Hit:OPAC worksheets

[Nancy Dickinson <dickinson1@K12TN.NET>]

OK, I've already received three requests for the advice regarding making
one's own worksheets for the OPAC. Sorry I didn't post it in my original
hit. Here it is!

The most effective way to do practice activities is if tehy match your
 >collection and holdings. I know this is not what you want right now, but
 >hopefully you will work in that direction. I developed work sheets that
 >were topical -- Halloween subjects for Oct. Japan for use with 3rd
 >gd. during their unit etc. Questions asked the students to make decisions
 >as to best item to meet a described need. For example using the subject
 >Costume - identify a book for a good reader in which a costume is used to
 >solve a mystery. Point being it needs to be a fiction chapter book not an
 >Easy picture book or non-fiction book and they need to read the anotations
 >to find one that includes reference to using the costume. Another similar
 >question asked them to find a chapter book mystery set in a neighboring
 >state. Amazing how many 5th gders. had forgotten what states are
 >neighboring states to Maryland which was fourth grade social studies
 >content. I would ask things like which would be the best book for making
 >your own halloween costume again making them read the annotations and make
 >decisions based on fact vrs. story and level of difficulty. We have an *
 >in front of non-fiction call numbers in the OPAC which indicate the book
 >is shelved in the easy non-fiction section. I have them practice sorting
 >and choosing appropriate segment of the collection as well as answering
 >specific content for the question. It takes some time to generate the
 >worksheets, but the learning is more meaningful and can be transfered to
 >actual needs easily. Problem can come up when reusing teh sheet another
 >yerar and the specific book related to teh question has been lost and
 >withdrawn. My initial activity is to use a word such as farmer
 >and have them compare and analyze the results of using the same word to
 >initiate a title, author and key word seasrch. I would ask why did a
 >biog. of James Farmer come up for example. As with other skills they need
 >to be taught in terms of application to real needs not just in isolation.

I take a screen shot of the OPAC screen with search results, then import
 >it into a document and add questions. For example, it will show the
 >search for the subject "flags" and will list out the hits. I'll ask
 >questions about who is the author of "Our Flag" or what is the Call Number
 >of a particular book or in which section of the library will I find this
 >book? I find it needs to be very specific to the OPAC that I have in my
 >library for elementary students.


you might try making a packet of screen prints of different functions on
the opac. I do this to demonstrate the "front" page and then show the
hits when you do keyword, title, author, and subject. I also demonstrate
some of the other features. If you have the ability to use a large screen
for demonstration, you might do that instead of or in addition to the
screen print packets. Don't have any ideas for worksheets unless you want
to quiz them after you go over the material.


I'm not sure you are going to find anything appropriate as all systems look
slightly different. I even find it hard to find good worksheets for call
numbers, etc. because they don't necessarily catalog things exactly the way
I do. I found what I thought would be great lessons for my older kids, only
to realize that they used Cutter Numbers in the call numbers. I don't know
any school library that does that. I think you will find that same thing
with your OPAC. When I wanted to do that, I took a screen shot, saved it,
copied it into Word and then added my own questions at the bottom.

Check the web site of your automation comapny or call
your rep. Sometimes they have premade worksheets and
then you don't have to reinvent the whell.

I just made screen prints of my various OPAC screens and then printed them
on transparency sheets - use them on an overhead and you have an instant
lesson!



Nancy Dickinson, Librarian
Hillsboro Elem. School
Hillsboro, TN 37342
dickinson1@k12tn.net

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