Citation Displays: ManyVariations

The citations below--one each from frequently-used databases within the CDL/Melvyl® System, PsycINFO, Magazine & Journal Articles, Current Contents, and Newspaper Articles--could be considered a decent array of articles on the same topic searched by a UC student.  Typically, a student would amass this list by emailing each citation to him/herself, OR save them to one list to review and maybe print out after the searching is done.  In some cases, a student would just jot down the most important details by hand and not bother to print them (or wait for the shared printer to come up for air).

Each citation provides the student with enough information to locate the article within the library; in these examples, I've eliminated the holdings/call no. information to reduce visual clutter.  The way in the citaitions they display their bibliographic elements is easily grasped by seasoned academics, but for lower-division undergraduates (and many upper-division undergraduates with little research experience) upon closer inspection it's clear that the order of the elements varies from database to database.  No one "rote" approach works to interpret them.

PsycINFO
ARTICLE       Burgess, Diana; Haney, Beth; Snyder, Mark; Sullivan, John L.; Transue, John
                       E. Rocking the vote: Using personalized messages to motivate voting among
                       young adults. Public Opinion Quarterly. 2000 Spr. 64 (1): p. 29-52
                       Language: English.  Pub type: Empirical Study
                       [Abstract] [Long Display]

MAGAZINE &
JOURNAL ARTICLES
                       Tindell, John H.; Medhurst, Martin J.  Rhetorical Reduplication in MTV's Rock the
                       Vote Campaign. Communication Studies v49, n1 (Spring, 1998):18 (11 pages).
                       [Abstract] [Long Display]

CURRENT
CONTENTS  KOCH NS.  CHANGING TIMES - THE EFFECT OF THE NEW-YORK-TIMES
                       ON COLLEGE STUDENTS POLITICAL INFORMATION AND BEHAVIOR.
                       SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, 1994, V31(N1):29-38.
                       Language: English
                       [Long Display]

NEWSPAPER
ARTICLES    Cuza, Bobby The mission of Rock the Vote: making it cool to cast a ballot. Los
                       Angeles Times (July 2, 2000):A3.
                       [Long Display]

Similarities:

The fact that all four citation formats begin the same can easily lead the student to assume the rest of the elements are also listed in the same order.  They all begin with the name(s) of the author(s), followed by the title of the article in bold, then the name of the journal.  They all end with the pagination.

Differences:

Taking the format of the Magazine & Journal Articles database to establish an order for comparison, the position of the  bibliographic elements after the journal name appear as follows:
 

online index	volume no.	issue no.	part of year	year	pages
Mag. & J. Articles	1	2	3	4	5
PsycINFO	3	4	2	1	5
Current Contents	2	3	none	1	4
Newspaper Art.	none	none	1	2	3

To make sure that students understand that citation displays are consistent within a database but vary among databases, I ask students in the instruction session to call out the elements from at least two different databases.  I move through the room with a wireless microphone and a laser pointer.

My favorite examples are those from PsycINFO that make the volume number look like the date, as in the one below:

1. ARTICLE.   Domke, David; Shah, Dhavan V.; Wackman, Daniel B. Rights and morals,
   issues, and candidate integrity: Insights into the role of the news media. Political
   Psychology. Blackwell Publishers: US, 2000 Dec. 21 (4): p. 641-665
   Language: English.  Pub type: Empirical Study

The "other half" of this instruction is the deciphering of holdings information, including distinguishing which articles are available full-text online and which are not.

Using a Wireless Microphone and Pen-Sized Laser Pointer
to Enhance Interactivity (or, Getting Up Close and Personal)

When I teach in the UCI Main Library's "Technology Enhanced Classroom" (aka TEC), I try to incorporate as much interactivity as I can.  In order to move among the students, I wear the wireless microphone, which enables me to roam around the 28-seat (and 28-PC) classroom, which is (unfortunately) arranged in rows.  The microphone is very light, small, and clips to a neckline, collar, or tie.  It is connected via a cord about 3 feet long to something encased in plastic about the size and shape of a deck of playing cards, which fits easily into a pocket.  Women need to remember to wear something with a well-placed pocket OR stiff belt on days when they want to use the microphone; the clip on the back enables it to be clipped onto a belt, too.  In order to speak to the entire class AND to hear answers from students, it's important to wear the pocket-sized part in front, so the microphone can be moved back and forth between the instructor and the student.

The TEC has a small, wall-mounted unit with a short antenna that holds the on-off switch.  The wall-mounted unit is connected to wall-mounted speakers on both sides of the room.  To turn the microphone on, I must turn both the wall-mounted unit on and turn the pocket unit on.

I also have a laser-light pointer, so I can go up to a student in the back row and ask him/her to tell all of us how to get our hands on the article in, say, citation no. 17 in the list of articles displayed on the screen in front of the room.  I give that student the light pen, and I hold the microphone for him/her to speak into it (yeah, it sounds like Elizabeth Dole working the Republican National Convention audience...).  The exchange goes something like this--after I've given the basics of how to read a citation and now want the students to walk through a few of them:

       Me: OK, hmmmmm....  the title of citation no. 17 looks promising.  Let's take a
       closer look at it.  (To student:) Please help me out with this, OK? (when I have
       volunteers, I make a beeline for them, but when it gets quiet, I start picking
       students myself).  Is there a way I can find out more about this article?

       Student:  yes

       Me: how can you tell?

       Student: by reading  the abstract

       Me: Oh; how can you tell there's an abstract?

       Student points laser light at "abstract" in the record:   because it says so here

       Me:  so where do you read the abstract?

       Student clicks on "abstract": by doing this.

       Me: The abstract looks pretty good.  Remember the keywords we typed in as
       the search terms?  Where are they in the record?

       Student points to a word in the title with the laser pointer, and two in the
       abstract:  here, here, and here.

       Me:  So, that's how this record got into our list of citations.  Now, what's the
       name of the journal where this article was published?

       Student:  Ummm.   "The Effect of the BI Librarian Breathing Down Your
       Neck...."

       Me:  Now that's a journal I want to subscribe to.  But seriously, that's the title of
       the article.

       Student:  OK; it must be, um, Student Anxiety Review???

       Me (taking the pointer back and pointing to the journal title):  Right.  In this
       database, this is where the journal title appears in each record.  What's this
       number after the journal name (points with laser pointer)?

       ....and so on; you get the idea.

       The TEC also has a wireless mouse, which I am only beginning to use.  That let's
       me click and HIGHLIGHT from anywhere in the room; I am not tethered to the
       keyboard.  I've enjoyed having a student do the keyboarding while I roam
       around the classroom, however.

What this demonstration does is put the student into an active, not passive position.  Also, the less-attentive students who tend to arrive late and sit in the back can see they are fair game.  Answers from shy students with semi-inaudible voices can be heard by everyone in class.  Students actually enjoy using the laser pen, and the microphone amuses them.  Students must "stand and deliver" and not just listen to me, the talking head. Finally, the students see that their peers can actually go through the steps to get their hands on the journal article as I talk through through the "socratic" steps via Q & A.  Is there some anxiety as I put the students through their paces?  Oh, yes!  But I point out the importance of the details, as in "OK, so I get to the third floor, get to the right call number, and there are 40 volumes of this journal staring at  me.   How do I know which one has the article I'm looking for???   What information did I write down when I had this list [now on the screen] in front of me???"
 

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