pathfinders as WebPages.

What can you find in a pathfinder? 1. A list of keywords or search terms that will help you when searching the Library Catalogue or the Internet. 2. Some tips on more effective ways of searching the Internet 3. A list of books that may be useful from our Library 4. A list of websites, videos and other online resources that we have found, which will help you in your research

STEP 1: Go to your library website or pathfinder sites

STEP 2: Click the PATHFINDER button

Step 3: Search your topic by SUBJECT or ALPHABETICALLY

Note: You can also use the search engine if available

Step 3: Click your topic! Here you can find the related terms, used for, broader terms and narrower terms that can help you analyze the topic that you’re searching.

Step 4: Check and copy the bibliographic details , type of material (book , periodical , electronic etc) the call no. and the location where you can find the book LOCATION TYPE OF MATERIAL AUTHOR CALL NO.

Click the title for more detailed description and check if the book is onshelf or on loan

For electronic sources: You can log in to your library’s subscribed ejournals to browse the material.

For Internet Resources: Just click the link posted .

Step 4: If the book/material you want is available you can now go to location where you can find them. ENJOY READING!!!

References : ONLINE RESOURCES: Wikispaces http://informationfluency.wikispaces.com Library Pathfinder http://librarypathfinders.weebly.com Website: De La Salle University http://www.dlsu.edu.ph/library ipl2 is hosted by The iSchool at Drexel, College of Information Science and Technology, with major support from the College of Information at Florida State University http://www.ipl.org Picture: http://www.uvu.edu/copyright/images/library_student2_300.jpg