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MonTAGe: IQ Testing: What are we measuring?
reprinted from MonTAGe, Volume 1, Number 5, May 20, 1996
editor Valorie J. King
click here for...
- From The Editor's Desk
- Research In Review: IQ Testing (Roeper Review, Vol. 8 No. 3)
- A Wider View Of Testing and Assessment
- Screening Instruments and Tests
- IQ Tests: What Are They Measuring?
- Pathfinders In The IQ Wilderness
- Problem Solving 101: Find It Yourself
- Problem Solving 102: Searching ERIC
- Problem Solving 103: Online Library Catalogs & Databases
This week's issue of MonTAGe is devoted to the subject of testing,
evaluation, and assessments of children -- specifically, school-age
intellectually-gifted children. The focus is upon helping parents to
understand the evaluation process and to identify resources which
parents may consult when they have questions about specific types of
testing or the tests themselves.
Many thoughts come to mind when I consider "what do parents need to
know about IQ testing." There is so much to tell you. Finding a starting
point is difficult. How do you drink an ocean? (Answer: one sip at a
time.) Well, if you don't have a teacup and can't find the cupboard --
you're stuck using your hands, relying upon your own limited resources.
At TAGFAM we try very hard to help parents find the answers to their
questions. This issue of MonTAGe places "FIND" in capital letters. The
focus is on helping YOU to FIND the information that answers your
questions about your intellectually gifted child's needs.
Hand a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.
-- Valorie --
The February 1986 issue of the
Roeper Review (vol. 8, no. 3) is an
excellent review of both the research literature and the prevailing
professional opinions with regards to the use of IQ tests in the
identification of intellectually gifted children. Although ten years
have passed, the information is still current and useful for parents
and educators alike. The issues in gifted education that were addressed
in 1986 are as important today as they were then.
Linda Silverman, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and well known in the
fields of research and advocacy for intellectually gifted children, edited
this issue of the
Roeper Review. Her editorial in this issue should be
required reading for the parents of every intellectually gifted child;
the major issues are covered quickly and succinctly. She addresses both
the unitary theory of intelligence and the multiple intelligences theories
in her explanations and then presents her own synthesis:
"The relation between specific talents and general abilities is still in
question. Intelligence tests measure general or global abilities . . . it
would appear that intelligence is composed of both general and specific
factors and that the relationship between the two depends on the age of the
individual tested. The younger the child, the more valid is a global
assessment; the older the child, the more differentiated are his or her
abilities into specific aptitudes." (Silverman,
Roeper Review vol 8 no 3 pp 139)
Other articles of interest in this issue are:
Giftedness, Intelligence and the New Stanford-Binet: An Interview
with Elizabeth Hagen. Linda Silverman.
An interview with one of the authors of the Stanford-Binet
Intelligence Scale, Revision IV. Prof. Hagen is co-author
with Robert Thorndike of the Cognitive Abilities Test.
MUST reading if you want a better understanding of how
IQ tests are constructed and why IQ tests do not necessarily
provide an accurate measure of intelligence for highly gifted
individuals.
Identifying and Dealing with Exceptionally Gifted Children: The
Half-Blind Leading the Sighted. Richard M. Felder.
If you don't believe that testing and early identification
benefit gifted children -- read this article. If you do,
read the article anyway. It will help the next time someone
implies that your gifted child isn't THAT different from
his or her age-mates. Good parenting tips too.
Guidelines For Acceleration of Gifted Students. Feldhusen, Proctor,
and Black.
An explanation of the guidelines for when and how to use
acceleration, grade skipping, and early school entry.
From the article:
"The most appropriate educational provision for gifted and
talented youth is a system of specifically designed classes
which provide learning activities at an appropriate pace and
level and which emphasize the process skills of critical and
creative thinking and research. Unfortunately, this type of
educational provision is not yet available to most gifted
and talented youth. However, one of the more readily available
educational alternatives for the intellectually gifted student
is grade advancement."
The
Roeper Review is available in the collections of many public library
systems as well as through university libraries. [Editor's note:
Roeper Review
is available online at
Highbeam.com for low monthly subscription price.] Back issues are usually
bound into Folios (oversized). You may have to visit the library itself
in order to photocopy the articles of interest to you since many
institutions do not allow professional journals to circulate. The
Roeper Review is published quarterly by the Roeper City and Country School,
P.O. Box 329, Bloomfield Hills, MI USA 48303.
