Database competency 6 - Academic Search Complete

For this competency, I need to perform 4 out of 5 search strategies for this database. Below is a record of my explorations.

Research question: What is the correlation (if any) between technology rich library/media center and student achievement?

Search strategy - Building Block

1. I logged into the database Academic Search Complete
2. I entered the following search terms - (correlation or relationship) and (technology or computer*) and (student achievement or learning). From this search, I received 2025 records.
3. In reviewing some of the results, many do not pertain to my research question. I need to rethink my terms and try again.
4. I'll try these terms - (technology or computer*) and (library or media center) and (learning or achievement). This time I received 2236, but more of these are at least related to research question. The results include adult learners as well as children. I'm only interested in children, so I will refine my search terms.
5. This time I will search - (technology or computer*) and (library or media center) and (learning or achievement) and (child* or adolescent). This search resulted in 231 records. In these records were some on video games, so I once again revised my search - (technology or computer* not gam*) and (library or media center) and (learning or achievement). This search retrieved 218 records. I will now need to use additional strategies to continue.

Search Strategy - Successive Fractions

1. Using my 218 records from my building block strategy search, I will narrow by Scholarly (peer reviewed) journals since I need this information to support an academic paper. I now have 57 records - 6 of which are helpful.
2. I will now try using proximity searches which is also a type of successive fractions. To do this, I must start my search again - (technology or computer* not gam*) and (library or media center) and (child* N5 learning) or (child* N5 achievement). This search retrieved 6 records. Four of these are usable items. I'm sure there are more out there, so I will use citation pearl growing with these results. Note: I still have my limiter set to scholarly journals.

Search Strategy - Citation Pearl Growing

1. Looking at the citations, I found some other terms to search. I will try the following search - (library or media center) and educational technology and [(internet and children) or computer* and children) or computer-assisted instruction]. This search retrieved 76 records. Most of these do not include information specific to library/media center. Maybe I should simplify my search.
2. New search - (library or media center) and technology and learning and child*. This time I received 43 records (I'm still limiting to scholarly articles). Once again, I have items relating to video games which I do not want, so I will exclude those items. New search - (library or media center) and (technology not gam*) and learning and child*. Now I have 41 articles. I will look at the citations and see if new terms are found. After reviewing some of the citations for articles that are promising sources of information, I found some other terms that might help to make my search more precise.
3. New search - (school librar* or media center) and (technology not gam*) and educational evaluations and child*. Something is correct. I received no results.
4. New search - (school librar* or media center) and (technology not gam*) and learning. Now, I have 58 records. I will review citations of the ones that are more closely related to my research question. I have found several articles that are helpful and I noticed that they contain the term academic achievement.
5. New search - (school librar* or media center) and (technology not gam*) and academic achievement. This time I received 4 items. All of the items look helpful, and one is a review of two books. The books reviewed in the article look promising as well.

Search Strategy - Search Browsing

1. My previous searches yielded some possibilities, but very few of the items I found discussed the correlation aspect of my research question. I will try browsing to see if I can discover something.
2. I used the "smart search" feature and entered the text "correlation between technology rich media center or school library and student achievement" Wow, I received 3,390,495 items. I still limited my search to scholarly journals.
3. These include items I had already found in previous search strategies. I noticed that some of the items did not address specifically the area of technology. I will try a new browse.
4. New browse statement "correlation between computers or technology rich school library and student achievement" Results - 2,953,900. Too many to browse. I decided to look in "help"
5. Help suggests several browsing methods. One is by subject, so I will try it.
6. I browsed the subject index and chose "educational technology" and selected explode - it entered the search perameters - DE "EDUCATIONAL technology" OR DE "AUDIO-visual education" OR DE "COMPUTER-assisted instruction" OR DE "MEDIA programs (Education)" OR DE "PROGRAMMED instruction" OR DE "TEACHING machines" The results were 24,532. Still too many to browse.
7. I tried subject browse for "school libraries" and received 2793 records. I refined the search to only include scholarly journals and that narrowed it to 466. In browsing through these items, many were not helpful. Some were items already identified in previous searches.

