Internet Competency

By using Ask.com, I found Virtual Middle School Library Web site which is conveniently accessible 24 hours a day. Linda Bertland, a retired school librarian, maintains this site. She keeps it quite current. I accessed the site on November 20, 2009 and the last update of the site was on November 16, 2009. This Web site contains many useful links for anyone who has a connection with middle school. There are kid-friendly sites for reading interest and research. There are links of specific interest to parents, teachers, and librarians. The Web site address is http://www.sldirectory.com/virtual.html

Competency #8 Research Visual

It is important that middle school librarians are aware of emerging technologies like social networking, and how prevalent they are becoming in library/media centers. The chart above is part of a longitudinal study conducted by the American Association of School Librarians which was completed in 2008. The graph shows the social networking types supported by library media programs who responded to the survey. Intranet, blog, and wikis lead the way. Many believe that there will be an increase in usage for social networking in school libraries and are anxiously awaiting the 2009 results. The full report can be view at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/researchandstatistics/slcsurvey/slcsurvey.cfm

Competency #6 Project Muse Database

This is the final database for my database searching competencies.

Database: Project Muse

Research Question: What is the correlation (if any) between technology rich school libraries/media centers and student achievement?

Search Strategy: Building Block

1. I logged into the database Project Muse and entered the search terms:
"technology" and "learning"

Results: 6993 records were retrieved- I must reduce my recall and get higher precision.

2. I searched within the 6993 records adding the term:
"media center"

Results: 2000 records were retrieved - I need to continue to narrow my results.

3. I searched within the 2000 records by adding the term:
"relationship"

Results: 1384 records were retrieved - I still need higher precision.

4. I searched within the 1384 records by adding the term:
"K-12"

Results: 70 records were retrieved. I reviewed these records by reviewing the brief description provided by the database. I discovered 6 records that warranted further investigation. Upon a full review of these 6 records, I found no information that I had not found in previous searches.

Reflections:

I think the "search within these results" feature is highly beneficial when attempting to receive precise information. It makes the building block strategy an excellent strategy to use with this particular database. Since I have been conducted other searches in other databases, this particular venture was not as fruitful as others I have done; however, I believe this would have made a productive starting place.

# 7 Image Competency

Please scroll down to the bottom of this blog for a tickle of your funny bone. You will find the comic stripe "Nancy" by Guy and Brad Gilchrist. This comic stripe is available free through comics.com. Obviously, I gravitate toward this comic strip because it bears my name, but also I love what it says. There is a little girl, Nancy, who could be a middle schooler, reading signs of free entertainment. With each sign she gets more excited and speeds up her approach to the fun that awaits for her. When she arrives, she sees that all the signs have been pointing her to the library. As middle school librarians, we have to use similar tactics to get the children into the library where they can gain information literacy.

DIALOG Competency

Search Question: How does technology affect student achievement?

Considering my search question, I believe that the database Library Literature and Information Science (438) would probably provide me with the best results; therefore, I decided to explore it first. Below is a chronicle of my explorations of the various databases including: search steps that I took, results from each step, and additional comments as appropriate. Searching these databases using DIALOG was the best time I have had searching. I enjoyed being able to customize my search in this way. Since this is a commercial service that charges, I found out that it is important to know before you begin which database will most likely retrieved beneficial results. Also, pre-planning strategies are also important.

Search Steps:

1. Log on to DIALOG, enter B438 for LibLit database, then I entered:

SS technology and computer?
Results:
S1 - technology - 9814
S2 - computer? - 15, 804
S3 - both S1&S2 - 1072
Comments: S2 will give me the broadest selection for the information that I need.

2. Enter: SS student achievement or learning
Results:
S4 - student achievement - 0
S5 - learning - 4051
S6 - combined - 4051
Comments: S5 will be most helpful here. I need to exclude adult learners.

3. Enter: SS children and S2 and S5
Results:
S7 - children - 20,333
S8 - S7&S2&S5 - 37
Comments: I will further explore the 37 records.

4. Enter: T 8/5/37
Results: This only gave me record 37.
Comments: I need to correct my command.

5. Enter: T 8/5/1-37
Results: 13 of the records looked promising with one showing that technology has not affected student achievement. Of the 13, four were on gaming which I'm not interested in, and 9 were actually helpful for my research.
Comments: As I browse through these results, I noticed some additional terms that may be helpful with other searches: microcomputers-Children's use; cognition; computer assisted instruction. Feeling comfortable with the results I found, I decided to see what ERIC may have.

6. Enter: B1 Then Enter: SS technology and computer?
Results:
S1 - technology - 82,847
S2 - computer? - 93,663
S3 - both 32,324
Comments: Now, I will add learning and cognition and student achievement.

7. Enter: SS cognition or learning or student achievement
Results:
S4 - cognition - 8783
S5 - learning - 283,473
S6 - student achievement - 0
S7 - all - 289,091
Comments: I think I need to drop the term student achievement. It has not been fruitful in either database. Next, I will combine S3 and S7 with children to eliminate adult learners.

8. Enter: SS children and S3 and S7
Results:
S8 - children - 199,350
S9 - combined - 1058
Comments: This is considerable more than in LibLit. My original hypothesis was wrong. I see now why that is the case. ERIC has a more inclusive educational focus. Now I have to find another way to narrow my search. I will try some of my terms from my previous search.

9. Enter: SS Microcomputer and S7
Results:
S10 - microcomputer - 10,548
S11 - both - 2743
Comments: These broaden my search. I need fewer results.

