(Module 6 – Search Competency)
In a previous post, I stated my search strategy and results for “digital preservation” using the Eric, WorldCat, and Library Lit databases. To improve results, I have applied some search techniques to construct a search strategy. For each of the three databases, I have used a technique or combination of basic techniques.
Initially, my search topic was “digital preservation,” but this is too broad of a topic. Instead, I have refined my topic in a question format, “How to digitally preserve a library?”
Next, I identified the facets in this topic: “digitally” “preserve” “library”
Eric Database
Search Strategy: Boolean Search String
Boolean Technique
Using these facets, synonyms (or sets) are listed to extract create a Boolean search string.
Synonyms
Digitally: digital, digitization, digitizing
Preserve: preserving, preservation
Library: books, materials
Using Boolean operators OR and AND, we construct a search string with parentheses used:
((digital or digitization or digitizing) and (preserving or preserve or preservation) and (books or materials))
For my first time applying a Boolean search string I got a very acute list of results.
ERIC results for: (kw: digital or kw: digitization or kw: digitizing) and (kw: preserving or kw: preserve or kw: preservation) and (kw: books or kw: materials). Records found: 156
Browsing through the first 10 hits listed, I like the results so I go forth using this search string and an attribute. I chose to limit my results published in 2006-2009 by selecting the publication year attribute.
Total records retrieved were 12.
Of these records, I selected record #12. Not only does this answer my question, but this article provides critical information on how to download, install, and set-up a FREE software package used to digitize library printed materials.
Lots of Librarians Can Keep Stuff Safe: Libraries Are Able to Safeguard Content with LOCKSS, Open Source Digital Preservation Software By: Karen G Schneider 2007
English Article (EJ) 2
Library Journal, v132 n13 p30-31 Aug 2007
Reed Business Information. 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010. Tel: 646-746-6819; Fax: 646-746-6734; e-mail: ljinfo@reedbusiness.com; Web site: http://www.libraryjournal.com
(Quick Sum/Intro of Article Below)
Over the next several decades, libraries will face the potential loss of all the e-journals, ebooks, electronic theses, local digital collections, and other "e-stuff" curated for the public good. A solution to this problem is LOCKSS ("Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe"), a free, open-source digital-preservation software from Stanford University that preserves digital content in a library-to-library network, just as multiple libraries keep copies of the same book....
WorldCat Database
Search Strategy: Truncation
Using the same facets identified earlier, I will truncate these facets to retrieve different forms of a term. This is done by adding a symbol at the end of the term. In some cases, left and middle truncation can be used.
Truncated words:
Digit* (I am not sure if this is the best term to truncate that would include digitization, digitize, and digitally)
Preserv* : preserve, preservation, preserving
Librar*: library, libraries (I thought it easier to use “library” as oppose to books or materials)
In addition, operator AND will be used to string these three terms in our search input. ((digit*) AND (preserv*) AND (library*))
Using this search string, a total number records found were 18,385 and only 11,113 are in English.
To narrow down my search, I limited my search to list only those in English language. This brought down the number by a little more than a third.
The use of truncation really pulls in a number of records, and is most effective when used after a technique has been applied such as Boolean ops, field and proximity searching. Using both truncation and type of language (English), the title field attribute was set to locate records with titles containing these facets and its variations. Number of records totaled 270. Applying another limiter, publication year 2009, a shorter list was retrieved. Here is the search string used to get these 11 results.
WorldCat results for: yr: 2009 and ((la= "eng" and (((ti: digit* and ti: preserv*) and ti: librar*)))).
Records found: 11
Although, I did not get the results I was hoping for, I did retrieve some interesting articles shedding light on the copyright issues. These records covering copyright issues are essential to understanding the specifics on how to begin a digitizing project at your library. Perhaps my topic could have been constructed differently, or the use of truncation might have been too much for these three facets. Another point I want to make is the search string that WorldCat shows the searcher with the results. For some reason the first two facets are nested together leaving the third separate. I am not sure how this came to be, but I played with the provided operators to see if it would change the nesting placements. Through trial and error, I was wrong.
Showing posts with label database. Show all posts
Showing posts with label database. Show all posts
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
LibraryLit/BIP Database Search
Library Lit Database
Using this database, I performed a search for "digital preservation" in abstracts. A total of 220 records were retrieved with the criteria selected. I scanned through the first 30 records, and found zero articles relevant to what I was seeking. Instead, I changed the search to locate records with "digital preservation" in titles. A total of 360 records were obtained. After sifting through some of these, I was satisfied with what this search retrieved. To refine my search, I narrowed the number of hits to 28 by selecting articles published in the year 2009. Below is the article I chose from my search of "digital preservation" in titles and published in 2009.
Mani, N. (2009). Digitisation: Preservation and Challenges. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 29(1), 69-71. Retrieved October 5, 2009, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.
Books In Print (BIP) Database
My first attempt to search for videos on "digital preservation" using the QuickSearch on BIP was a failure. Only three hits were retrieved and not relevant at all to my topic of interest. On my second attempt, I decided to search a bit broader by selecting to search "digital preservation" using keyword indexing to retrieve results, and to locate books "in print" and "forthcoming." I total of 461 hits were retrieved. I selected the book below because this is a perfect resource for those who are needing to understand and have a step-by-step process on how to digitally preserve personal memories using current technology.
Baldridge, A. (2009). Organize Your Digital Life: How to Store Your Photographs, Music, Videos, and Personal Documents in a Digital World. National Geographic Society.
