Library Lit ~ citation pearl growing search

For this search, I began with a great article on information literacy in the elementary school library I found in a previous search. The article, "A road map for the journey," was written by Peggy Milam in Library Media Connection.

I first searched for other articles by Milam. There were 15 records on flexible scheduling, mentoring, reflection in the research process, scientifically based reading research, and National Board Certification. I continued the search by using the subject terms from the article. "Bibliographic instruction/elementary and high school students" was the only term listed for the article. There were 1191 records from this term. Many of the first few pages of results were not available through the university library since the library did not own the journal. One of the related subjects from these pages was "research and the library." I searched using this term and received 461 records. I tried to narrow it down by adding "AND school media center OR school librar*" but received 2122 results. I was able to narrow the results using "AND elementary school." This produced 303 records. In these records I found many information literacy units that could be used in the elementary school library. The hit I chose was an article entitled "Planets Up Close". This is a collaboration unit I could adapt and use in my library with third or fifth grade students.

This search turned out much different than I had planned. I had previously used this article in a citation pearl search but received much different results from the number of articles by Peggy Milam to the subject terms. I did enjoy the challenge.