Just when I think I've heard them all, someone comes up with "yet another
test" that they need information about. Sometimes, I'll wait a day or
two in the hopes that some other parent will be able to answer the
request for information. If not, well, it's off to the university
library for my favorite book, "Assessment Of Young Children" by Libby
G. Cohen and Loraine J. Spenciner. Most of the more "popular" tests
are reviewed in this book. The authors also explain the why's and when's
of each test -- why it's used and with which age groups. The reviews
have sections on reliability and validity which are interesting reading
if you're familiar with statistical tests of reliability.
Authors Cohen and Spenciner have given me a wider view of testing and
assessment in schools. Did you know that there are at least three federal
laws which require schools and other community agencies, receiving
federal funds, to seek out, test, evaluate, and provide appropriate
educational programming for children with disabilities? I'm sure our
legislators had the best interests of our children in mind when these laws
were passed. But, the resulting mindset can be a little frightening. The
intent of the law could be interpreted as "treat every child as potentially
having a disability until proven otherwise." In other words, when a child
appears to differ substantially from his/her age-mates in physical
development, adaptation to school, academic achievement, or social and
emotional development, the school's response may be to look for disabling
conditions or developmental problems using procedures (i.e. testing and
assessment) defined by federal law. Not every school or school district
takes this aggressive an approach to identification. But, many appear to
do so, especially at kindergarten entry and in the early elementary grades.
Identification of disabling conditions usually starts with a screening
process. Some schools use the screening process to do academic placement
as well as look for learning disabilities or developmental delays. During
screenings, all children in a given grade or at a given age are given a
group test or are individually evaluated using a screening instrument,
e.g. a checklist of behaviors or skills. The evaluation process is quick,
can usually be performed by anyone, e.g. teacher, parent volunteer, or aide,
and produces many false-positives. The mindset here is that it is better to
misidentify a child as potentially needing help than to miss a child who
might need help.
What happens next depends upon the school's resources -- how much money is
available for testing and how many trained test administrators and special
education teachers they have available to perform individual tests and
assessments. In academic screenings, the children may be grouped according
to apparent achievement levels. More frequently, the results are placed
in the child's files and referred to if future problems develop. Schools
do a fairly good job at identifying children who have obvious developmental
delays, vision or hearing problems, and other disabling conditions which
require adaptations and modifications in the educational process and
environment. But, there are some areas, notably academic potential and
social/emotional development, which are difficult to assess in a screening
environment. Many are the parents of intellectually gifted children who
find themselves confronted with screening results which do not match their
own assessments of their children. Misinterpretations abound. "Giftedness"
can look very similar to "disability" when your focus is on looking for
problems rather than unusual abilities.
So, what do you do? First, if you know that your child has unusual abilities
and talents -- make the school aware of these before the screening process
starts. Second, find an independent testing agency that is familiar with
testing intellectually gifted children. Ask around. TAG parenting groups
usually know who the good test givers are. Reading clinics and child
guidance clinics (child psychologists & social workers) are usually set
up to give either the WISC-III or the Stanford-Binet, revision IV. Numerous
TAGFAM parents have said that it was well worth their time and effort to
find a test administrator who likes gifted children, frequently tests them,
has a good reputation for testing gifted children, and will administer the
Stanford-Binet Form LM. The school's screenings may have indicated a need
for more than an IQ test -- perhaps academic achievement testing or
further testing for learning disabilities. In most cases, it is worth the
time and effort to have a full assessment done; then you'll have the test
results to use when refuting school assessments (i.e. claims of problems
when there are none or claims that your child's needs will be met in the
regular classroom with age-mates).
After you have the independent testing results, the hard part starts. In
order to plan an appropriate education for your child you need to
understand the test instrument used, know what the scores mean, and be
able to put together the "big picture" from the individual sub scale results.
It's a tall order for most parents but not out of the question. Ask
for a meeting to discuss the written report of your child's test results
with the test administrator. Ask for a description of each sub scale and
the meaning of the results for that sub scale. Ask if there were any
problems noted during the testing or if any unusual answers were scored
"wrong" according to the test key yet could have been correct under other
circumstances (e.g. "windows" go with computers rather than with houses).
