Competency: Databases

This competency required me to conduct four different searches, in four different databases, using four different search strategies.

Search Inquiry: How should public libraries conduct early literacy instructions in the Outreach services area.



Search 1: Building Block Search on ERIC

I used the database ERIC to conduct a building block search. I decided to use ERIC because it is a database specifically for educational research articles. Since the question deals with early literacy, ERIC is a source worth using for searching.


Facets to explore: early literacy, outreach services, public libraries

Using the ERIC Thesaurus, I located the following subjects.
Possible synonyms for early literacy: reading, phonics
Possible synonyms for outreach services: outreach programs
Possible synonyms for public libraries: public library services

Based on my facets and ERIC subjects, I created my Subject Search.
 S1 - early literacy OR reading OR phonics had 120260 Results
 S2 - outreach services OR outreach programs had 4517 Results
 S3 - public libraries had 7724 Results

 ‘s1 AND s2 AND s3’ would give me the desired result
" early literacy " OR " reading " OR " phonics " AND "outreach services " OR “outreach programs” AND " public libraries ".
Records Retrieved: 99

Citations:
Minkel, W. (2002). Taking the Show on the Road. School Library Journal, 48(2), 46-48. Retrieved from ERIC database.
Dempsey, B. (2005). Literary Festivals, Library Style: Libraries Can Use Literary Festivals to Secure Their Role as the Ultimate Connection among Readers, Authors, and Books. Library Journal, 130(3), 28. Retrieved from ERIC database.

Reflection:
I really like using ERIC. It is generally easy to locate education related articles. I got satisfactory results from the first search, though if I were to need more current information, I would need to reconstruct my search by either limiting my subjects or choose to limit the years of publication.



Search 2: Academic Search Premier, Specific Facet First Approach

I broke the search query into three parts. The parts are searched according to specificity, with the most specific searched first.

outreach services AND early literacy AND public libraries

 outreach services – returns 1162 hits
 early literacy – returns 40875 hits
 public libraries – returns 9705 hits
According to the search strategy I choose the facet with the fewest hits. I was able to find two very relevant articles.

Citations:
Fulton, R. (2009). Taking it to the Streets: Every Child Ready to Read on the Go. Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, 7(1), 8-12. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Goucher, L. (2009). BOOKS FOR BLOKES AND BEYOND: THE NEXT CHAPTER. APLIS, 22(2), 71-76. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Reflection
I was happy with these results. This search strategy seemed to work better than my previous tries. I was able to identify and explore more facets that also, when combined, produced desirable results. ASP seems to be an appropriate database to find articles within research journals.


Search 3: LibLit and Pearl Growing Approach

I started on Library Literature with my naive question: When making purchasing decisions in schools, should more money be allocated towards technology related materials than print materials?

The facet I started with to get my first source was "bookmobile services." I used the thesaurus to locate subject words used in the controlled vocabulary. The thesaurus search retrieved the following subjects: Library Extension/ Bookmobile Services - which had 25 records. I used the 25 records hyperlink to see what records were there. I then narrowed that down by the “Subject Heading" option. I received one hit:
Alloway, Catherine Suyak, (1990) The Book stops here: new directions in bookmobile service. Scarecrow Press, 1990. Retrieved from Library Lit

The title of the retrieved article looks very relevant but it is also too outdated. Therefore I will conduct another search. This article resulted in several subject terms that I could use for additional research. The terms mostly closely related to my search were Bookmobile services / Public libraries , Bookmobile services / Evaluation, Bookmobile services / Texas . From these I chose to use Bookmobile services / Public libraries and it yielded 80 results. I reviewed several of the results and most contained information relating to aspects of my topic.

Reflection:
I was very satisfied with the pearl growing search method and the results I retrieved on Library Literature.



Search 4: WorldCat and Successive Fraction Approach

I began the search with ‘bookmobile and outreach services ’ with 16 hits

‘bookmobile AND outreach services NOT books-by-mail services’ 14 hits

I checked the subject headings under a few relevant articles including the one I chose and after selecting “Library outreach programs”, they did narrow the topic to 9 hits.


Citations:
Osborn, R. (2004). From outreach to equity: innovative models of library policy and practice. Chicago: American Library Association.


Reflection:
In many ways the search strategies seem to overlap with each other and choosing the correct one seems to depend on the database and the specific topic.