Database Searches

This week, I am using my topic to practice a few different search techniques on four different databases. I will outline a total of four searches
Search Request: Information on public librarians using video game programs to draw teens into the library.

Search 1: Building Block search on Academic Search Complete
For my Building Block search, I brake down my query into three components.
s1 = public library
s2 = video game
s3 = teen
When I connect these terms with "AND," I get six hits. The first, "Gamers are Readers," by Lori Easterwood and Lindsey Patrick Wesson from the School Library Journal is relevant to my topic.
The Building Block method really helps to give my search a specific focus. I am impressed with the number of relevant hits with relatively little time spent working. The Building Block method forces me to do thinking ahead of time so that I have an overall higher level of success.

Search 2: Specific Facet search on WorldCat
In the Specific Facet method, I start with the component of my query that is likely to retrieve the fewest hits. If the search returns more than 30 hits, I add another facet.
First, I determine the amount of hits each search term retrieves alone. Public Library returns 672,307 hits; video game returns 20,694; and teen gets 36,900 hits. Thus, I search first by video game, then add teen to narrow the search. Since I get 970 results, I need to further refine the search. When I add public library, I only get one result, which is not relevant to my topic. I alter this last term to "library" to try to get more results and it works: I get 12 hits. The second hit, "Thinking Outside the Book: Alternatives for Today's Teen Library Collections" by C. Allen Nichols looks particularly interesting for my search needs.
I had some problems getting the right number of relevant hits with the Specific Facet on WorldCat. I know the real success of a search method is how precise and relevant the hits are, and how useful the information retrieved is to my search query. Even though I did find a good article in the end, it seemed like more work to go through the Specific Facet method than the Building Block method.

Search 3: Successive Fractions on Library Lit
The Successive Fractions method is like the Specific Facet, but reversed. This means I'll do a quick test to see how many results my search terms bring alone, then perform a searching using the broadest term first. Public library returns 21,007 hits; video game returns 164 hits, and teen returns 1,370 hits. Thus, I will search first by public library and add teen. This search brings 281 hits, which is too many to look at. Finally, when I add video game, the results dwindle to three hits, none of which really fit my information needs. I change my search term from "video game" to "gaming." This change resulted in four relevant hits. Preferably, I would get more than four hits, but I decided to stop my search because the four results were all relevant. One of them is an article called "Teen Gaming - More than Just Entertainment" by The Unabashed Librarian.
As with Specific Facet, the Successive Fractions method took more time to find the right search terms. Since you have to search each term separately to see the number of results, it takes more time to arrive at quality hits. However, I am satisfied with the hit I cited above, and I learned that "gaming" may be a better search term than "video game" for my particular information request. In the future, I will be careful to think about how I can use the best terms when I formulate my searches.

Search 4: Citation Pearl on ERIC
First, I search by library and gaming. An article from Library Journal, "Nurturing your Media" by Nanette Donohue, is one of three results. The article is not exactly a good match because it deals with collection development as opposed to teen programming. However, I identify the subject list and click on the keyword most relevant to my search: "library services." This results in 12813 hits, so I need to narrow my search. I use the term "gaming" since it I just learned in Search 3 that it describes my search well. My results are 10 hits. The first hit, "Building Next Generation Video Game Collections in Academic Libraries" by Mary Laskowski and David Ward has a focus on academic, rather than public, libraries, but the information is still relevant to my search query.
I enjoy the Citation Pearl method because it teaches me to tap into the indexing and cataloging each database uses. For example, "teen" may be a better word to use in Academic Search Complete, whereas "adolescent" is a better term in ERIC. One way to determine which search term is better in a new database is to look at the keyword list on a relevant article.

This concludes my four searches on four databases.