It is important that parents understand that screening instruments and
tests do not provide definitive answers and directive statements as to
what to do next. IQ tests, in particular, are predictive. They "predict"
a child's potential for academic achievement. Environment, good or bad,
can have a far more powerful effect upon a child's educational outcome
than IQ has. A smart child, placed in a poor, understimulating environment
is not going to achieve the same level of academic competence and skill
as a similarly abled child in an environment which is stimulating and
provides opportunities to learn at an accelerated pace. A smart child
placed in an environment where he/she has no intellectual peers is not
going to develop the social adaptation skills and emotional maturity
that are necessary for success in life.
Schools, with their legally mandated focus to find "problems" in the child's
development, frequently fail to identify the true source of problems for
many gifted children -- poor environmental fit (e.g. wrong grade level or
inappropriate teaching methods & curriculum). Failure to place
intellectually gifted children with their true peers causes the very
problems that are used as "evidence" that the child must be held back.
Parents should actively resist a school's misinterpretation and misuse of
test results and staff assessments. Otherwise, the intellectually gifted
child may be forced to remain in an inappropriate environment which creates
problems such as academic underachievement and social/emotional maladjustment.
Screening instruments are tests or checklists which are used to quickly
scan a group of children for indicators of vision or hearing problems
and developmental delays. They may be administered either to groups or
individuals and usually take between 15 and 30 minutes. Checklists such
as the Denver Developmental Chart can be completed during the course
of a "well-baby" checkup -- five or ten minutes total in the doctor's
office.
It is the rare school district or state that does not regularly screen
preschool and school age children -- federal law mandates the early
identification of children who may be "at risk" for school failure due
to disability or environmental factors. During the preschool years,
screening assessments become more involved and expand to include both
expressive (spoken) and receptive language, as well as gross and fine
motor development. Since mandatory school attendance does not begin until
kindergarten or first grade it is not uncommon to have schools conducting
major screenings of all students at that point. Screenings at this point
may be used to delay school entry for children showing evidence of
developmental delays.
Some common developmental screening instruments are:
- AGS Early Screening Profiles -- ages 2 yrs to 6 yrs, 11 mos.
- Used to identify children who have disabilities or other
problems affecting development.
- DIAL-R -- ages 2 yrs to 5 yrs, 11 mos. Used to identify children
- requiring curriculum changes or further diagnostic evaluation
in three areas: motor skills, conceptual abilities, language.
- Early Screening Inventory -- ages 4 yrs to 6 yrs.
- Used to identify
children "at risk" and needing further evaluation. Three areas:
visual-motor-adaptive, language & cognition, gross-motor/body
awareness.
Screening tests are designed to have few false-negatives. This is in
contrast to IQ tests which are designed to err on the side of a false-
negative. Problems in the screening process or use of a test instrument
which is not sensitive enough to detect a slight disability or
developmental problem can, however, cause false negatives.
Common problems in the screening process are:
 | Careless or hasty administration of the tests. |
| Using test instruments which are not sensitive enough. |
| Using tests incorrectly -- screenings are snapshots and do not
necessarily reflect a comprehensive assessment of the child. |
| Testing under adverse conditions including illness, highly
distracting surroundings, hunger or fatigue. |
Resources:
Assessment In Young Children. Libby G. Cohen and Loraine J. Spenciner.
(c) 1994. Longman Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8013-0965-4
The WISC-III and Stanford-Binet, revision IV, are two widely used tests
of intellectual ability that are very similar in what they test and
the types of items used to test each factor. The following thumb nail
sketch is intended to help parents understand the types of questions
or activities which are part of the tests.
IQ tests usually depend upon the child's abilities to understand oral
language and to respond orally to questions. For young children or
those whose language abilities may be impaired, special IQ tests have
been developed for which "pointing" to a picture is a sufficient
response to each item. Problems arise when the pictures are not clear
or if the child has undetected vision problems.
IQ tests also contain test items which may be culturally dependent. Thus,
children who have not been sufficiently exposed to the culture upon which
the test is based will score lower on the test. For example, my daughter
had not be exposed to the history of World War II and did not know who
Anne Frank was. Yet, the IQ test included "who was Anne Frank."
Most IQ tests are divided into verbal and spatial (also called non-verbal)
tasks. These two major divisions are then separated into subscales which
measure a specific ability or intelligence factor. The IQ score is arrived
at by scoring each subscale and then combining the scores according to
a formula given in the publisher's manual for the test. If the child hits
the ceiling (top score) on one or more subscales then the results are
inaccurate. All you know is that the child's abilities were higher than
the test could measure. The IQ score has been "clipped" at an artificially
low score.
