Database Searches: Competency 6

In order to find information relating to literacy programs for children in libraries, I used the following concepts in all of my searches: literacy, children, libraries.

Search #1: Academic Search Complete, SUCCESSIVE FRACTIONS SEARCH

I began with my search with the broad search set "children OR youth." I then narrowed the search with limiters and by adding the additional sets "librar*" and "literacy OR reading" with the Boolean operator AND.

SEARCH

I restricted the search to full-text articles published since 2005 in peer-reviewed journals.

RESULTS

My search retrieved 46 results, most of which were relevant and useful.

Search #2: Library Lit, CITATION PEARL GROWING SEARCH

I began my search with the same three concept sets which retrieved 3012 results. I used two subject terms pulled from a useful article. Suggested subject terms are also listed along the lefthand side of the results page.

INITIAL SEARCH AND RESULTS

The fourth result, "Indiana libraries embrace early literature," provides the subject terms for my next search.

FINAL SEARCH AND RESULTS

My revised search using the subject headings "children's reading" and "children's library services" gave 124 results (42 full-text results). Nearly all of the results of this search appear relevant to my search.

Search #3: Project Muse, SPECIFIC FACET FIRST SEARCH

I chose "literacy OR reading" as the most specific facet of my search. The option to search within results instead of having to start over made it easier to add additional facets.

INITIAL SEARCH AND RESULTS

My initial search gave me 361 results. Since I wanted to narrow down my search further, I added (children OR youth) AND (library OR libraries OR literacy).

FINAL SEARCH AND RESULTS

Since I wanted to narrow my search further, I added (children OR youth) AND (library OR libraries OR librarian) to my search. I retrieved 22 results, but most of the results were not relevant or useful to my search.

Search #4: Dialog, BUILDING BLOCK SEARCH

I created used my three concepts to build search sets in Dialog. To further limit my search and ensure that I only retrieved recent articles, I also limited my search to articles from 2007.

SEARCH SETS
S3: literacy OR reading
S6: children OR youth
S7: librar?

S8: S3 AND S6 AND S7

S10: S8 /2007
RESULTS

My final search retrieved 76 results, most of which appeared relevant to my query.