JStor

How I searched:

               I started out with a very simple search: ((public libraries) AND (communities)). I had initially planned to expand or revise my search, but once I saw the results of my search, I decided to stick with the phrasing I had started with. However, since I got 278,258 results, I chose to limit my search by looking for articles only and by searching for articles published within the last five years. I also unchecked the box ‘includes links to external content’. I got 9, 679 results. It’s still a big number, but I feel I can browse the first few pages and find some articles I like, especially since they are arranged by relevance The further I get away from the first page of results, the less relevant the results will be to my search.

My search:

My results:

My best result:

There were a lot of interesting results for my search. The one that jumps out at me is an article from The Library Quarterly Journal called “Including the Culturally Excluded and Socially Forgotten: Information Services for Spanish Migrant Workers in the United States”.

What I learned, Content:

There are over 2 million seasonal migrant farm workers in the U.S. This article discusses the information needs of these workers and how public libraries can meet the needs of migrant workers in their communities. The best way for libraries to do this is to come to the migrant workers, not wait for the migrant workers to come to them.

What I learned, Searching:

               Make good use of limiters! My first search, done with no limiters, had a massive number of results. It would have been overwhelming if I had to go through them all. By using limiters, I was able to make the search results much smaller!

Reflection:

I liked how easy it was to search JStor. My use of search terms returned relevant results. I appreciated not having to dig through a thesaurus to find the database’s preferred terms.  I feel like I probably could have made better use of JStor’s limiters. I did not want to use the ‘Narrow by Discipline And/Or Publication Type’ feature because I was worried I might miss out on a good result. Looking back, I think I could have easily excluded things like “aquatic sciences’ and ‘paleontology’ without harming my results.

Resource:

JSTOR. 2014. JSTOR. Denton, TX: Texas Woman's University, TWU Libraries