It is also important to note that most subscales are testing for more than
one factor at a time. And, it is very difficult to actually verify that
a specific test item actually tests the factors the test designer
intended to be testing and only those factors. Most of the reviews I've
read on IQ tests question the validity of the test items in one way or
another. The biggest question is: does this test response really mean what
the test's designer says it means.
Stanford-Binet, Rev IV, Subscales
- Verbal Reasoning
- Vocabulary -- recall of expressive word knowledge & verbal
comprehension
- Comprehension -- verbal comprehension, vocabulary development,
ability to express self verbally, social knowledge (cultural),
factual knowledge (cultural)
- Absurdities -- visual perception, factual knowledge (cultural),
discrimination between items, verbal expression, attention,
social knowledge
- Verbal Relations -- vocabulary development, concept formation,
inductive reasoning, discrimination of essential details,
verbal expression
- Quantitative Reasoning
- Quantitative -- number facts, computation skills, math concepts,
problem solving procedures
- Number Series -- logical reasoning, concentration, inductive
reasoning, math concepts and computation
- Equation Building -- logic, flexibility, trial & error, math
concepts and procedures, inductive reasoning
- Abstract- Visual Reasoning
- Pattern Analysis -- visual-motor ability, spatial visualization,
pattern analysis, visual-motor coordination
- Copying -- visual imagery, visual perception, visual-motor
ability, hand-eye coordination
- Matrices -- attention, concentration, visual perception, visual
analysis, inductive reasoning
- Paper Folding & Cutting -- spatial ability, visual perception,
visual analysis, inductive reasoning
- Short-term Memory
- Bead Memory -- short-term memory of visual stimuli, form
perception, visual imagery, visual memory, discrimination,
alertness to detail
- Sentences -- short-term auditory memory, memory, verbal
comprehension, concentration, attention
- Digits -- short-term auditory memory and attention
- Objects -- visual comprehension, attention, concentration,
visual memory
WISC-III Subscales
- Verbal Subscale
- Information -- questions testing "common" knowledge about people,
places, things, and events. Oral question/response
- Similarities -- What's the same between these two things? Oral/Oral
- Arithmetic -- mental math computations, oral response
- Vocabulary -- child gives oral definition to word presented orally
- Comprehension -- social concepts and understanding of "familiar"
problems. Oral/Oral
- Digit Span -- Child repeats back a string of digits either forwards
or reversing the order
- Performance Subscale
- Picture Completion -- child identifies the missing piece
- Picture Arrangement -- child must put pieces in correct sequence
- Block Design -- child arranges blocks to match pattern
- Object Assembly -- five jigsaw puzzles
- Coding -- table of geometric symbols each paired with a digit 0-9.
Child must copy geometric symbols into proper positions under
strings of digits
- Mazes -- child draws solutions using pencil
- Symbol Search -- child searches two groups of paired shapes to
find the target shape.
WISC-III Factor Indexes
| No. | Factor Name | Subtests Used In Determining Factor Index |
|---|
| I. | Verbal Comprehension | Information, Similarities, Vocabulary, and Comprehension |
| II. | Perceptual Organization | Picture Completion, Picture Arrangement, Block Design, and Object Assembly. |
| III. | Freedom From Distractibility | Arithmetic, Digit Span
| | Note: Factor III's ability to measure "freedom from distractibility"
is not generally accepted and has been questioned by various
researchers. This factor is NOT GENERALLY ACCEPTED as a measure
of attention deficit due to lack of proof that these subtests
actually measure the appropriate variables (i.e. attention). |
| IV. | Processing Speed | Coding, Symbol Search
| | Note: These subtests are heavily dependent upon vision. Low scores on
these subtests could be indicative of visual disturbances or
vision problems which require more than a power correction, e.g.
focusing problems, astigmatism, perceptual, and/or motor-control
difficulties. |
| |
Sources:
Assessment of Young Children. Libby G. Cohen & Loraine J. Spenciner.
(c) 1994 Longman Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8013-0965-4
Buros Mental Measurements Yearbook
Tests In Print
TAGFAM Archives
Are you lost in the IQ wilderness? Do you find yourself wondering
where to start looking for information? Or, are you perhaps angry and
upset that your child's school doesn't seem to have a clue as to what
your intellectually gifted child needs? Why don't the education
professionals do a better job at meeting the needs of their
intellectually gifted charges? It's should be simple, right? Give the
child an IQ test, get the number, then you know how smart the child
is and how much work he or she can handle. Why isn't it that simple?
Could it be that others are lost in the IQ wilderness too?
