Search 3 of 4
For this search, I decided on WorldCat and used the successive facet search. I had tried, to no avail, using Project Muse for this search originally. I realized that WorldCat would be a better database for the search.
Naive Question: I'm writing a paper on Emily Dickinson and her contemporaries. Can you help me?
The facets I chose to explore using World Cat's subject search were:
Dickinson, Emily - 5,316 results
Contemporaries - 3,443 results
American women poets - 3.075 results
Peers - 299
My subject search was: Dickinson, Emily AND contemporaries.
This resulted in 20 records. Below are the citations that I would provide to the patron.
Citations:
Dobson, J. (1989). Dickinson and the strategies of reticence: The woman writer in nineteenth-century america. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Petrino, E.A. (1998). Emily Dickinson and her contemporaries: Women's verse in america, 1820-1885. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Bain, R. (1996). Whitman's & Dickinson's contemporaries: An anthology of their verse. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Garbowsky, M.M. (1979). Emily Dickinson's literary community. Thesis: Drew University. Retrieved from WorldCat Database.
Reflection:
WorldCat was a much more appropriate database for my search query than Project Muse. This yielded more search results from which to select titles from. These are book titles that the patron could hopefully check out from the library. I was relieved to see better results on this database after many frustrations and lack of results on other databases.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Competency 6: Specific Facet First on JStor
Searching 4 of 4
Facet 1: teacher preparation programs. I used the 'full-text' default search option since there are no subject headings. I located the following records for my facet and synonyms:
"teacher preparation programs" (1051 records)
"teacher training" (23555 records)
"teacher certification" (2188 records)
"student teachers" (5240 records)
Facet 2: teacher quality
"teacher quality" (1126 records)
"teacher effectiveness" (1903 records)
"quality teachers" (505)
For my specific facets, I chose to use "quality teachers" AND "teacher preparation programs" for my first search using the 'full-text' default. I retrieved 39 hits. Several of which are relevant or worth perusing:
Citations:
Zientek, L.R. (Dec. 2007). Preparing high-quality teachers: Views from the classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 44 (4), 959-1001.
Boyd, D., Goldhaber, D., Lankford, H., & Wyckoff, J. (Spring 2007). The effect of certification and preparation on teacher quality. The Future of Children, 17 (1), 45-68.
Bain, C. (May 2004). Today's student teachers: Prepared to teach versus suited to teach? Art Education, 57 (3), 42-47.
Hoffman, J.V. (Jan.-Mar. 2004). Review: Essay book review: Achieving the goal of a quality teacher of reading for every classroom: Divest, test, or invest? Reading Research Quarterly, 39 (1), 119-128.
I was happy with these results, but also wanted to see if I could have higher recall. I chose to conduct another search, only using subjects with higher individual results.
Second search (using 'full-text'): "teacher training" AND "teacher effectiveness"
Record retrieval was 534. This yielded a higher return, however once I started browsing, I noticed the results weren't as precise. The records in this search, at least on the first few pages, dealt with education training in other countries. If the patron wasn't concerned about country, then this would provide more records to sift through.
Reflection
After some unsuccessful attempts with this database, this search question seemed to work better than my previous tries. I was able to identify and explore more facets that also, when combined, produced desirable results. JStor seems to be an appropriate database to find articles within research journals that databases such as ERIC or WorldCat likely do not hold.
For the fourth searching task, I chose to use specific facet with JStor.
Naive Question: "I'm doing a study on teacher preparation programs and their implications and effects on teacher quality. Can you help me find some research on this?"
Facet 1: teacher preparation programs. I used the 'full-text' default search option since there are no subject headings. I located the following records for my facet and synonyms:
"teacher preparation programs" (1051 records)
"teacher training" (23555 records)
"teacher certification" (2188 records)
"student teachers" (5240 records)
Facet 2: teacher quality
"teacher quality" (1126 records)
"teacher effectiveness" (1903 records)
"quality teachers" (505)
For my specific facets, I chose to use "quality teachers" AND "teacher preparation programs" for my first search using the 'full-text' default. I retrieved 39 hits. Several of which are relevant or worth perusing:
Citations:
Zientek, L.R. (Dec. 2007). Preparing high-quality teachers: Views from the classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 44 (4), 959-1001.
Boyd, D., Goldhaber, D., Lankford, H., & Wyckoff, J. (Spring 2007). The effect of certification and preparation on teacher quality. The Future of Children, 17 (1), 45-68.
Bain, C. (May 2004). Today's student teachers: Prepared to teach versus suited to teach? Art Education, 57 (3), 42-47.
Hoffman, J.V. (Jan.-Mar. 2004). Review: Essay book review: Achieving the goal of a quality teacher of reading for every classroom: Divest, test, or invest? Reading Research Quarterly, 39 (1), 119-128.
I was happy with these results, but also wanted to see if I could have higher recall. I chose to conduct another search, only using subjects with higher individual results.
Second search (using 'full-text'): "teacher training" AND "teacher effectiveness"
Record retrieval was 534. This yielded a higher return, however once I started browsing, I noticed the results weren't as precise. The records in this search, at least on the first few pages, dealt with education training in other countries. If the patron wasn't concerned about country, then this would provide more records to sift through.
Reflection
After some unsuccessful attempts with this database, this search question seemed to work better than my previous tries. I was able to identify and explore more facets that also, when combined, produced desirable results. JStor seems to be an appropriate database to find articles within research journals that databases such as ERIC or WorldCat likely do not hold.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Competency 9: Internet
The website I selected is School Library Journal, which can be accessed here: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/.
