Competency 6 - Searching Databases (2nd search)

Search Strategy 2 - Pearl Growing aka The Snowball Approach

Naive Question: What types of duties might elementary school librarians have?

I began looking through the databases and search strategies provided to determine where and how I should begin my 2nd search. My first search was using the successive fractions approach so I decided to use the pearl growing or snowball approach because it was the opposite type of search. This approach essentially works by identifying one pertinent item or record previously found and then using terms, records, keywords, and phrases found withing that item to create another search. This continues until you are satisfied with the hits that are generated.
I chose to use the Academic Search Complete database because I did not have a lot of good hits previously, and this database should contain more records related to my question. It is also a user friendly database for even beginner searchers.

Searching Academic Search Complete:

I began my pearl growing search strategy by selecting a pertinent record I found during my previous search. I did a title search on this item and selected relevant subject terms to create my Boolean statement.

Known item:
Riedling, A. M. (2001). In Search of Who We Are: The School Library Media Specialist in
in the 21st Century. Book Report. 20(3, 28-30, 32.

Related Subject Terms:
school librarians
job descriptions

ss1 (using advanced search and subject headings)
(school librarian*) AND (job description*)
Results: 12
Notes: Though there were only 12 hits, they were all relevant to my search. However, I realize I might be missing pertinent information. I decided to look through the results to find additional related subject terms.

Related Subject Terms:
school librarians
job descriptions
occupations

**In looking through the 12 results, I basically found the two previous subject terms I used to search. I did find one additional term I felt was worth a try: occupations.

ss2 (using advanced search and subject terms)
(school librarian*) AND (job description* OR occupation)
Results: 14
Notes: I received 14 hits this time; however, they were not all relevant information. I lost some pertinent information and gained junk by adding the word "occupation" to my search statement.

Conclusion:
I found the pearl growing strategy to be extremely effective in helping me find relevant information. I'm not sure if it is all of the the searching practice I am doing, but I found this strategy to be easier. I located a known title and used subject terms found with that result. By doing this, my search was very focused on the information I was seeking.
Additionally, I applied truncation to my searches because of past experiences. I did not want to leave out pertinent information due to limiting my search to only certain forms of the important words.

My selections:

Riedling, A. (20031. In Search of Who We Are: The School Library Media Specialist in the 21st
Century. Book Report, 20(3), 28. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete Database.

Yucht. A. (2000). Management Mantras. Teacher Librarian, 27(5), 32. Retrieved from
Academic Search Complete Database.

Zmuda, A., & Harada, V. (2008). Reframing the Library Media Specialist as a Learning
Specialist. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 24(8), 42-46. Retrieved from
Academic Search Complete database.