10. Enter: SS affect and S9
Results:
S12 - affect - 21,713
S13 - both - 22
Comments: Now, that's more manageable. I will review to see if these are helpful.

11. Enter: T 13/5/1-22
Results: 7 were useful.
Comments: I noticed items covering the psychology aspect. This type of article did not appear in my LibLit search. In fact, there were only 3 that I noticed that were in both databases. While this search yielded many more results in my first searches than LibLit, in the end, I found more beneficial articles in LibLit; therefore, maybe my hyposthesis was correct, but not by much. Now, I will try Gale Group Magazines (47).

12. Enter: B47, then enter: SS technology and computer?
Results:
S1 - technology - 287,622
S2 - computer? - 418,656
S3 - both - 136,164
Comments: Lots of results, I will drop student achievement this time since it has not been helpful in previous searches.

13. Enter: SS cognition or learning
Results:
S4 - cognition - 2868
S5 - learning - 98,167
S6 - both - 99,564
Comments: Now onto narrowing down to child learner.

14. Enter: SS children and S3 and S6
Results:
S7 - children - 282,323
S8 - all - 4363
Comments: I need to narrow my results.

15. Enter: SS affect and S8
Results:
S9 - affect - 62, 936
S10 - both -823
Comments: This is still more than I can sift through.

16. Enter: T 10/5/1-5
Comments: In viewing these first few, I see gaming which I do not want, so I need to weed these out.

17. Enter: SS S10 not gam?
Results:
S11 - gam? - 236,143
S12 - S10 not gam? - 450
Comments: That is fewer, but I still need to narrow the results. I will look gain at the first few results.

18. Enter: T 12/5/1-5
Comments: In reviewing the first 10, I'm not getting anything even close to what I'm looking for. My method must be flawed. It worked with the other databases, but it doesn't work with this one. I'll move on to the fourth database, Dissertation Abstracts Online (35).

19. Enter: B35, then enter: SS technology and computer?
Results:
S1 - technology - 84,862
S2 - computer? - 126,027
S3 - both - 19, 069
Comments: The usual large amount.

20. Enter: SS cognition or learning
Results:
S4 - cognition - 6807
S5 - learning - 94, 873
S6 - both - 100,454
Comments: Now to narrow to children only.

21. Enter: SS children and S3 and S6
Results:
S7 - children - 100,095
S8 - both - 318
Comments: Not to narrow just a bit more.

22. Enter: SS affect and S8
Results:
S9 - affect - 82,753
S10 - both - 15
Comments: I will review the 15 results.

23. Enter: T 10/5/1-15
Results: 13 were excellent - 3 not helpful.
Comments: The results from this search were the most helpful of all my searches.

Database competency 6 - Library Literature and Information Science

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 centers and student achievement?

Search Strategy - Building Block

1. I logged into the database Library Literature and Information Science.
2. I entered the following search: (correlation or relationship) and (technology or computer*) and (student achievement or learning). I received 41 records.
3. I think I need to expand my search. New search: (technology or computer*) and (student achievement or learning or cognition). This gave me 1955 records. Now, I will narrow these results to only include child learners and not adults.
4. New search: (technology or computer*) and (student achievement or learning or cognition) and child*. This search retrieved 136 records. In looking through these records, I see a need to limit myself to scholarly journals only, so I will change to another search strategy.

Search Strategy - Successive Fractions

1. Since this information is to be used for support on an academic research paper, I will limit my results to peer reviewed. This reduced the records to 27. None of these are really what I am needing.
2. I will use a proximity search and start again.
3. New search: (student achievementtechnology or computer*) and child*. Also, I am still limiting to peer reviewed. Records retrieved 146.
4. Within these 146, I limited my search to media center or library and it reduced my records to 78. The "search within these results" feature is a handy tool. Only three articles look like possibilities. Most of them are reviews not critical analysis. I'm not having much success, so I'll try another strategy.

Search Strategy - Citation Pearl Growing

1. In looking at the citations for some of the articles that I thought might be more helpful, I found new terms to search. New search: (librar* or media center or school libraries) and (microcomputers or computer* or technology) and student achievement. I continue to limit my results to peer reviewed. Results - 9 records.
2. One was a winner, so I looked at the citation for this one and found a new term, academic achievement.
3. New search: (librar* or media center or school libraries) and (microcomputers or computer* or technology) and academic achievement. Once again 9 records, but not the exact same ones. One new record to mix which was a good one also. The citation for this new article supplied another new term digital divide. I'll try one more search.
4. New search: (librar* or media center or school libraries) and (microcomputers or computer* or technology) and academic achievement and digital divide. I guess I was going too far. I only received one record which is the one I found previously.

Search Strategy - Search Browsing

1. This database has a browse tab, so I selected it. I browsed the subject - digital divide. There are 182 records under this subject. I clicked on the subject "digital divide" from the listed results and received 175 records. I have no idea what happened to the 7 records that were not displayed.
2. I searched the 175 records for achievement or learning and received 7 records. I found nothing new in these 7, so I returned to my 175.
3. I then narrowed by subject - Internet/school libraries. I received 3 records. Two of them might be useful. I have notice through my searches that a particular author comes up frequently - Doug Johnson.

Reflections

In this database, browsing is much easier than in some others. My results were smaller in this database than in others. I could be because I have learned to narrow my search or perhaps this database contains much less on the topic. Of the strategies that I tried in this database, successive fractions did not seem to be as useful. I have found an author's name that could be someone to watch for in future searches.

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.