Information Consultant’s Report – Final Report

sections from Part A:
1- Client Information Need Synopsis
2- Search Objectives
3- Analysis of the Keywords and Synonyms
4- Online Search Tools Selected (including the revised critique form for each tool)
5- Discussion of the Initial Search Strategies for Each Online Search Tool

Plus, the following sections:
6- Executive Summary, Introduction and Conclusion
NOTE: Executive summary is not included in the word count limit
7- Discussion of the Alternative Search Strategies for Each Online Tool: The Alternative Search Strategy is the search you have prepared in advance in case the initial search fails to produce satisfactory results (e.g. producing too few or too many results). How will you change your strategies? For every initial search strategy you have, you should provide an alternative search strategy. So, for example, if you had 4 search strategies in your interim report, you need to discuss four alternative search strategies in your final report. Outline and discuss them in this section.
Similar to the initial search strategies in the interim report, the alternative search strategies should show precisely what you propose to enter once logged on to any online tool and as such should show how each search strategy has taken into consideration the unique features of the online tool being searched. Therefore, there should be a significant difference between strategies used in each online tool. That is, you are not allowed to use the exact same search strategy for both of your database and internet search engine, in case you decide o search one search objective in both. Discuss why your search strategies are different for different online tools.
Be specific where possible. Don’t just discuss things in theoretical terms – discuss the specific searches you have performed. How did you develop your searches? Why?
8- Discussion of Results: Provide a discussion on the results you obtained. This discussion must include:
• Details of the criteria you used for selecting the results to recommend to client and why you used that criteria;
• A discussion of the total number of results you obtained from each search tool;
• An evaluation of the overall quality of the results obtained (i.e. how well do the results meet your clients information need?)
• A discussion on the type of results you would like to have obtained versus what you did obtain?
• Your professional opinion on each result – why did you select it? How will it help your client? Why is it part of the top 20-25 results?
NOTE: You should include an abstract/summary for each of your 20-25 results as an appendix. The abstracts/summaries are not included in the word count limit.
A Framework for Evaluating Online Resources

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Information Consultant’s Report – Final Report
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Online Resource Name:
Producer/Creators:
Geographic Coverage (i.e. what geographic region does the resource include?)
Time Coverage (i.e. what period of time does the resource include?)
Type of Materials Included (i.e. journal articles, conference papers etc):

Peer Review (i.e. do articles included in the resource evaluated by professional peers before being published?)
Full text, Index & Abstract, Index only (ie what is the nature of the items included in the resource?)
Search Control Features: (discuss how these features are made available within the resource)

• Boolean
• Sets
• Truncation
• Proximity
• Field Searching
• Controlled Vocabulary
• Other?

Limit Commands (i.e. year, publication type etc):

Help Feature (i.e. does the resource provide a help feature?)

Cost (i.e. how much does it cost to use the resource?)

Workability (i.e. navigation, browsability & organisation):
Accuracy of Information (i.e. is the information correct?)

Based on the above what do you identify as the strengths as a tool for locating information?
Based on the above what do you identify as the weaknesses as a tool for locating information?

What search objectives will this resource support? (it is acceptable to have more than 1 search objective being supported by the same resource)
What results do you hope to obtain from this resource in regards to the information need? (i.e. expert opinions, statistical data, rigorous research findings etc)