Module Five: LibraryLiterature and Books in Print Competency

For the LibraryLiterature and Books in Print database searches I used the same topic-related question I have used previously.

Question

How do you create a book club for students in an elementary school environment?

Key Terms/Facets

book club, students, elementary school

Key Terms or Facets	book club	students	elementary school
My Initial Terms	▪literature clubs ▪literature circles ▪book discussion groups	▪children ▪adolescents ▪pupils	▪primary school ▪grades k - 5
LibraryLiterature Thesaurus Terms	▪book clubs ▪book discussion groups ▪cooperation/book clubs ▪children's book clubs	▪children	▪school libraries/elementary schools
Books in Print Thesaurus Terms	▪book clubs ▪book clubs (discussion groups)	▪students ▪children	▪elementary schools

LibraryLiterature Search

In searching for thesaurus terms on the LibraryLiterature database, the facet 'book club' produced quite a few results, which was a pleasant surprise considering this is the face I usually have to revise. I did run into trouble with the facet 'students,' so I tried the key term 'children' which again produced no results. Considering the results for 'elementary school' and the single result of 'children's book clubs' under the facet 'book club,' I decided that these phrases would most likely produce resources focusing on elementary school students and that the facet 'students' was not necessary.

I used the Subject Search and input following Boolean statement to search for resources on this topic on the LibraryLiterature database:

(book clubs OR book discussion groups OR cooperation/book clubs OR children's book clubs) AND (children) AND (school libraries/elementary schools)

This search produced only one result; however, this result was exactly what I was looking for. The article, entitled How I Learned to Run a Really Popular Book Club (and What I Learned about Its Effect on Students' Reading Skills and Attitude), details an elementary school librarian's implementation of a voluntary book club in her school and how she made it successful. This article would definitely be pertinent to my needs and my initial question.

I went back and repeated the Subject Search to see if I could refine my Boolean statement to produce more results. I searched the following statement:

(book clubs OR book discussion groups OR cooperation/book clubs OR children's book clubs)

This search produced 323 records and when scanning through the results, I selected multiple resources that appeared they would be beneficial to my information needs. Two articles, Leading Book Discussions and Literature Circles in Library Class (which I had also located on my previous ERIC search), both piqued my interest and contained just the information I was looking for. This database search was the most encouraging of all the searches I had performed as it was the first time I found extremely pertinent results.

Citations

Hall, Suzanne. (2007). How I learned to run a really popular book club (and what I learned about its effect on students' reading skills and attitude). Teacher Librarian (35)1, 32 - 36.

Saricks, J. (2009). Leading book discussions. Booklist(106) 1, 37.

DeVault, N. (2009). Literature circles in library class. Library Media Connection (28)1, 24 - 25.

Books in Print Search

It took me quite awhile to discover how to search for facets on the Books in Print database. Ultimately, I went to the Browse button, selected Browse by Index: Subject (All), and was able to type in my initial facets to produce related results. The facets I used produced very few and mostly identical thesaurus terms.

I used the Subject (All) Search and entered the following Boolean statement:

(book clubs OR book clubs (discussion groups)) AND (students OR children) AND (elementary schools)

This search produced no results.

When pondering what search to try next, I thought about how my search for thesaurus terms had produced only identical results for 'students' and 'elementary schools,' but had produced at least one different result for 'book clubs.' I decided to limit my search to only the 'book club' and 'students' facets using the following Boolean statement:

(book clubs OR book clubs (discussion groups)) AND (students OR children)

This search resulted in 3 records, all of which were pertinent. One resource was focused on middle school students, but the other two, The Kids' Book Club Book: Reading Ideas, Recipes, Activities, and Smart Tips for Organizing Terrific Kids' Book Clubs and Reading for Themselves: How to Transform Adolescents into Lifelong Readers Through Out-of-Class Book Clubs, seemed like they would provide the exact information I was looking for. The Books in Print search was even more encouraging than the LibraryLiterature search. Both LibraryLiterature and Books in Print produced results were perfectly matched to my information needs.

Citations

Gelman, Judy, et al. (2007). The kids' book club book: Reading ideas, recipes, activities, and smart tips for organizing terrific kids' book clubs. New York, NY: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated.

Appleman, Deborah. (2006). Reading for themselves: How to transform adolescents into lifelong readers through out-of-class book clubs. United States: Heinemann.