Reflections

In conducting the above describe searches, I made several discoveries. First of all, it is difficult to use purely one search type to find information. Sometimes, it is necessary to combine types to receive the best results. Also, browsing does not seem to be an effective search option in this database. The only options for browsing produce too many results to review. In this database, successive fractions and citation pearl growing seem to produce the best results.

Search Skills - Expand Your Reach

Now that I know some new search strategies, I will search trying them on to see how it might change my results. I still need information on teacher-librarian collaboration, but this time I will try using Boolean search strings. Below is a log of my search strategy along with my results.

Topic: teacher-librarian collaboration
Database: ERIC/FirstSearch

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3
teacher librarian collaboration
educator media specialist cooperation
instructor participation

Search string: (teacher or educator or instructor) and (librarian or media specialist) and ( collaboration or cooperation or participation)

Results: 937 records. This is much more than my initial searches.

In viewing the records, I discovered that the results include high education and I am interested in middle school, so I further narrowed my search using NOT higher education or university or college. Now, I have 632 records. I do want current information, so I'm limited my dates to 2000-2009. Now, I'm down to 241 records. I need it to support a research project, so I narrowed it to peer reviewed. Now, I have 20 records. I reviewed all 2o and found four that will help in my project:

• Codispoti, M. & Hickey, M. (2007). Teachers and librarian collaborate! Teaching about Hispanic culture. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 19(4), p. 21-24.
• Everhart, N. (2007). School library media specialists as effective school learners. Knowledge Quest, 35(4). Available http://www.ala.org/aasi/kqweb
• Hylen, J. (2005). Help students and teachers become information literate. Teacher Librarian, 32(5), p. 22.
• Mardis, M. & Hoffman, E. (2007). Collection and collaboration: Science in Michigan Middle School Media Centers. School Library Media Research, 10. Available http://www.ala.org/aasl/slmr

Next step, I will try same searches in LibraryLiterature.

Topic: teacher-librarian collaboration
Database: LibraryLiterature

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3
teacher librarian collaboration
educator media specialist cooperation
instructor participation

Search string: (teacher or educator or instructor) and (librarian or media specialist) and ( collaboration or cooperation or participation)

Results: 442 records. I followed the same limiting factors above. First NOT higher education or university or college. This reduced the records to 354. Now I will limit years. This returned 235 records. Now I will limit by peer reviewed. I have 96 records. The nice thing about this database is that I can now search just within these results. I did not see this feature on ERIC. I searched for middle school and found 1 record: Asselin, M. (2005). Teaching information skills in the information age: An examination of trends in the middle grades. School Libraries Worldwide, 11(1), p. 17-36.

Normally, I would not narrow so much, but I have quite a bit for my research project already.

Tagging/Cataloging Competency #5

Using Librarything.com, I found the following tag - http://www.librarything.com/tag/School+Librarian.

A resource that I think will be helpful is Teaching with the Internet: Strategies and Models for K-12. It is found at - http://www.libraything.com/work/3209306.

This resource will be very useful in collaborating with content area teachers on using the Internet for meeting literacy and subject matter objectives and proficiencies.

LibraryLiterature/BIP Competency

I conducted two searches, one on LibraryLiterature and the other one on BIP for the general topic of teacher-media specialist collaboration. This is the same search that I conducted previously on ERIC and WorldCat. My most current searches were a little more focused than my first searches since I have been working on the project longer. For these two more current searches, I started with LibraryLiterature. Below are my search steps including my results.

Database search: LibraryLiterature
Topic: teacher media specialist collaboration

1. I entered the terms teacher and media specialist and collaboration as all smart searches, but placed all three terms in a separate field. I received the results of 115 records.
2. Just to see how it would affect my results, I decided to do the same search, but place all three terms in one field separated by the word "and." To my surprise, I received exactly the same 115 records in the exact same order. Ididn't realize that either way is the same search function. I thought there might be a difference since this is an option, but I was wrong. Either way, the search engine functions identically.
3. I decided that I only wanted peer reviewed items, so I narrowed my search and received 22 results. These results seemed to be across too broad of a spectrum for my purposes.
4. So, I used the same parameters, but limited it further to middle school. This resulted in only one record dating 1997. I really wanted something more current.
5. Next, I removed "middle school" since it was too limiting and limited the dates to a range of 2000-2009. The results were 17 records.
6. I reviewed all 17 records and found five to further explore.
7. From this five, I choose:

Russell, S. (June 2002). Teachers and librarians: Collaborative relationship. Teacher Librarian, 29(5), p. 35-8.