In the early parts of this century, Terman and Hollingworth, began their
own explorations of the IQ wilderness using compasses (IQ Tests) developed
by such notables as Alfred Binet. The Stanford-Binet and the Weschler
Scales are the two most commonly used IQ tests in our culture. Yet, even
with these, intellectual giftedness remains a largely unexplored wilderness.
We can now find our way in but, what do we do once we get there? We still
lack a map, a plan, a proven path to take through the wilderness.
The money, the need, the social and political WILL to confirm the paths
through the wilderness are not present in society at large. As one astute
parent put it, "we have no 'gifted' poster children." Intellectually gifted children
rarely look like they NEED help. When they do, the help is often focused
upon the presenting problem, e.g. failure to pay attention in class,
behavior problems, failure to socialize with age-mates, etc. rather than
the underlying causes e.g. boredom, lack of challenge and stimulation, and
the relative disparity between the child's social, emotional, physical, and
intellectual developmental patterns.
Parents of intellectually gifted children are often dissuaded from seeking
appropriate paths through the wilderness. Well meaning individuals warn
of "lions, and tigers, and bears -- oh my!" There are other motivations
which are less well intentioned. Scare tactics abound. And, the trouble is,
there's just enough truth in what's being said to give every concerned
and loving parent pause . . . to reflect. "Turn back!"
Which path will you take through the wilderness? Will you close your eyes
and pretend the forest does not exist? Will you run headlong into the
deepest parts relying upon your own innate skills to get you through?
Will you be a pathfinder for others? Will you blindly follow the guides
provided, free of charge, by your local school board? Will you seek those
who are blazing trails and join their efforts? Or, does your child need
to be taken by the hand and gently guided along the existing paths,
following others' footsteps?
There are researchers laboring in this wilderness. Two of the original
researchers in the field of intellectual giftedness are Hollingworth and
Terman. In the measurement field we have Alfred Binet. In your initial
search for background information you may wish to look for works which
cite the following individuals:
| Leta Hollingworth | L. M. Terman | |
| Howard M. Gardner | J. F. Feldhusen | Camilla Benbow |
The following individuals are currently active in the field of gifted
child education and the social and emotional needs of gifted children.
If you begin with their writings and attend conferences where they are
featured speakers you will find leads to other sources of information.
| Linda Silverman | Joyce Van Tassel-Baska | Carolyn Callahan |
| Jim Delisle | James Webb | Sylvia Rimm |
| Joanne Rand Whitmore | Miraca Gross | Gary Davis |
| Jill Burrus | Donna Ford-Harris | Jay McIntire |
| Ellen Menaker Tomchin | George Betts | |
In searching bookstore shelves and listening to other parents I've found
some fairly decent maps -- books detailing how to approach the educational
needs of intellectually gifted children. In addition to the individuals
listed above, look for the following authors, publications, and publishers:
| Judy Gailbraith | Joan Smutney | Stanley Turecki |
| Susan Weinbrenner | Connie Schmitz | Gifted Child Quarterly |
| The
Roeper Review | Imagine -- CTY | Free Spirit Press |
Some TAGFAM members are trail blazers. They willingly provide copies of
their maps and descriptions of their explorations for others to read
and use. The list archives are a good place to start looking for their
"trip reports." Other TAGFAM'ers have shared their tales of "lost in
the wilderness" -- those make good reading too. Not everyone is suited to
the task of trail blazing. Some of us have our hands full just trying to
keep ourselves and our children from wandering around in circles. If you've
made it this far, i.e. onto TAGFAM or onto the Internet, then chances are
pretty good that you know you've been past that "tree" before. Stop, take
some time to get your bearings, and then venture back to the path.
There are guides who can help you find your way. You may find that you
need a professional guide, a child psychologist or clinical social-worker,
who can provide testing, counseling, and advocacy. Or, you may find that
volunteers, other parents from local TAG groups or an online community
such as TAGFAM, are adequate guides for your situation. A guide can only
show you the path -- you have to walk it. If there really are lions and
tigers and bears then you have to be willing to deal with them. Maybe
that means stepping out of the line of fire. Maybe it means turning onto
a new path. Maybe it means picking up the elephant gun and holding your
ground. Maybe it means running as fast as you can down the path and
into the sunlight.
If you're serious about getting solid information about gifted children
-- skip the books written for parents -- go to the professional
literature. You'll probably find yourself camping out in a university
library for a few days when you start hunting for information.
