My assignment this week is to search 4 databases using 4 different techniques. I searched for information in working with reluctant readers, particularly boys.
Building Block Method
Project MUSE
s1 - boy*
s2 - book*
s1+s2 = 24,447
s3 - reluctant WITH read*
s1+s2+s3 = 2191
s4 - YA
s1+s2+s3+s4 = 97
As you can see, the use of limiters helped immensely in narrowing down my search to a manageable number of hits.
From these hits, I would choose Judging a Book by Its Cover: Publishing Trends in Young Adult Literature.
Citation Pearl
JStor
For this search, I used the advance search option and search for boys and reluctant.
boys AND reluctant = 11,597
As this is too many hits, I added the term reader. I used the proximity operator NEAR as well.
boys AND reluctant NEAR5 reader = 102 results
Of these hits, I would choose to read the 9th hit
Rescuing Reluctant Readers by Chris Crowe.
Specific Facet First
LexisNexis
For this search, I typed in the question, "How do you connect boys and books?" and received 994 hits.
I narrowed my search by using boys AND reluctant WITH readers. This yielded 507 hits. Still too many; so I tried to be even more specific.
As my goal is to be a middle school librarian and I am now a 7th grade teacher, I decided to use:
middle AND school AND boys And reluctant With readers - this resulted in 28 hits.
Of these hits, I was most interested in Must Reads Blend Fright, Fun from the Washington Post.
Browsing Search
LibLit
For my last search, I decided upon the browsing technique. I used boys AND books in my search and received 113 hits. This is not a relatively high number, but I wanted to narrow my search even more.
To that end, I limited my search to within the last 12 months. With these new parameters, I received 12 records.
Of these 12, my favorite was the very first one: Book Groups the Way Boys Like Em' by Michael Sullivan.