Database search: BIP
Topic: teacher media specialist collaboration

1. I conducted a quick search using the combined terms teacher media specialist and collaboration. I also selected the parameters: in print, forthcoming, and book. I received the results of 22 records.
2. From this 22, I selected 12 to further view specifically looking for availability and synopsis of information contained in each one.
3. I found two records that looked promising, but when I was trying to view only these two records, I clicked on something that landed me completely out of BIP and had to start over.
4. Fortunately, I had recorded my steps, so retracing my progress was easy, and I quickly found the two records.
5. Upon a closer review of the two, I believe that both will be beneficial. They are:

Bishop, K. (2003). Connecting libraries with classrooms: The curricular roles of the library media specialist. Linworth Publishing.

Jansen, B. (2007). The Big6 in middle school: Teaching information and communications technology skills. Linworth Publishing.

RSS Feed

Competency # 4

I have added a RSS feed called B0-Knows Article Search. The link is on the top right side of this blog. This feed provides content summaries of information targeted to teachers, parents, and librarians. This feed provides information to teachers on specific lesson ideas for all subject areas. It also provides information to parents on things like helping your child with reading comprehension. Additionally, librarians can find help through articles such as how to reward volunteers. This feed provides helpful information to all the learning partners.

As part of a class project, I must provide a written rationale for the inclusion of certain elements in the project. One element is the need for school librarian and teacher collaboration in the area of teaching technology. I must have references from professional literature to support my project. I conducted two searches one on Eric/FirstSearch and another on WorldCat. I found two citations that will be helpful for my project. They are:

From Eric/FirstSearch -
Corey, L. (2002). The role of the library media specialist in standards-based learning. Knowledge Quest. 31(2), 21-23.

From WorldCat -
Morris, B. (2009). Principal support of media specialist and teacher collaboration: A research study. Educational Media and Technology Yearbook. 34, 291-310.

I began my search in Eric/FirstSearch by using the keywords teacher librarian collaboration. I also narrowed my search by the years 2001-2009 because I wanted the most recent information. This search resulted in 154 records. I wanted to further narrow the results, so I included the keyword technology. This time I received 35 results. Looking at the article titles reminded me of a term that is more frequently used which is media specialist, so I changed my keywords to teacher media specialist collaboration and technology. This search netted nine records. From this list, I found the above citation.

My second search was conducted on WorldCat. I decided to begin my search by limiting my results to articles only, and I used the keywords teacher media specialist collaboration. I received no results. I removed the articles only feature and tried again. This time I received six records. None of them were helpful. Since I wasn't having much success, I decided to try a subject and keyword search. I used technology as the subject and media specialist as the keyword. This search yielded 37 records. To further narrow this search, I selected only articles, and this narrowed the search to seven, but none were helpful. I then decided to switch my subject to media specialist and my keyword to technology. This time I received an amazing 187 hits. Once again, I then limited these results to articles only and found nine results. From this nine, I found the above cited article. I was quite surprised to see the difference when I merely switched my subject and keyword. The two articles that I found should be helpful for my project.

Great podcast

Competency # 3

After hours of frustration, I finally found a wonderful podcast for this blog. I found it using my old friend Jeeves, Ask.com. It is sponsored by the website KidsLearnOutLoud.com. The podcast is titled Poems All Children Should Know. It is a fabulous collection of poems that are read to encourage the children to commit the poems to memory. There is a special emphasis placed on encouraging boys to learn the poems. Most are shorter poems, but some longer ones are included like "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe. I choose this podcast because I hope that it will promote the reading, learning, and love for poetry. The podcast can be heard by clicking here.