Competency 9: Internet

The webpage I keep returning to is actually a directory that I found early in this course when I typed resources for school librarians in a Google search. This web site is simply titled "Resources for School Librarians" and contains a wealth of information on a wide variety of topics that are important to school librarians. Topics range from links to national skills standards to using web 2.0 in the library. Every time I visit this site I find new information that will be helpful to my future role as media specialist in a school library. For instance, today I found several lesson plans for teaching media literacy to students!

http://www.sldirectory.com/

Competency 6, Search 4: Specific Facet First with Academic Search Complete

For this last search, I decided to try once again the same question I have been searching, and I am hoping that Academic Search Complete will contain some useful articles.

Naïve Question: I would like to implement virtual reference services for my school library. What do I need to know and consider?

Facets	virtual	Reference services	School library
My initial terms	digital, online		media center
Thesaurus terms	Electronic reference services, online information services	reference services	school libraries

I really struggled with the virtual facet because there are so many different terms that are somewhat related. When browsing through articles, I found that many of the terms were used interchangeably, so I had to eliminate the ones that did not appear to retrieve pertinent information. In addition, the narrower subject headings also use the idea of the reference facet. This surely will affect my search, especially since this facet will most likely be the one to start the search.

Subject Headings:	Results:
Electronic reference services	344
Online information services	13,243
Reference services	1,628
School libraries	3,490

Since I am conducting a specific facet first search, I would add electronic reference services to reference service since these retrieved the smallest number of results. Since this is redundant, I will eliminate reference services as a facet for the time being. Instead I will add the next facet school libraries.

SS1: electronic reference services AND school libraries (subject terms search) Results: 2

Notes: These documents do support the question. However, I am hoping to find more articles on the topic. At this point, I will go ahead and add the redundant reference services facet back in to the equation to see if that will add more hits.

Church, A. (2006). YOUR LIBRARY GOES VIRTUAL: Promoting Reading and Supporting Research. Library Media Connection, 25(3), 10-13. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

SS2: (electronic reference services OR reference services) AND school libraries (subject terms search) Results: 24

Notes: This search brought up a few somewhat related topics, but none that directly addressed the question. I am sure that this search will not yield much more, but I will still add the last facet. At this point, I doubt I will find an article that will have both electronic reference services and online information services as subject headings, but I will still leave the initial subject heading in the search because I included the OR operator with reference services.

SS3: (electronic reference services OR reference services) AND school libraries AND online information services (subject terms search) Results: 1

Notes: As I expected, adding the last facet did not help at all! The one article it brought up is one of those somewhat related articles, and it was published almost 15 years ago. The only thing left to do in order to salvage this search is to remove the first set of subject headings.

SS4: school libraries AND online information services (subject terms search) Results: 18

Notes: Although I deviated some from the strategy, I am pleased to find that this search did retrieve a few more articles that are worthwhile in addressing the original naïve question. However, the best overall article is still the one I retrieved and cited in the initial search.

Warlick, D. (2005). Building Web Sites That Work for Your Media Center. Knowledge Quest, 33(3), 13-15. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Reflection: Unfortunately, this search strategy was the hardest one for me. I had to deviate from the strategy right away at the beginning and then again at the end in order to make it work for me. The most difficult part was making the connection between reference services and virtual capabilities since the subject headings overlapped. This might be a good thing in a different type of search, but it definitely created some roadblocks with this strategy.

 

Competency 6, Search 3: Successive Fraction Strategy with Eric/First Search

I decided to repeat my last search using a different search strategy and engine to find any additional or better results. I chose successive fraction strategy because I do not expect to find too many articles on this somewhat narrow topic.

Naïve Question: I would like to implement virtual reference services for my school library. What do I need to know and consider?

Facets	Virtual	Reference services	School library
My initial terms	online, digital		media center
Thesaurus terms	online systems	reference services	school libraries

I was surprised that I could not find any usable subject headings under virtual or digital. There were several for online, but I decided that online systems closest described the virtual reference system.