Using this database, I performed a search for "digital preservation" in abstracts. A total of 220 records were retrieved with the criteria selected. I scanned through the first 30 records, and found zero articles relevant to what I was seeking. Instead, I changed the search to locate records with "digital preservation" in titles. A total of 360 records were obtained. After sifting through some of these, I was satisfied with what this search retrieved. To refine my search, I narrowed the number of hits to 28 by selecting articles published in the year 2009. Below is the article I chose from my search of "digital preservation" in titles and published in 2009.
Mani, N. (2009). Digitisation: Preservation and Challenges. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 29(1), 69-71. Retrieved October 5, 2009, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.
Books In Print (BIP) Database
My first attempt to search for videos on "digital preservation" using the QuickSearch on BIP was a failure. Only three hits were retrieved and not relevant at all to my topic of interest. On my second attempt, I decided to search a bit broader by selecting to search "digital preservation" using keyword indexing to retrieve results, and to locate books "in print" and "forthcoming." I total of 461 hits were retrieved. I selected the book below because this is a perfect resource for those who are needing to understand and have a step-by-step process on how to digitally preserve personal memories using current technology.
Baldridge, A. (2009). Organize Your Digital Life: How to Store Your Photographs, Music, Videos, and Personal Documents in a Digital World. National Geographic Society.
Monday, September 28, 2009
ERIC/WorldCat Database Search
How should one go about conducting a search to retrieve the most relevant records to a query? For my ISAR course I will take you step-by-step on my search using WorldCat and Eric databases through the Texas Woman’s University Library website.
In this case, I will be searching on the topic of library services and their trends in public libraries. I chose this topic because it interests me and I have a collaborative paper on this topic that I and group members are working on for another course. With the help of an outline our group has created for our paper, I have some knowledge of the topic and the direction of my search. As mentioned earlier, for my searches I used both Eric and WorldCat databases.
ERIC DATABASE
Performing my first search using Eric database, I used “library services”[abstract] and “public library” [subject]. Utilizing the advanced search, I entered the phrase “library services” and selected [abstract] as my index. I also wanted to results to include “public library”, and did so by selecting the Boolean operator [and] and by selecting [subject]. This retrieved 5,125 records or hits using these two phrases and the Boolean operator.
To refine my search to include only recent publications, I chose to refine my search by limiting my results to the publication year of 2009. This was selected to obtain the most current information. This gave me a refined total of 5 records!
Among the 5, I chose this record:
In my search using the WorldCat database, I used “library services”[title] and “public library” [keyword]. Utilizing the advanced search, I entered the phrase “library services” and selected [title] as my index. I also wanted to results to include “public library”, and did so by selecting the Boolean operator [and] and by selecting [keyword]. This retrieved 3,956 records or hits using these two phrases and the Boolean operator.
To narrow down the results, I limited the search to include results with the publication year 2009 and “library services” in the abstract. This retrieved 29 records, but none were relevant to my topic of interest.
Instead, I changed the phrase “library services” to “library program”. Subject field was used for library program, and same field was used for public library [keyword]. This pulled a list of 218 records. I limited the search to just records with the publication year of 2009; this retrieved a total of 2 records!
Among the 2, I chose:
In this case, I will be searching on the topic of library services and their trends in public libraries. I chose this topic because it interests me and I have a collaborative paper on this topic that I and group members are working on for another course. With the help of an outline our group has created for our paper, I have some knowledge of the topic and the direction of my search. As mentioned earlier, for my searches I used both Eric and WorldCat databases.
ERIC DATABASE
Performing my first search using Eric database, I used “library services”[abstract] and “public library” [subject]. Utilizing the advanced search, I entered the phrase “library services” and selected [abstract] as my index. I also wanted to results to include “public library”, and did so by selecting the Boolean operator [and] and by selecting [subject]. This retrieved 5,125 records or hits using these two phrases and the Boolean operator.
To refine my search to include only recent publications, I chose to refine my search by limiting my results to the publication year of 2009. This was selected to obtain the most current information. This gave me a refined total of 5 records!
Among the 5, I chose this record:
Imagine, Invent, Program, Share: A Library-Hosted Computer Club Promotes 21st Century SkillsWorldCat DATABASE
Author: Myers, Brian Source: Computers in Libraries v29 n3 p6-9, 38-40 Mar 2009 (7 pages) Doc. Type: Article (EJ) Accession No: EJ831235 Libraries Worldwide: 2394 TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIV LIBR See more details for locating this item
In my search using the WorldCat database, I used “library services”[title] and “public library” [keyword]. Utilizing the advanced search, I entered the phrase “library services” and selected [title] as my index. I also wanted to results to include “public library”, and did so by selecting the Boolean operator [and] and by selecting [keyword]. This retrieved 3,956 records or hits using these two phrases and the Boolean operator.
To narrow down the results, I limited the search to include results with the publication year 2009 and “library services” in the abstract. This retrieved 29 records, but none were relevant to my topic of interest.
Instead, I changed the phrase “library services” to “library program”. Subject field was used for library program, and same field was used for public library [keyword]. This pulled a list of 218 records. I limited the search to just records with the publication year of 2009; this retrieved a total of 2 records!
Among the 2, I chose:
Library programs online : possibilities and practicalities of Web conferencing /
Author: Peters, Thomas A., 1957- Publication: Santa Barbara, Calif. : Libraries Unlimited, 2009, Document: English : Book
Libraries Worldwide: 11
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