Informit A+ Education is an Australian database of carefully curated academic and specialised journals, reports and other texts, that cover a range of education subjects.
Again, I commenced with my first search string; “teacher librarian” and “inquiry learning”, which yielded 14 results. While some of the publications were quite dated, there were a couple of exciting new doors to open and explore. Hoping to find more, I expanded my search: Search String: ‘inquiry learning’ OR ‘inquiry-based learning’ OR ‘guided inquiry’ AND ‘teacher librarian’ AND 'secondary schools' Yields: 2822 By incorporating a range of key terms and the use of Boolean operators, I had hoped increase my findings that still supported my inquiry question. However, these results returned a focus on science, maths, and even nursing in the first pages. By altering the field type to ‘abstract’ and narrowing the year range (2010 – 2018) to reflect more current literature, there was a decrease to 703 results. In order to narrow the context of my search, I engaged the thesaurus. Search String: Advanced Search – Accessed Thesaurus. teacher librarian AND ?nquiry learning AND ?nquiry-based learning AND high school OR secondary Yield: 160 The thesaurus provided clarification that I was using appropriate controlled vocabulary, which in turn yielded a fruitful result. The use of a wildcard also allowed me to access alternative spellings, which yielded otherwise missed results from an American context. While there were a number of advocacy articles, there were a couple of freshly painted doors that opened to help in my exploration of my inquiry question. I continued to utilise the Year range (2010 – 2018) to refine my search to current literature, which would reflect the changing role of the teacher librarian, and the current ideas and challenges they face in regards to inquiry learning practices. The right key? This database was quite easy to use, and produced some of the best results to help unlock the door to my initial inquiry question. The thesaurus was comprehensive, and the option to change the field helped to narrow down the search. However, the advanced search field only provided five drop down boxes, and I found I needed more to effectively re-search my inquiry question. Having said that, now that I’ve opened a few doors, I’ve noticed that the need to include terms like ‘classroom teacher’ or ‘support’ is not as crucial as I initially thought. At times, it has narrowed my search too much. Additionally, it’s important that I continue to incorporate ‘high school’ or ‘secondary school’, to ensure that my re-search is reflective of my current context. Thus, I still need to refocus my question: How can the teacher librarian best support inquiry learning in a secondary school? I attempt this again using ProQuest: ERIC Database. Similar to the A+ Information Database, it’s an online repository for peer reviewed and specialised journals, articles and a range of other texts. However, the database is sponsored by the US Department of Education, therefore use of vocabulary and spelling will need further consideration. My basic search began with “inquiry learning’ and “school librarian”, reflecting that this is an American site and the terminology that would be used in their education system. Concerningly, this yielded only three results; one of which was useful. I needed to consult my mind map again for different terms for inquiry learning that may be more widely used through this database’s selected publications. Search String: ‘Inquiry Learning’ AND ‘problem-based learning’ AND ‘student centred learning’ AND ‘high school’ AND librarian AND teacher Yield: 24, 369 For this search string, the Advanced Search function was utilised. When the date range was reviewed (2010 – 2018), results reduced to 10, 146. By accessing the thesaurus, I was able to include other options of controlled vocabulary for inquiry learning, however, there were limited options for ‘teacher/school librarian’. While the return of results included a broad array of subjects and contexts, there was minimal results for teacher librarian. Search String: ‘High school students’ AND librar* AND inquiry* Yield: 11 By returning to the basic search, I was able to employ truncation again. While this opened the door on a couple of gems, the rest had little connection with teacher librarians. The right key? While the data base was easy to use, included citations, suggested searches, saved recent searches, and the ability to add multiple rows to advanced search, I had to really search for the link to the article, as it was positioned after the abstract and quite a bit of bibliographical detail. Additionally, this database did not provide me with similar quantity and quality of useful information that I had amassed from previous searches. While there were some valuable American texts, as I’m focussing in on an Australian context that is relatable to my own work, I would be more inclined to access Australian database first , in order to obtain the most relevant resources. If I'm looking to relevancy, perhaps social media will show me what I'm looking for...
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