Search Terms:	Records Retrieved:
Online systems	6, 814
Reference services	2,952
School libraries	5,790

SS1: online systems AND school libraries (all subject phrase search) Results: 118

Notes: Since I am using the successive fraction strategy, I chose the two subject headings that retrieved the most records and searched them together. Already, this narrowed the results drastically, and I am seeing some very useful documents. The following article reveals the students' perspectives on using an online reference service as well as the librarian's view and gives insight on how to use these perspectives to best create a system to serve the patron's needs.

Farmer, S. (2003, Sept.-Oct.). Electronic reference service: a teen's eye view. Knowledge Quest, 32(1), p. 32-33.

SS2: online systems AND school libraries AND reference services (all subject phrase search) Results: 21

Notes: In order to narrow the results further, I added the last search term to the search. This did the trick as my results were whittled down to only 21 documents pertaining to my search. I do not even need to add limiters! The following article emphasizes the need for virtual reference services in schools and outlines the systems of three school libraries.

Brewer, S. (2003). Virtual reference services. Northwest Education, 9(1), p. 7-35.

Reflection: Even though I had never used this strategy before, I found it to be the easiest and quickest search method I have used yet. The most time was spent in searching the thesaurus for the facets and determining which search terms to use.

 

 

Competency 8: Research Visual Multimedia

As a future school librarian and media specialist, I need to understand this generation's relationship with media. This information allows school librarians to know what skills the students probably already have and what they need in order to successfully function in a media-rich society. Understanding how children and teenagers use media also shows school librarians which areas of their library program need to be strengthened in order to reach students and engage their interests.

While browsing Google for statistics on media use, I came across the report "Media Use Statistic" from the Media Literacy Clearinghouse website, which provided many statistics on how people of all ages use media today. Included in this report was a graph from the Kaiser Family Foundation's 2010 study M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds. This graph is interesting to me because it compares media usage by young adults today with five years ago and ten years ago. Obviously, computer use has risen while print media declined. What is truly astonishing is the number of hours young adults are exposed to various forms of media in the day. This is proof of how important media literacy is in education.

I retrieved this graph from http://www.frankwbaker.com/mediause.htm. The original graph and full study belongs to Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and can be found at http://www.kff.org/entmedia/upload/8010.pdf.

Competency 6, Search 2: Pearl Growing Strategy with Library Lit.

This is the strategy I tend to use the most as I am searching. However, I usually start with a building block search and then use the pearl growing strategy to expand or narrow the results. For this search, I will use one article and follow the pearl growing strategy through the whole process. I chose a new question based on virtual reference systems in schools and decided to use the Library Lit. database since its focus is on library issues.

Naïve Question: I would like to implement virtual reference services for my school library. What do I need to know and consider?

To find one good article, I conducted a basic search by typing virtual reference and school libraries in the all-smart search field. I immediately found one article that sounded like a good start. On the abstract page, I found the subject headings and chose those headings as my facets or pearls for the search.

Train, M. (2005). Answers at Your Fingertips: Live Internet Reference for Teachers, Students, Parents, and Library Media Specialists. Knowledge Quest, 33(3), 19-21. Retrieved April 24, 2010, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Subject Headings: internet/school libraries, school libraries/reference services, reference services/automation

SS1: internet/school libraries AND school libraries/reference services AND reference services/automation (all subject searches) Results: 3

Farmer, L. (2005). Virtual Reference Service for K-12 Students. Knowledge Quest, 33(3), 22-4. Retrieved April 24, 2010, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Mon, L. (2006). Digital Reference and Ubiquitous Computing in the Classroom. Knowledge Quest, 34(3), 20-3. Retrieved April 24, 2010, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Notes: I felt like I hit the jackpot! Even though I only retrieved 3 articles, they completely address my question. The first article discusses necessary training for the school librarian as well as student training. The second article focuses on the further training the students need to best use this feature. The third article gives information on what the school librarian should do on a regular basis to manage this feature!

