Some of the most significant elements that librarians bring to Daily Life through History(DLtH) are knowledge of the school’s curriculum, its students and their sources of motivation. What interests them? What questions will intrigue them? Everyone likes a journey. One suggestion for getting started is to prepare a journey through the information based on a high interest question.

The journey itself would require use of search terms and search skills to reach the answer to the question. A student introduction essay can be used as the basis for a journey looking at how searching or hunting was handled in different cultures and times. This could lead to comparisons between digital hunting and older forms of hunting in other cultures. Though what one hunts and how it is hunted with digital databases are different, a student’s digital future and prosperity will depend on similar strategies.

One effective hunting strategy is to explore and observe. Hunters need to get a quick sense of what is available, learning what opportunities exist that match their interests, noting better places to hunt and then prioritizing their goals.

From the opening home page of DLtH, two major branches or options are present, Browse or Search. Explorers may browse by two time periods, from 50,000 years ago to 1900 or 1901 to the present. They may also select regions on a map or choose from a list of subjects.

Their search options are divided into Quick Search that works well with single terms and Advanced Search which provides multiple options including Boolean terms such as AND and OR. The Help screens provide details on all these features, which also appear in a sidebar and row on every page.

Browsing capabilities change with each type of hunt. A rider on a horse might browse a territory. A shopper might walk the stores in a mall. In DLtH, the students should explore each of the major branches from the home page to understand these choices. The end result of effective browsing is a sense of direction, including thoughts about what is of interest to explore further or perhaps an unanswered question that needs further research.

Game hunters use cloth sacks and market shoppers use paper and plastic bags. Computer systems also have a simple, basic way to capture and store the results of a search. As the applications on a student’s home computer may differ from the library computer system, reviewing these options is critical for successful work with the information. This will include printer options and “copy and paste” to word processor options. Getting both content and citation sources will be an important habit for students to establish.

Just as early hunters had to agree on the focus of the hunt, digital hunters need to define search terms. They begin by listing the most important related words before the search begins, then changing terms as a search continues. A thesaurus becomes a powerful tool in finding related words which might otherwise be difficult to locate.

Both the Quick search and Advanced search options use keyword searching of all fields of information. The advanced search options include keyword choices for: all of these words, the exact phrase, any of thesewords and none of these words.

When a keyword search does not return what is needed, more advanced searches are required. The advanced search help page covers all of the search features in detail. In summary, beyond keyword features, advanced options include: Boolean Search options for AND, OR, NOT, adjacency, near, frequency and single and multicharacter wild cards. Additional Query Options include limiting by subject, region and time period. These features are used to solve problems when too much or too little information has been identified.

Many searches return information that is useful but needs organizing. A search of products in a store would be more useful if items are sorted in order of lowest prices to highest. In the same way, sorting information by date would increase the value of historical information. Four sorting options are included in the Advanced Features section. They include Search by Subject, Search by Region and Search by Time Period and Sort Options by number of terms found. They can be further integrated with other search settings using AND, OR and NOT.

The question of quality has been with hunters forever. With data searching the accuracy of found information must be considered. Quality is determined in part by the expertise and neutrality of the authors of the database. Being able to identify expertise and neutrality requires teacher and librarian input as readers mature toward this ability. But even creators of databases of considerable authority, including important commercial, medical and government databases accept that all databases contain errors to some degree.

A certain skepticism about the credibility of information found in all information sources should be shared with students. The most effective strategy to deal with the problem of credibility is to check with more than one source. A major advantage provided by digital computer networks is that such checking has become significantly easier and faster to do.

Sometimes the information found is not as complete or as understandable as desired. Discussion and questioning of students should lead to encouragement of those who need more direction.

Librarians and teachers should refer them to DLtH’s excellent cross-references and media supported Additional Resources. Such opportunities will also lead to and integrate well with other library resources.

At some point a hunter needs to stop hunting and feast. In the knowledge economy there are many reasons to stop searching and digest the findings into a report. Stopping might occur because enough information has been found or some end date in a timeline has been reached. This step between an unorganized collection of information and a finished report presents a large gap requiring considerable teamwork between the librarian and teacher to adequately support student writers. Teachers can also show how computer systems can assist with this gap.

Students will need help in putting quotation marks around information that is copied verbatim, some coaching on how to put facts and ideas in their own words and guidance in how to cite their references. Some students will benefit from lifting keywords from their captured notes and pasting them into graphic organizers and idea processors. These tools help them organize and sequence their thoughts. Many word processors also include an outline processor which makes reorganizing, pruning unuseable ideas and large scale global editing not just fast but fun and easy.

The ultimate goal of the librarian is to bridge the resources of the library with the support of writing instruction to help the searcher make sense of the best of what is available.