Database evaluation-part 4

Part 4-Database Evaluation
Karla Phipps
LS 5013-21

Database-Book Index with reviews

Coverage-
My database covers books as well as the reviews of each book. The complete number of documents was not given. However, when I typed in the search statement, children’s literature, there were 3,124 hits. The database did have a timeline to limit search results, but each title had a date listed and each title was different in the time listing. Therefore, the dates were not uniform for every title.

Currency-
As I had stated before, the timeline allows the user to limit their search by a timeline. The specific timeline for this database was from 1922-2012. Using the same search statement, children’s literature, I was able to find books that were published in the 70’s and the 80’s, but I decided to narrow my search to the books published beginning in 1992. This is the year that I became a teacher. After narrowing my search by the timeline, children’s literature received 2488 hits.
I found it very interesting that several of the books that were not yet available for purchase were already on the index. These works in progress were already indexed.


Predictability-
I feel that this database did perform as expected. I completed several searches with the subject child and literature. I was not able to use the keywords because this database does not offer that as a field choice.
(su) child and literature-20,487 hits (basic search)
(su)child andliterature-11, 137 (advanced search)
These were both quite high and I feel that the predictability is high. After this, I tried a different field,
(rv) review and annotation.
(rv)child and literature-5030 hits
Most of the books listed in this group were geared for the upper elementary and middle school age group. These books seemed to deal with very mature topics.
I then tried the field choice of title(ti).
(ti)child and literature-1,446 hits
The majority in this group were books that would be read at the primary level or were educational texts for parents and educators.
Several of the book titles were duplicated throughout each search.


Retrievability-
Using the descriptor term, children’s literature, this database produced 3,616 hits. Using the subject field choice, the search statement produced 3,124 hits. Finally, the field of title was used and it received 1,145 hits. The number of relevant documents are not known for this system, however the results for each of the search statements have shown productive results.


Usability-This database is very user friendly and easy to use. The field choices are in a drop down format. Once the results are given, the user can sort by popularity, relevance, data descending and data ascending, just to name a few. At any point that a user needs to begin again, he or she can reset the searching options and begin again. The results can be narrowed by a timeline or by subject. A section of research starters is given to extend the search query .