Competency #6d: ERIC & Specific Facet Search Strategy

Before beginning my search, I thought about the various search facets of library type and area of interest.

Facet 1: elementary school library

Facet 2: reading or literacy

Facet 3: programs

Of the three facets, I believe that Facet 1: elementary school library is the most specific facet, so I will search ERIC using that search query term first. I plugged in facet 1, but I received 5,567 results (see Figure 1.1). Since the results are numerous and many do not address literacy promotion in conjunction with school libraries, I added Facet 2 to my search (see Figure 1.2). Adding facet 2 reduced my results to 1,734 (see Figure 1.3). This is better than the previous results, but it is still too large of a list, so I am going to refine my results with limiters. I chose the following limiters:

Year: 2007-2009
Language Phrase: English
Full Text: selected yes
Rank by: selected “relevance”

Doing this produced no results. Therefore, I removed all my limiters except for “Full Text” and my new results list pulled up 705 records (see Figure 1.4). I was not happy with the results, so I chose to refine my search by selecting a Subject Heading to limit my results (see Figure 1.5). This time, my search yielded only 330 results (see Figure 1.6). The record that I found that interested me was “Improving School Libraries and Independent Reading: 1997-2002 Impact Evaluation of the K-12 School Library Printed Materials Grant” (see Figure 1.7).

Reflection:
This search strategy took me a long time to find decent results. I was continuously having to revise my search in order to get manageable results and a relevant hit. This is not my first choice for a search strategy.

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.3


Figure 1.4

Figure 1.5

Figure 1.6


Figure 1.7

Competency #6c: Academic Search Complete Database & Citation Pearl Search Strategy

My initial search query for the Citation Pearl Search Strategy was elementary library. I received 42 results from using this term (see Figure 1.1). I then examined the results to find other relevant terms to add to my revised search. Of the 42 results, only one of the article’s titles provided me with a descriptor that I felt was suitable. The article title was “Leveling the Reading Field.” I decided to pull out the term reading and add that term to my new query. This was clearly not the best way to revise my search because it only yielded 5 results (see Figure 1.2), and the Citation Pearl Search Strategy should increase results.

I reviewed those 5 results and found the article “Graphic Novels for Elementary School Audience.” The term graphic novels caught my eye because kids really like them, and I know that they are a good resource for enticing reluctant readers to read. Therefore, I revised my search query again to the following: library AND graphic novels. The results for this search yielded 1176 results (see Figure 1.3). The very first result in this list was an article that I believe is relevant to my interest as a future school librarian who promotes literacy. It is called “Graphic Novels in Libraries Supporting Teacher Education and Librarianship Programs” (see Figure 1.4).

Reflection:
Initially, I did not feel that this search strategy was doing what it was suppose to do, which is increase the amount of results in a search since my first search query revision only yielded 5 results. However, I was pleased that my second revision had better success with 1176 results, and I found a relevant article for my library type and interest in the first citation listed. I am pleased with this search strategy and will use it again because it gave me an idea to search for graphic novels in connection with libraries, and it would have never occurred to me to do this if I hadn’t used this strategy.


Figure 1.1



Figure 1.2


Figure 1.3


Figure 1.4

Competency #6b: Books in Print and Browsing Search Strategy

Reflection: (see images below the reflection)_

I searched Books in Print using the Browsing Search Strategy. I chose to “Browse by Index.” Under the “Browse by Index” feature, I chose to do a “Subject (ALL)” search (see Figure 1). I specifically chose the term “literacy” to enter into the search box. From there, I was given a list of multiple items that I could select to search further. This option allowed me to select multiple items, but I only chose “Literacy Programs.” This result led me to 297 records, which were sorted by date in descending order. I then chose to revise my search terms and add the term “librar*” to the search and limited the search by the English language (see Figure 2). This new revised search brought me to 120 results, but I did not need to look further because the second result is the article I am interested in entitled “Creating a Culture of Literacy: Programming Ideas for Elementary School Librarians” by Anne E. Ruefle (see Figures 3 & 4).

Reflection:
I like using the Browsing Search Strategy with this site because I did not have one particular source in mind to look for, and I could just explore it for records related to my blog competency subject. Theoretically, this type of search could take longer than others, but with the Books in Print browsing features, I found that my browsing was guided and helped keep my search relatively short.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Competency #6a: Library Literature & Building Block Search Strategy

(Note: Below is a description of my Building Block Search Strategy. I have described each step; however, due to difficulties in moving images around in this blog site, I have only posted three of the pictures that represent the steps I took. You will only get see pictures of the combined search, the results of that, and the record that I found.)

I began by identifying my search facets:

S1=children or elementary or student*
S2=literacy or reading
S3=improvement or growth

Now, I am ready to conduct search 1 using the Advanced Search option.

Search 1: children or elementary or student* using “All Smart Search” yielded 32,575 records.
Search 2: literacy or reading yielded 14,714 records

Search 3: improvement or growth yielded 2,099 records

S1 + S2 + S3 yielded 53 records (see figure 1.1 and 1.2)

• See Figure 1.3 for an image of an article (i.e., record) that I found that fits my topic of interest.

Reflection: The positive side of doing Building Block search is that it makes you clearly think out your facets and the synonyms to those facets. However, I think it wasted time to go through and search each facet individually before putting them all together. In the future, I would definitely do the combined search but not the search for facet 1, then facet 2, then facet 3. I also found that quite a few of the 53 final results were not relevant.

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.3