Beyond "First You Push This Button,Then...":

The current proliferation of computer-based sources and resources challenges librarians to teach the commonalities of using a computer to retrieve relevant sources, rather than to instruct users how to cope with the quirks of individual databases and systems. Since the spring of 1991, Bobst Library at New York University has been teaching open workshops on the use of DIALOG Information Service's Classmate system to students with a wide range of computer skills, academic levels, and in different disciplines (often in the same class). A core group of librarian instructors designed a syllabus which stresses the common techniques and strategies of computer-based research. Teaching just the basics allows these classes to focus on casting a research question in terms of computer logic, and to demonstrate the recursive process of an evaluative path. Applying this approach to any computer-based resource (whether OPACs, CD-ROMs, or online databases) will address the need to create an integrated framework for how these tools fit into the research process.