Competency #6b – Databases – Successive Fractions

My second search was in Academic Search Complete Database using a successive fractions search method. My topic again is how to increase public library use for ESL readers in children’s services.

Because I expected my first 2 search strings to yield way too many results, I used the limiters of English only, published since January 2007, and full-text articles only. To start with what I felt was the broadest facet, I chose “children, (young adults), juvenile, youth, ya." I decided to truncate (young adults) into (young adult*) and ‘children’ into ‘child*’. My search string was:

S1: (child* OR “young adult*” OR juvenile OR youth OR ya) = 67,654 hits – way too many, so I went on to S2.

Since this is an academic database instead of library oriented database, I’m adding the term librar* to my S2 search terms for this database. It wasn’t necessary in the Library Lit search because librar* is a more unique term in this database.

S2: S1 AND (librar* OR circulat* OR patron* OR us*) = 26,875 hits – still too many so I went on to S3.

S3: S1 AND S2 AND (ESL or “English as a second language” or “English language learner*”) = 132,480 hits. My number of results is still way too high, so I decided to find a subject term to search within. I entered librar* and selected LIBRARIES -- Cultural programs.

S4: DE “LIBRARIES -- Cultural programs” AND S1 AND S2 AND S3 = 4,267,119 hits. However, among the first 50 hits were these results:

Family Storytimes for New Immigrants Combine Learning and Fun.
By Barry, Evette.
Publication: Feliciter, 2007, Vol. 53 Issue 1, p44-45, 2p

ESL Library Skills: an information literacy program for adults with low levels of English literacy.
By Macdonald, Katrina
Publication: Australian Library Journal, Aug2008, Vol. 57 Issue 3, p295-309, 15p

Language Learning in the Library: An Exploratory Study of ESL Students.
By Bordonaro, Karen
Publication: Journal of Academic Librarianship, Sep2006, Vol. 32 Issue 5, p518-526, 9p

Using Music to Support the Literacy Development of Young English Language Learners.
By Paquette, Kelli; Rieg, Sue
Publication: Early Childhood Education Journal, Dec2008, Vol. 36 Issue 3, p227-232, 6p

New Immigrants, New Challenges: High School Social Studies Teachers and English Language Learner Instruction.
By Cho, Seonhee; Reich, Gabriel A
Publication: Social Studies, Nov/Dec2008, Vol. 99 Issue 6, p235-242, 8p

Reflection on Search:
This was an extremely frustrating search for me. I never could get down to a manageable number of hits, and was ready to go to a different database when I tried the “subject terms” tab. However, this tab took me to a brand new search window and I had to enter my search strings over again. This time I received more hits than with any other search string in this search. I decided that this database is not conducive to a successive fractions search method.