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.