Multimedia Competency

For the multimedia competency, I located a video about a book club for boys hosted by an elementary school. My topic of interest is implementing book clubs for children in elementary schools, and as a fourth grade teacher, I know from experience how difficult it can be to get boys interested in books. The video clip gives great insight into why this book club has been so successful and also gives perspectives from the young students who participate in this group.



Citation: Insley, K. (Copyright 2010). 'Guys read' program at Westview Elementary is cool in school [KARE 11 News]. Apple Valley, Minnesota: Multimedia Holdings Corporation.

Copyright Link

Searching Competency Four: Library Literature and Citation Pearl

Database: Library Literature

Search Strategy: Citation Pearl

Initial Question: What techniques are effective in developing successful book clubs for children?

Rationale: For the final of four searching competencies, I chose the Library Literature database, which I had recently used for the first time while searching for resources for my Novice to Expert paper. While using this database, I found it quite user-friendly and thought it had the potential for producing a variety of resources to meet my information needs. I chose to wait until the final searching competency to use the citation pearl strategy because in order to use this strategy, you must first have a resource that has been identified as pertinent to the initial question as a starting point. Waiting until last to use this strategy allowed me to have a variety of records to choose from using the resources I had found in the three other searching competencies.

Known Item: 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.

I began the citation pearl strategy by selecting a known pertinent record that I had located on a previous search. I did a title search on the resource, and then located the related subject terms associated with the resource.

Related Subject Terms:

• book discussion groups
  
• children's reading/projects
  
• children's book clubs
  
• young adults' reading/projects
  
• school libraries/activity projects
  
• children's reading/Canada
  
• book lists
  
  

I selected the following subject terms from the list that I believed would produce further pertinent results: book discussion groups, children's book clubs, children's reading/projects, and school libraries/activity projects.

Search 1:

• Boolean Statement (Subject Search): (book discussion groups OR children's book clubs OR (children's reading AND projects) OR (school libraries AND activity projects))
  
• Records Retrieved: 3649
  
• Reflection: This search produced far too many results to browse through, I decided to reduce my subject terms by eliminating the 'school libraries/activity projects' facet, as it is not directly pertinent to my initial question.
  

Search 2:

• Boolean Statement (Subject Search): (book discussion groups OR children's book clubs OR (children's reading AND projects))
  
• Records Retrieved: 1324
  
• Reflection: While this search produced significantly fewer results than the first search, there were still far too many records, most of which were not pertinent to my initial question. To further reduce the results, I again eliminated an additional facet, 'children's reading/projects.'
  

Search 3:

• Boolean Statement (Subject Search): (book discussion groups OR children's book clubs)
  
• Records Retrieved: 224
  
• Reflection: Reducing the search terms to only those that were most closely related to my initial question allowed me to retrieve a reasonable amount of records.
  

Pertinent Records Citations:

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

DeVault, N. (2009). Literature circles in library class. Library Media Connection, 28(1), 24-5.

Saldana, R. (2009). The bilingual book club: A family affair. Teacher Librarian, 36(3), 27-32.

Jones, C. (2009). Hands-on reading: The Pioneer book club. Virginia Libraries, 55(1), 26-8.

Knop, K. (2008). Graphic novels--join the club!. Library Media Connection, 27(3), 40-1.

Beyers, C. (2008). Connecting with students. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 24(6), 48-9.

Hall, S. (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), 32-6.    

Conclusion: The citation pearl strategy was highly effective in producing pertinent results related to my initial question. The only potential problem I could identify with this method is identifying a known source at the start. Had I not already had several known sources to choose from as a result of my previous searching competencies, I would have had to go through several more steps to identify a known source. However, if, like in my case, one has multiple known pertinent records, the citation pearl strategy would be an efficient method to use in order to locate further resources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Searching Competency Three: Academic Search Complete and Building Block

Database: Academic Search Complete

Search Strategy: Building Block

Initial Question: What techniques are effective in developing successful book clubs for children?

Rationale: For the third of four searching competencies, I chose the Academic Search Complete database, which I had recently used for the first time as a requirement for Module Seven. While using this database for the required element of the course, I found it fairly easy to use and thought it had the potential for producing a variety of resources to meet my information needs.

Using the building block strategy, I first identified the main facets of my questions, then brainstormed possible descriptors for each facet, and finally used the Subject Terms feature on Academic Search Complete to identify synonymous thesaurus terms the database would recognize.

Key Terms/Facets:

Key Terms or Facets	techniques	book clubs	children
Descriptors	▪strategies ▪methods	▪literature circles ▪book discussion groups ▪literature clubs	▪kids ▪elementary students
Academic Search Complete Thesaurus Terms	▪teaching methods ▪strategy	▪book clubs ▪discussion groups ▪group reading	▪children

After identifying all thesaurus terms, I continued to follow the building block strategy by using Boolean logic to express the facets as a Boolean search string and began searching using the Subject Terms search.

Search 1:

(teaching methods OR strategy) AND (book clubs OR discussion groups OR group reading) AND (children)

Records Retrieved: 7

Reflection: This search succeeded in producing a limited number of results, but most of the records produced were focused more on reading strategies than on book clubs. While I did find a couple of pertinent records, I decided I needed to refine my search slightly to eliminate the heavy focus on strategies.

Pertinent Records Citations:

Anderson, P. & Corbett, L. (2008). Literature circles for students with learning disabilities. Intervention in School & Clinic, 44(1), 25 – 33.

Paxton-Buursma, D. & Walker, M. (2008). Piggybacking. Teaching Exceptional Children, 40(3), 28 – 34.

Search 2:

Reflecting upon my first search, I decided to eliminate the 'strategy' and 'teaching methods' facets as well as to refine the 'discussion groups' facet to 'book discussion groups.'

(book clubs OR book discussion groups OR group reading) AND (children)

Records Retrieved: 68

Reflection: This search produced significantly more results than my first search had and there were also many more pertinent records.

Pertinent Records Citations:

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

Hill, R.A. (2009). Lunchtime book clubs. Book Links, 18(3), 12 – 13.

Patalano, T. (2008). Join the club. Scholastic Parent & Child, 15(8), 92.

Sennett, F. (2006). Book clubs turn the page to learning. Curriculum Review, 46(2), 14 – 15.

Bianchi, J. (2006). Book clubs for kids. Good Housekeeping, 243(1), 103.

Preis, A. (2006). Going clubbing. School Library Journal, 52(4), 37.

King, C. (2001). "I like group reading because we can share ideas": The role of talk within the literature circle. Reading, 35(1), 32 – 37.

The little O's book club. (1998). Reading Today, 16(2), 1 – 2.

Conclusion: I was very pleased with the records produced using the building block strategy and the Academic Search Complete database. This search was successful in producing more pertinent records than any other database search I have performed thus far. The Academic Search Complete database was very easy to use and had a wide variety of journals and other resources to from which records were accessed. The building block strategy was a great tactic for organizing my search and pertinent results were located efficiently with no frustration.