Database Searching in LibLit

SEARCH #2: LibLit          STRATEGY: Citation Pearl Growing (Snowballing)

SEARCH STRATEGY: Find another article like this one: Student Inquiry and Web 2.0 By: Berger, Pam. School Library Monthly, v26 n5 p14-17 Jan 2010. (EJ874143)

In this search, I took an article I liked from the building block search and decided to try “snowballing” a search from something very specific. When I located the article on LibLit database, the following subject terms were attached to the article: Web 2.0 which had 243 articles; Technology and youth which had 24 articles; and Computer-assisted instruction which had 1585 hits.

In the articles under the “technology and youth” subject heading, I found a relevant and interesting article:  Teen Tech Takeover: Using Web 2.0's Experts to Create Your Content. By Chris Shoemaker Voice of Youth Advocates v. 32 no. 6 (February 2010) p. 471. 

Also, a new subject was attached to the article: Web 2.0/Library Applications which led me to 355 articles that were the best so far for my topic. I was surprised at how pertinent these were. I remember now that LibLit is already oriented to library related articles which certainly was an asset in this snowball search. I could continue to modify this search by adding some limiters now or simply browse and choose the articles I like.

Database Searching in Muse

SEARCH #3: Project Muse              STRATEGY: Specific Facet First
SEARCH TERMS: I selected three facets for the search, and tried each in the “Advanced Article Search” on Project Muse.
Librarian resulted in 3178 hits
Instruction resulted in 10, 801 hits
Web 2.0 resulted in 558 hits
None of these returns were useful as they were too broad.

SEARCH: These large returns did not surprise me, and did not help me in my query. I decided to try the search with all three facets librarian AND instruction AND Web 2.0 which resulted in 35 hits that were of marginal relevance one of which is titled Academic Libraries, Facebook and MySpace, and Student Outreach: A Survey of Student Opinion, Ruth Sara Connell portal: Libraries and the Academy, Volume 9, Number 1, January 2009, pp. 25-36 (Article)

Database Searching in Academic Search Complete

SEARCH #4: Academic Search Complete   STRATEGY: Successive Fractions
SEARCH TERMS: I decided to stay with the three facets from the last search on this last database. A quick test to find the broadest to narrowest facets resulted in:
Instruction                        179, 642 hits
Librarian                         45, 711 hits
Web 2.0                        2248 hits

SEARCH: Combining the largest facet instruction AND next largest facet librarian results in 2221 hits. Narrowing was needed, so I applied the next facet “Web 2.0” to the above search which resulted in 18 hits one of which is an article titled Web 2.0 Integration in Information Literacy Instruction: An Overview. By: Luo, Lili. Journal of Academic Librarianship, Jan2010, Vol. 36 Issue 1, p32-40, 9p; (AN 48407822)

Conclusion: The success of the query for information seemed to rest primarily on the search terms selected and the type of database utilized for the search. All 4 of these databases were user friendly and had help sections as well. Just to prove to myself that database hits were more relevant, pertinent, and reliable, I plugged these same search terms into a Google search. With over 1,460,000 results, I did a quick scan through the first two pages of hits and found myself having to skip over many unhelpful hits. The databases are certainly the way to find reliable information for study or research questions.

Check this out at Librarything!

After setting up an account on LibraryThing.com, I began to browse "tags" for books related to technology use in the classroom and school media center. The tags "school media center" and "technology" ultimately led me to a fantastic book called Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson.


The book was published in March 2010 and has been receiving rave reviews by teachers and library media specialists. (Check out all the reviews on Amazon.com!) Some schools are even utilizing the book for staff development. For those of us who are looking for instant ways to integrate technology into the classroom for this tech-savvy generation, this book is an insightful must-read. Even teachers who are not particularly tech savvy have reported how understandable and and user friendly the book is. Students will rejoice over getting to integrate FaceBook and Twitter as well as blogging and RSS feeds into their academic world.



My first-choice for an RSS feed: ALA TechSource

RSS is a format that stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and enables me to subscribe to "feeds" that will let me know when a site I have subscribed to has been updated. Many people like their favorite sites to “feed” into one place instead of having to visit several websites to check for updates.This is a true service in the daily information explosion in which we live.
While I have found that much of the technology information on ALA’s TechSource is over my head, the frequent updates and cutting edge research applications are useful for a regular glance-through each week. TechSource is a publishing arm of the American Library Association and produces Library Technology Reports, Smart Libraries Newsletter and the ALA TechSource Blog.
Check out the RSS feed on the right to see the latest news from TechSource.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)