To be sure, I checked the subjects of the additional two articles to see if there was an extra subject I could search. Only the "Digital reference…" (Mon, 2006) article included bibliographic instruction. I decided to go ahead and add it just in case. Obviously, I could not keep the original search sentence because it would only bring up the same one article. I decided to eliminate the broader reference services/automation since it can apply to all libraries.

SS2: internet/school libraries AND school libraries/reference services AND bibliographic instruction (all subject searches) Results: 1

Notes: This search retrieved the same article "Digital reference…" (Mon, 2006). I also tried this search without the internet/school libraries facet and while I retrieved 8 records, no additional useful articles were found. Therefore, I removed bibliographic instruction as a facet.

At this point, I conducted a thesaurus search on all facets to see if there were other related subjects. The first two had no other related subjects while reference services/automation only had telereference as an option. This one did not interest me as it pertains to using televisions.

Though my original three articles are good, I decided to search only the first two facets in an effort to retrieve more documents.

SS3: internet/school libraries AND school libraries/reference services (all subject searches) Results: 5

Notes: This search only added two additional articles. Even though these two articles are written by the same author and are somewhat outdated, I am especially pleased to find the second article because it addresses what a school librarian needs to consider (patron's needs, available sites, etc.) when building the library's webpage. However, I still want to make sure I find all pertinent articles. Can I find more pearls? I will attempt to broaden the search further by only looking at the most applicable facet.

Safford, B. (1996). The once and future role of the Internet in reference service and information retrieval. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 12, 39. Retrieved April 24, 2010, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Safford, B. (1996). Ready reference on the internet: suggested categories for your library's home page. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 12, 45-46. Retrieved April 24, 2010, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

SS4: school libraries/reference services (subject search) Results: 127

Notes: Naturally, these articles include all aspects of reference services and most do not deal with an online system. I decided to check the abstracts of the first page's results. By doing this, I found two additional subject headings regarding electronic reference books, both evaluation and acquisition. These would be important issues for a school librarian to consider when starting a virtual reference system. I will add those to my other facets to see if any more articles can be retrieved.

SS5: school libraries/references services AND (internet/school libraries OR electronic reference books/evaluation OR electronic reference books/acquisitions) (all subject searches) Results: 7

Notes: Basically, I have retrieved the same five earlier articles with two additional ones that address electronic reference books. However, I feel that these are valid because electronic reference materials are definitely something to be considered when creating a virtual reference system.

(2009). Reference Question. The School Librarian's Workshop, 30(2), 15. Retrieved April 24, 2010, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Reflection: I am satisfied with the resulting articles as they address several aspects of implementing a virtual reference system in a school library including planning, training, and maintenance. Both the online aspect and references services are addressed in those articles. I found the pearl growing strategy to be very useful because you are given concrete subject headings to work with from the beginning of the search. In addition, Library Lit's thesaurus was very beneficial both to the question and the process due to its subject matter and indexing.

Competency 7: Image

I found this picture by typing in kids reading books on the image search at www.dogpile.com. The picture is actually from Kids Book Blog, which is a blog that allows kids to write reviews for books. I love this idea, and I love that the image shows the kid's enraptured expression as they are enlightened by the contents of the book. As a future school librarian, I believe that educators and librarians should work together to create a love of reading in students.

Kids Book Blog: http://kidsbookblog.edublogs.org/book-review-database/

Competency 6, Search 1: Building Block Search with LexisNexis

I wanted to try a search with LexisNexis because I have not used it much, but the educational nature of my usual naïve question does not fit in with the business/medical nature of this database. Therefore, I decided to try a different search question that relates to the medical field.

Naïve Question: What evidence is there about vaccines causing autism in children?

