Database Searching

For this competency, I was to investigate a search query using four databases and four search types. The query I chose was “how integrating technological and multimedia components into reading may motivate young readers”.

Search One – ERIC/Building Block

The first database I chose was ERIC and I decided to do a Building Block search. I reduced my query to the following concepts:

Concept 1: technolog* OR multimedia OR multimodal

Concept 2: motivat*

Concept 3: (young AND reader*) OR (teen AND reader*) OR (student*)

I used truncation of terms to allow for different forms of words.

Concept 1 resulted in 117,312 hits

Concept 2 resulted in 49,403 hits

Concept 3 resulted in 572,763 hits

The three terms together resulted in 436 hits. Many of them were not pertinent to my query. I decided to slightly change my concepts to hopefully limit my results better:

Concept 1: technolog* OR multimedia OR multimodal

Concept 2: (motivat* AND read*)

Concept 3: young OR teen OR student*

My results this time were much better: 96 results, generally much more relevant to my query than the prior search.

One of the returned matches was this article:

Larson, L. (2009). e-Reading and e-Responding: New Tools for the next Generation of Readers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(3), 255-258. Retrieved from ERIC database.

Search Two - LibraryLit/Specific Facet First

My most specific facet was obviously Concept 2.

Searching (motivat* AND read*) in LibraryLit resulted in 139 records. Since my most specific facet had not included the ideas “technology” or “multimedia”, many of the hits were not specifically related to my query. I did find the following article of interest:

Edwards, B. (2009). Motivating Middle School Readers: The Graphic Novel Link. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 25(8), 56-8. Retrieved from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

If I were using the most specific facet first technique for this query, I would have further narrowed my search by continuing with a building block or successive fraction search.

Search Three – Academic Search Premier/Successive Fraction

For my third search, I used the ASP database. For my successive fraction search, I began with Concept 3, the broadest of the three concepts.

A search of (young OR teen OR student*) gave 842,244 matches. As expected, few of the returned articles were pertinent to my query.

I added Concept 1 (technolog* OR multimedia OR multimodal). This time my results were limited to 59,073 articles. Again, many of the retrieved articles were not directly about reading or motivation.

I added Concept 3 (motivat* AND read*). This reduced my hits to a very workable 107. Many of these were indeed pertinent to my original search, including the following article:

Hill, R. (2010). When Technology and Books Collide. Book Links, 19(3), 9-11. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

Search Four – LexisNexis/Citation-Pearl Growing

For my fourth search I chose the LexisNexis database. I selected ‘basic search’ and entered my search string:

(young OR teen OR student!) AND (technolog! OR multimedia OR multimodal) AND (motivat! AND reading), limiting my results to the past five years. I received 992 hits, the majority of which were not what I was looking for. Scanning the first page of results, I did find an interesting article relevant to my search:

Karaoke boosts reading skills; Three studies find 'amazing' effect on literacy through singalong computer software”. The Toronto Star, May 14, 2007 Monday, NEWS; Pg. A12, 468 words, Andrea Gordon, Toronto Star.

I selected this story and, after reading the article, decided to narrow my search by two of the subject headings listed at the bottom of the article: “computer software” and “literacy and illiteracy”. I received only 7 hits. I went back to the search screen, keeping the two subject headings, but changing my search to simply “reading”. This time I received 149 hits, several of which were pertinent. One of the hits was:

'They're excited about learning'; Students at all nine English school boards in Quebec - and at many French boards as well - are improving their reading and writing skills with multimedia software developed at Concordia University

The Gazette (Montreal), March 4, 2010 Thursday, NEWS; Pg. A3, 718 words, BRENDA BRANSWELL, The Gazette

Tagging/Indexing/Cataloging - The Invention of Hugo Cabret

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick was published in 2007. It won a Caldecott Medal and was a National Book Award finalist. Selznick describes the book as "not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things." Although the main character is a young boy (Hugo Cabret), the story involves the silent filmmaker Georges Melies. The story is told through pages of textless illustrations (in a beautiful black and white art style that perfectly complements the subject matter) and pages of traditional text. The illustrations do not merely mirror the text, they actually move the story forward. Attention to both the illustrations and the text is necessary to follow the unfolding story.

Tags: adventure (37), automata (35), caldecott (124), caldecott winner (42), children (45), children's (128), children's fiction (45), children's literature (65), clocks (117), fantasy (86), fiction (289), film (59), france (106), graphic novel (207), historical fiction (129), illustrated (69), illustration (36), inventions (32), juvenile (44), juvenile fiction (40), magic (46), movies (84), mystery (100), orphan (46), orphans (108), paris (181), picture book (41), read (41), robots (38), young adult (136)

http://www.librarything.com/work/1729243/book/62416787

RSS Feed - Comics Worth Reading

Graphic novels and comic books can be great tools for librarians and teachers to use with their reluctant teen readers. Although some educators initially questioned their appropriateness for the classroom, graphic novels and comic books are being incorporated more and more into our schools. The child who is reading a graphic novel or comic book is truly reading, making sense of the story, encountering familiar and unfamiliar words just as in any other book. Literary elements such as character and plot are easily taught using graphic novels and comics. Perhaps most importantly, graphic novels and comics can provide a positive reading experience to children and teens who think they "hate to read". The website www.comicsworthreading.com offers regular news and reviews about comics and graphic novels. I perused the reviews and found several titles that I would definitely be interested in including in my library!