From home, start with ERIC. It's free. It's available via the Internet.
You'll find a lot of useful information in the abstracts and digests
which are available online. Research reviews, journal articles, and
ERIC documents are almost always more current and up-to-date than
textbooks.
The following resources will lead you to technical reviews and
information regarding specific IQ tests:
The Buros Mental Measurements Yearbook and its companion resource, Tests
In Print, are usually available in university or college libraries. Your
school district's professional library may also have current copies of
these resources on their reference shelves.
Reviews and journal articles covering current research in the fields of
education, child development and child psychology are also available via
university libraries and in some larger public library system.
Textbooks on educational research methods, tests and measurement, or
assessment of children, may be available via the public library or via
inter-library loan. These books usually include information about IQ
testing at the level of detail necessary to understand and interpret the
scores.
ERIC -- Educational Resources Information Center. Accessible via Internet.
There are links to ERIC from the TAGFAM homepage. Use ERIC to find
citations to journal articles and documents stored in the ERIC microfiche
database. ERIC documents may be ordered from ERIC or may be accessible
at a nearby university library. ERIC also has DIGESTS which you can read
online or have delivered to you via e-mail.
Access to ERIC:
gopher://gopher.ed.gov
Access to ERIC DIGESTS and other information by Clearinghouse:
gopher://ericir.syr.edu/11/Clearinghouses/16houses
Path to ERIC DIGESTS related to gifted children:
gopher://ericir.syr.edu/11/Clearinghouses/16houses/ERIC_EC/
choose "Disabilities and Gifted Education" then "Gifted"
To search the Current Indexes in Education and Recent Journals in
Education Databases:
Telnet SKLIB.USASK.CA
login as ERIC
type HELP for commands
Figuring out which keywords to use in an ERIC search can be an exercise
in creativity. Try using some of the names from the "Pathfinders" article
elsewhere in this issue of MonTAGe. Look at the index words which appear
at the end of the abstract for each database hit. These will give you
additional ideas for searches. The HELP screen will tell you how to
compose Boolean searches. Try the following:
f ability grouping
f intelligence assessment
f Binet
f WISC
f academic achievement
There are many databases and libraries catalogs available online via
telnet, gopher, and webpages. Some include only their own collections.
Others include access to a wide variety of resources including some
which require that you have a library patron's ID number or barcode
in order to use them.
Most online library catalogs use the CARL software. Once you've learned
to compose a search in CARL you can quickly search for the books and
textbooks you want to request via Inter-Library-Loan. It takes me about ten
minutes to find a book using CARL whereas it takes up to an hour to get
the librarian at the public library to understand what I'm looking for
and then compose and submit the search request for me. Start with libraries
that are close to home and branch out from there.
CARL uses a menu system to walk you through the search process. There
are also short-cuts which start with // followed by a letter.
//w means word search ... usually in the book's description
//t means title search ... words in the book's title
From the CARL main screen or the search screen you can access their help
files. Be sure to read the instructions on the first screen you see
after connecting to CARL.
Some university libraries offer access to FirstSearch and Medline to
their borrowers. These two resources are worth the time it takes to
learn to use them if you have detailed questions about gifted children.
FirstSearch will search current journals and papers in many different
fields including the social sciences and medicine. Medline indexes
the body of medical research literature and journals. There are some
fascinating studies and papers about intelligence and gifted children
being written by child psychiatrists. Guess where they're published --
not in the NEA's journals. Use Medline to find them.
Dialog and other similar search engines are expensive. If you've got free
access to them, then it may be worth your time to learn how to compose
Dialog search queries. Usually a training course is required or you must
submit your search request to a librarian who then enters it into the
system. Dialog is extremely powerful but ... that means the costs for
making mistakes are also higher.
Uncover is a periodicals database which is available via many university
gophers. If you cannot locate the journal article via a local library
you can set up an account with Uncover and they will either Fax the
article to you or mail it via USPS for a reproduction fee + copyright fee.
Finding university libraries online isn't that hard. Select GOPHER then
move down through the gopher menu system until you reach your state's
listing. Next select a local university and look for their library's
menu item. If you can't find one -- try this telnet address:
Telnet victor.umd.edu
login as PAC and select your terminal type.
VT100 works for most.
From the University of Maryland you can access Uncover as well as the
University of Maryland System Library Catalogs.
MonTAGe: The TAGFAM E-Journal © 1996 Valorie J. King
|
Thanks!