I chose this site since it is specifically for school librarians, K-12. This is my area of interest and study. It is a wealth of information for school librarians of all levels. The site provides links to the print version of School Library Journal, as well as reviews of books and multimedia, articles that address library specific concerns, related blogs, and much more. Within each of the tab choices are more options for selecting links. It would be advantageous for school librarians to access this site on a regular basis to stay current on trends and issues that effect school libraries.
I found this website awhile back, actually, as I used it for articles for another class. I found it through searching Google using the phrase "school libraries."
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Competency 8: Research Visual Multimedia
This data image is from Library Jobline, a service of Library Research Services which is a branch of the Colorado State Library. The graph depicts the percentage of available jobs by type of library. I was interested in this particular information since I am pursuing my School Library Certification. There are many more job opportunities in the public library sector than the the school library sector, at least in Colorado. I am curious if the statistics for Colorado are representative of other states and how Texas compares with job availability, especially where school libraries are concerned.
Source:
Helgren, J. (30 March 2010). Fast Facts - More job seekers, fewer jobs: Findings from library jobline, year three. [PDF document]. Retrieved from Library Research Service: Research and Statistics about Libraries:
Competency 7: Image
Will this be me in a few years in a school library?
I located this image by doing a Google image search of "print versus electronic books." I chose that topic because as a future school librarian, I am incredibly curious about the future of books. I wonder if many books will be replaced with electronic versions as they gain in popularity.
I selected this image because it is actually rather disturbing to me. I love books and can't imagine just discarding so many texts. There are significant advantages to non-print materials, and I imagine that more and more libraries, both public and school,will eventually begin discarding their print materials.
The image was obtained from the following source:
Mayer, A. (2009, September 11). Green benefits of print vs internet. Message and image posted to http://www.recycle.co.uk/blog/green-benefits-of-print-vs-internet/
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Competency 6: Pearl Growing on Library Literature
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 "funds allocation." I used the thesaurus to locate subject words used in the controlled vocabulary. The thesaurus search retrieved the following subjects: Finance, Libraries/Finance - which had Budgets with 589 records. It said it was used for "allocation of funds" and "library budgets."
I used the 589 records hyperlink to see what records were there. I then narrowed that down by the "New Search by Subject" option. I chose "school libraries/finance," which had 232 records.
The source I chose to use as my "known source" to begin my pearl growing was: Farmer, L., et al., (2009 April). "School Library Journal's" spending survey. School Library Journal, 55 (4), 38-44.
The subject terms used from this source were: school libraries/finance, school libraries/statistics, School Library Journal.
SS1: school libraries AND finance AND acquisitions
*Ran as a "subject(s)" search and retrieved 8 records.
*Identified one that sounded promising:
"Schools spend less than ever on books." (December 1995). Library Association Record, 97, 644.
The facet I started with to get my first source was "funds allocation." I used the thesaurus to locate subject words used in the controlled vocabulary. The thesaurus search retrieved the following subjects: Finance, Libraries/Finance - which had Budgets with 589 records. It said it was used for "allocation of funds" and "library budgets."
I used the 589 records hyperlink to see what records were there. I then narrowed that down by the "New Search by Subject" option. I chose "school libraries/finance," which had 232 records.
The source I chose to use as my "known source" to begin my pearl growing was: Farmer, L., et al., (2009 April). "School Library Journal's" spending survey. School Library Journal, 55 (4), 38-44.
The subject terms used from this source were: school libraries/finance, school libraries/statistics, School Library Journal.
SS1: school libraries AND finance AND acquisitions
*Ran as a "subject(s)" search and retrieved 8 records.
*Identified one that sounded promising:
"Schools spend less than ever on books." (December 1995). Library Association Record, 97, 644.
Subjects gleaned from browsing these records: budgets, tax campaigns, school libraries/acquisitions
SS2: school libraries AND budgets AND acquisitions (all used as subjects)
*Records: 1, but it was a great hit for what I was looking for. It was: Reference question. (Fall 2009). The School Librarian's Workshop (30) 2, 15.
Subjects identified with this source: Electronic reference books/ acquisitions; Reference books/acquisitions; School libraries/reference services.
SS3: school libraries AND electronic reference books AND acquisitions (all used as subjects)
*Records: 1 (same as previous search)
Reflection:
I was very satisfied with the pearl growing search method and the results I retrieved on Library Literature.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Competency 6: Building Block Search on ERIC/FirstSearch
I used the database ERIC/FirstSearch 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 schools, ERIC is a source worth using for searching.
Naive Question: How do school administrators determine how to allocate funds, especially where technology is concerned?
Facets to explore: funds allocation, technology, schools
Using the ERIC Thesaurus, I located the following subjects.
Naive Question: How do school administrators determine how to allocate funds, especially where technology is concerned?
Facets to explore: funds allocation, technology, schools
Using the ERIC Thesaurus, I located the following subjects.
Possible synonyms for funds allocation: school purchasing, school funds, money management, educational finance, budgeting
Possible synonyms for technology: educational technology
Possible synonyms for schools: public schools, elementary, secondary
Possible synonyms for technology: educational technology
Possible synonyms for schools: public schools, elementary, secondary
Based on my facets and ERIC subjects, I created my Subject Search.
SS1: "school purchasing" OR "school funds" OR "resource allocation" OR "budgeting" AND "educational technology" AND "public school" OR elementary OR secondary.
Records Retrieved: 237
Citations:
Hansen, J.S. (2001). 21st Century school finance: How is the context changing? Education finance in the states: Its past, present, and future. ECS issues paper. Education Commission of the States. ERIC database. 20 April 2010
Picus, L.O. (May 2000). Setting budget priorities. American School Board Journal 187 (5), 30-33. ERIC database. 20 April 2010.
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.
Picus, L.O. (May 2000). Setting budget priorities. American School Board Journal 187 (5), 30-33. ERIC database. 20 April 2010.
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.
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