To conduct this search, I first pinpointed the facets vaccines, autism, and children. However, I decided to eliminate children since vaccinations are usually given to children. Therefore, I created my search grid by choosing vaccines and autism as my initial facets. I found additional subject headings by using the index term search option under power search.

Facets	vaccines	autism
My initial search terms	shots, immunizations	autism
Index terms	vaccines, MMR vaccine, vaccinations & immunizations	autism

Other interesting index terms: research reports, case studies, drug safety (will probably add in an additional facet to include these terms since they do not fit under vaccines or autism)

All searches are conducted as a power search using the terms and connectors search option. The default setting for sources is major world publications unless noted otherwise.

SS1: (vaccin! AND autism) Results: over 3,000

Notes: I decided to use vaccin! because that would represent all three of my index terms under vaccines. Since there were over 3,000 results, I received a screen asking me to edit my search. When I began looking at the index terms I had an idea that I would need to add another facet due to some of the other interesting and relevant index terms I found under vaccines and autism. I did not add them to vaccine or autism because using them in a Boolean search with those facets using the connector OR would not have represented the relationship between those terms I am seeking. In other words, I do not want articles about vaccines or drug safety in regards to autism. That would yield completely different results. Instead, I will add an additional facet for evidence.

Facets		vaccines		autism	evidence
My initial search terms		shots, immunizations		autism
Index terms		vaccines, MMR vaccine, vaccinations & immunizations		autism	drug safety, research reports, case studies

SS2: (vaccin!) AND (autism) AND (drug safety OR research reports OR case studies) Results: 1,500

Notes: This definitely narrowed it down and is yielding good results. However, there are still many strange articles based on research or studies that do not mention vaccinations and only mention autism in passing; however, they are still indexed under those terms. That is frustrating. At this point, I think it is important to go ahead and apply some limiters. I will narrow the default sources setting from major world publications to full text medical journals in order to retrieve reliable sources that have been reviewed.

SS3: (vaccin!) AND (autism) AND (drug safety OR research reports OR case studies) limited to full text medical journals, combined-- Results: 34

Notes: This is a great number of documents to work with. However, I am finding that the most recent pertinent articles are from 2003 and 2005.

Nelson, K. (2003) Thimerosal and autism? American Academy of Pediatrics, 111. p. 674-679.

Colgrove, J. & Bayer, R. (2005) Could It Happen Here? Vaccine Risk Controversies And The Specter Of Derailment; A successful immunization system depends mostly on people's willingness to have themselves and their children vaccinated. Health Affairs.

On an important medical topic such as this, I would also want to provide the patron with more recent articles. However, I do feel that it is important to keep the sources limited to medical journals. As a result, I will broaden my search statement and limit the results to the last five years.

SS4: (vaccin!) AND (autism) limited to full text medical journals, combined and to the last five years--Results: 22

Notes: This search did provide more recent hits, but they were not as relevant to the search as the older documents retrieved from the last search. This may be due to the database's turnaround time for uploading medical journaIs. At this point, I would probably try another database because of the importance of using reliable sources. However, our instructor made the valid point that most patrons will be looking for medical information written in layman's terms. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to expand the limiters to allow other sources while still keeping the dates extremely current. This will allow for more recent materials.

SS5:
(vaccin!) AND (autism) AND (drug safety OR research reports OR case studies) sources set to major world publications and limited to last six months--Results: 78

Associated Press (2010, March 13). Judge: vaccine, autism not connected. Newsday. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic on April 24, 2010.

Ogilvie, M. (2010, February 3). Flawed autism study retracted; leading medical journal latest to retract research linking disorder to childhood vaccine. The Toronto Star. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic on April 24, 2010.

Reflection: With the addition of the final articles, the patron will have the benefit of reading published research as well as more recent updates on the vaccine/autism debate. This will allow the patrons to see for themselves if the recent findings outweigh the case studies of the past. The search itself was difficult to conduct once the limiters were employed because this database has so many options for sources. This does allow, however, for a wide perspective on the searched topics.