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A Directory of Web-based Training Resources for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Professionals Working with Children and Adolescents
www.fmhi.usf.edu/samhsa/
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Home |  About this Project |  How to use this directory |  Search the directory |  Submit resource for consideration

How to use this directory

Directory Design
The Directory was designed with standards, much like a library catalogue. Here is a sample record for review.

This database of web-based training resources includes online tutorials, continuing education units, training curricula, and core documents. Electronic resources include those freely available on the Internet as well as those courses requiring payment of fees; when available, continuing education units are indicated. Full record fields include author or authoring agency, title of the course, date of publication or date accessed online, publisher, place of publication, address and other contact information, keywords, technical notes, a brief annotation, and the Internet address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the item. When the resource is part of a series, this will also be indicated.

The information contained in the record includes:

  • Authour/agency: Author names are given with surname first. Authors are identified as they appear on the website, or in the associated journal article or book. Corporate authors, indicating agencies and institutions responsible for the creation of the publication, are given where web-based courses are created by a collaborative team, such as authors, designers, developers, and technicians. First and second authors or editors of the "parent" book in which a chapter appears are also given. Faculty and Instructors may be included as well. Take these variations into account when searching by authors or agencies.
  • Title: The title of a learning resource or course, or the title of the article, chapter, or book associated with such a resource.
  • Place of publication: The city, and abbreviation of the State, where the publisher is located.
  • Publisher:The name of the publisher of the web- or computer-based resource, or the name of the publisher of the article, journal, chapter, or book associated with the course. More than one publisher name may be given when the resource is jointly published, including agencies publishing a resource on their website.
  • Date of publication: The date published, unless the date follows the word RETRIEVED, in which case it represents the date on which the item was accessed on the Internet, at the location indicated.
  • Series: A succession of usually continuously numbered issues or volumes of a publication, published with related authors or subjects and similar formats. The Title and Volume number of the Series is given when applicable. May give the title of a book or journal series upon which an online resource is based. May indicate a module within a modular continuing education series.
  • Notes: The Notes field includes technical requirements, such as the need for specific browsers or software applications, as well as indicating format, such as PDF or HTML, and whether the item is multimedia, modular, or interactive. The Notes field also includes information on the availability of continuing education credits, and indicates whether the item is freely available on the Internet, or requires payment of a fee. The Abstract field briefly annotates or describes the resource, and gives learning objectives when available. Because some training resources are not open access, some annotations are from original author abstracts of articles or presentations, table of contents, or course catalog descriptions. Whenever possible, annotations are based on direct experience and evaluation of the resource. The last field in each full entry gives the Internet address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
  • Abstracts: A brief summary or informative description of the content of the web resource, course or document. May include, or be based upon, original author abstracts, course descriptions found in online catalogs, tables of contents, or course syllabi.
  • Keywords: A subject heading or index term which describes an important topic or central focus of the resource, course, article or document. Key concepts, used to describe the content of the resource, course, or document.


Directory Design | Simple Search | Advanced Search | Controlled Vocabulary

Simple Search
The Simple Search feature was created for the user to target specific topics quickly. For example, users searching for training that offered continuing education would be interested in finding those trainng oportunities quickly as well as determining if training was free or fee. Therefore, a user can pull up all training using either of those fields in the simple search. Further, although keyword (natural language or user-supplied language) is part of most searchable online databases, the use of controlled vocaubulary allowed the librarians to assign the six broad conceptual areas of greatest importance to SAMHSA to all the trainings captured in this directory. The six key domains are: Assessment, Cultural Competency, Family Centered, Inter-agency Programs, Strength-based, and Substance Use Disorders.

Directory Design | Simple Search | Advanced Search | Controlled Vocabulary

Advanced Search
The advanced search feature allows the user to search across fields, using AND, OR, and NOT operators. One can combine and delete terms in fields to target relevant materials. Searchable fields include: authour/agency, title, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, notes, abstracts, and keywords.


Directory Design | Simple Search | Advanced Search | Controlled Vocabulary

Controlled Vocabulary
To assist in information retrieval, a controlled vocabulary was created, based on existing thesauri, including ERIC, PsycINFO (Psychological Abstracts), Medline, and Alcohol or Drug Thesuarus. Thesauri present rich semantic networks of vocabulary terms to support document indexing and retrieval. For example, the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors (2001) includes language in the education domain. Further, terms identified and developed by a specific user community are guided by the principle of "literary warrant" in that the terminology corresponds to the language used in the published literature of a selected discipline (or disciplines) and "end-user warrant" in that authorized headings are the terms most commonly used by that user community.

This is a critical component since the general information system user is generally without any professional training in online searching. These users lack the information professional’s experience and knowledge garnered from daily searches of thesaurus-supported online information systems. By creating a controlled vocabulary, the user is directed to those items that are most relevant conceptually to his or her search. The literature strongly suggests that users indicate a desire to employ these tools, especially in the online environment, where the use is seamless.

The creation of appropriate metadata relating to document identification, technical capture information, provenance, and easy navigation within the information resource will enhance the user’s ability to find information quickly and provide more user satisfaction with the search results.

Directory Design | Simple Search | Advanced Search | Controlled Vocabulary
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c 2004 The Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute