Competency 6: Database Search 3: Eric/First Search using Specific Facet

Naïve Question: How do state and/or district budget cuts affect school libraries?

Introduction: I chose this topic because I am interested in finding out what information is available supporting librarians and/or providing librarians with information pertaining to district and state budget costs. I chose to use the Eric/First Search because I wanted some more practice using it and it focuses on reference material that pertains to education topics. I felt somewhat successful the first time I used it. I selected the specific facet search strategy because I have several facets in my query to pick from when choosing the most specific one. I was a little nervous to even attempt this strategy because Chu (2003) mentions this approach is "virtually impossible for a novice user to single out the most specific facet in a multiconcept search request" (p. 86).

From my question I selected budget cuts as my most specific facet. I have a feeling I will receive a large number of results and that many of them will not pertain specifically to school libraries.

Search Terms Records retrieved (all subject searches)

Facet 1: budget cut* 2 (neither article pertains to my query)

Facet 2: school librar* 7,388

Facet 3: district 12,893

Facet 4: state 77,916

After using the 1^st facet, budget cut*, I chose to continue with searching other facets to verify the number of records retrieved. By reviewing my results I think I will begin with budget cut* and add school librar*.

2^nd Search Statement: (budget cut*) AND (school librar*) = 0 results (subject search)

I feel this happened because neither of the two articles retrieved on my facet search pertain to my query. I am going to search budget cut using keyword and leaving school library as a subject search.

3^rd Search Statement: (budget cut*) AND (school librar*) = 29 results (kw: budget cut & su: school library)

These results are much better but I am going to continue searching by adding an additional facet to see if I can get more precise results. I will do a subject search with district.

4^th Search Statement: (budget cut*) AND (school librar*) AND (district*) = 0 results (kw: budget cut, su: school library, su: district)

Again the subject search is not producing results so I am going to have district and budget cut be a keyword search and school library a subject search.

5^th Search Statement: (budget cut*) AND (school librar*) AND (district*)= 5 results (kw: budget cut, su: school library, kw: district)

I found one article that interests me because it focuses on librarians and what to do if there is a budget issue in a specific district, but the rest of the results really don't answer or apply to my query. So, maybe it is time to revisit and rebuild my statement.

Johnson, D. (2005). When Your Job Is on the Line: Strategies for Assisting Library Media Specialists Whose Positions Are in Jeopardy. Library Media Connection. 23(5), 44.

For my next search I chose to eliminate district and replace it with state.

6^th Search Statement:
(budget cut*) AND (school librar*) AND (state*) =1 unrelated result (kw: budget cut, su: school library, su: state)

Again using a subject search for state gave 0 results so I will use a keyword search for state.

7^th Search Statement:
(budget cut*) AND (school librar*) AND (state*) = 10 results (kw: budget cut, su: school library, kw: state)

I was happy with the number of results and found a couple of articles that provide some insight into the opposing views about the importance of school libraries and what librarians can do to improve the support for school libraries as well as increase the available funds.

Pope, K., Chenoweth, R., Bersche, K., & Bell, L. (2006). Starting and Running the "Libraries Matter" Campaign. Computers in Libraries. 26(8), 6-8, 55-56.

I am still interested in finding something that pertains to how budget cuts are really affecting school librarians so I attempted one more search still using my original facet budget cut. The difference is that I used a title search for the 1^st facet and kept a subject search for the 2^nd facet.

8^th Search Statement: (budget cut*) AND (school librar*) = 2 results (tt: budget cut, su: school library)

I found an article that I liked from my search results.

Watt, B., & Schon, I. (1982). The Effects of Budget Cuts on Elementary School Library Media Centers. School Library Media Quarterly. 11(1), 58-62.

REFLECTION: It took me longer than I thought to use the specific facet strategy. I like the idea of choosing the most specific facet and searching for the number of results. This is especially effective when using unfamiliar databases that may or may not have pertinent information. A large amount of search time is saved if the most specific facet comes up with very few results. I still have some trouble pinpointing the exact wording needed to successfully find needed material. I continue to find myself frustrated when searching because it seems to take me forever to locate what I am looking for in the various databases, but I will continue to practice. I also tried to focus my searches using only subject searches, but through trial and error I realized that it is not possible to always use subject searches alone.

Works Cited:

Chu, H. (2003). Information representation and retrieval in the digital age. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc.