Lesson Plan Thirteen
Class
Japanese literature - Library Instruction Session
Instructors:
Dawn Lawson and Sumie Ota
Subject of the lesson:
Compare and evaluate two electronic full-text databases of Japanese literature.
Audience:
Undergraduate Japanese literature majors with advanced knowledge of Japanese, 1st and 2nd year graduate students of Japanese literature.
Learning objectives:
(note: this lesson addresses ACRL Standard 2 3, and 4 and SAILS Skill Sets 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10)
- Students will learn what issues to consider when searching a bilingual database.
- Students will select the most appropriate index and search technique for the research problem at hand.
- Students will search a literature index effectively to locate specific texts.
- Students will critically compare and evaluate full-text Japanese literature web sites.
Content Outline:
- Introductory Exercise
- How to search Japanese text in full-text databases/refining your search/search tips
- Evaluating/Comparing full-text databases
- Q&A; wrap-up
Methods:
Part I:
Brainstorming: with a partner, make a list of the literary works for which you would like to find full text in electronic form. Share with the class.
Part II:
Brief lecture: Instructor demo of Aozora Bunko
- Author list
- Title list
- Internal Google search
Guided searching: Students look for original text of a work by Okamoto Kanoko containing the word 金魚 in the title.
Sharing search results: Students discuss how they found the work
Brief lecture: Instructor demo of Japanese Text Initiative
- Author list, title list
- Compound search: keyword search with constraints
- Proximity searching
- Important search tips
Guided searching: Students look for title(s) on the list they generated during the brainstorming session. Compound search using proximity searching.
Part III:
Individual work: Use the two databases introduced to answer the following questions.
- Compare the two databases' coverage of Yosano Akiko. Which seems to be better and why? Which has biographical information about the poet?
- Find the poem 君死にたまふことなかれ. Which database makes this kind of search easier and why?
Share results and evaluations of the databases.
Part IV:
Questions and answers
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