Jay Wilkerson

The Walden library provides instruction to students, staff, and faculty on how to search online databases. We are often seen as the “experts” in database searching. So it seems fitting that I devote an article to how we approach teaching database search skills in the Walden community.

Practice Makes Perfect
The staff at the Walden library did not become “experts” because they possess some innate cognitive abilities that the rest of the world lacks. They become “experts” because they search databases frequently. Therefore, we encourage everyone to search the databases often.

Ideally, students should search their primary database daily. Only through frequent use of these tools can one become proficient enough to become a scholar-practitioner.

Our Rationale
Okay, let me try to convince you of how important it is to become a good database searcher.

Scholar-practitioners are experts in research related to their areas of expertise. Few scholar-practitioners can afford to subscribe to every journal and buy every book that is published in their disciplines.

Further, sometimes valuable research is published in journals that usually don’t publish in one’s area of interest. Early on in the development of the social sciences, scholars realized they needed a tool to help them manage the task of identifying research related to their own research.

The solution?

The Early Academic Databases
Back in the print age, academic databases were called indexes. The social science indexes were modeled on the index created for use by medical practitioners and researchers, Index Medicus. Early indexes included Psychological Abstracts and Sociological Abstracts. Later, the U.S. government funded the production of the ERIC Index for education.

Each of these indexes consisted of scholarly literature for research related to the discipline, followed by a written citation and abstract for the document. These indexes could have consisted of all the documents listed alphabetically by author.

However, it would have been difficult for researchers to find all the research related to their current projects if they had to scan the entire list of published studies in their field. Instead, they created a list of common subjects researched in the discipline and organized the research by subject. This list allowed for more efficient and effective identification of research pertinent to a scholar’s work.

Contemporary Databases
Today’s databases are simply online versions of the old print indexes, designed to help researchers efficiently and effectively identify relevant publications. To be a scholar, one must know how to search the databases well to conduct quality research. Essentially, what is good for the scholar is good for the scholar-practitioner! A scholar-practitioner must be an expert searcher of the primary database for his or her discipline.

Walden’s Library Web
The Walden library’s Web site has a section devoted to helping Walden students, faculty, and staff search the databases. On our home page, you can click on Database Research Center to access these useful Web pages:

 www.lib.WaldenU.edu/drc/databasecenter.htm

We suggest that you check out these Web pages, but don’t expect to understand everything the first time through, and don’t expect to rely on this information to become an expert searcher. You will need experience searching the databases for a wide variety of tasks before you will attain “expert” status.

Because database search skills are acquired over time, the Walden library’s reference service is designed to make your experience searching the databases more productive and less frustrating. The Web pages mentioned above are good ways to reinforce the lessons learned in working with us on specific projects related to your educational journey at Walden.

So here is my advice to you:

1. The next time you need to identify research for a task (Walden, work, or personal), email the library (waldenlb@waldenu.edu) and tell us the specific topic of your search. It also helps if you tell us the goal of the task at hand and when you need the information.
   
   
2. After sending us the email, go into the primary database for your discipline and try to find research that will work for the task. If you can’t find anything, stop and wait for our email, providing suggestions and step-by-step instructions for executing the suggestions.
   
   
3. Our suggestions employ a search strategy called The Building Blocks Search Strategy, using the controlled vocabulary for the best database for the task at hand. This search strategy is described in detail in the Database Research Center, as are controlled vocabularies.
   
   Review a quick description of the Building Blocks Search Strategy:
          www.lib.WaldenU.edu/orientation/building.html
   
   Read an overview of controlled vocabulary:
          www.lib.WaldenU.edu/orientation/kwvscv.html
   
   
4. Between tasks, we encourage you to search the database for your discipline daily. Just pick a topic and do some searching. Select topics from conversations at work, with friends, or with family. Selecting a topic that isn’t vital to your success at Walden allows you to explore the databases without pressure, to try new things, to click on whatever button is clickable, to play.

Our goal is that by the time you graduate from Walden, you could teach us, the “experts,” a thing or two about searching your primary database.

Time Management—or “Oh Jay! There is no way I can find the time to search the databases everyday.” “But Jayyyyyyyy, when will I find time to do this?”

Make it a part of your daily routine. Take the following advice from the librarian at Monk-e-mail:

 www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/?mid=9961380