PUBMED

This time, for the medical database PUBMED's search, I decided to search for articles about how genetic tests can impact genealogy research.  I had to search a few times to get the results I wanted.  I typed in “Genealogy” as my first term, and the search box offered me the term “Genetic Genealogy.”  

This brought up almost 43,000 hits, and the first few were not promising.  I then added the word “Ancestry” to the search field.  That cut down the number of hits to 122.  The first five were still not exactly what I was looking for, so I added the search terms “family” and “history.”  This gave me 13 hits, and the first five, and especially the second one, were exactly what I was looking for on the database.  My final search strategy was - ("genetics"[Subheading] OR "genetics"[All Fields] OR "genetics"[MeSH Terms]) AND ancestry[All Fields] AND ("genealogy and heraldry"[MeSH Terms] OR ("genealogy"[All Fields] AND "heraldry"[All Fields]) OR "genealogy and heraldry"[All Fields] OR "genealogy"[All Fields]) AND ("family"[MeSH Terms] OR "family"[All Fields]) AND ("history"[Subheading] OR "history"[All Fields] OR "history"[MeSH Terms]).  I clicked on the second article, [Genetic aspects of genealogy], then looked at the options for similar articles on the right side of the screen.  I clicked "See More" under the first five listed.

Clicking this brought up 263 results, and some were exactly what I was looking for.

The farther along you look in the list, the more relevant hits there are, interspersed with the more specific hits about places or family names.

There are many articles on this database regarding genetics, although most of them are incredibly technical in nature.  A layperson like a genealogy patron at my library would probably not find most of the articles on this website helpful.

The database is very interesting to search.  It automatically gives thesaurus options based on the words that you type; it lists these options under the search space for a researcher to choose if desired.  It has a number of filters, including a limiter for time (last five years, last ten years) and article types.    There are more specific databases that a searcher can use as well, so a searcher can perform a general search or only look through one of the many available databases.  It also shows you the specific details of your search, with the Boolean operators delineated clearly, so that you can see exactly what you are searching for and make any necessary changes to accurately search for results.  It gives a history of the searches you have made and the items you have viewed, so that you can keep track of the direction in which your searching has taken you.  

This database has a lot of very useful information on it, but none really relevant to the type of information that I usually search for my patrons at the library.  Most of my patrons are looking for very general information regarding genetics, and giving them any of the articles found on this website would simply confuse them.  The database would be very helpful to medical professionals.

ERIC

I felt that the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) database would be the better choice for this search, following through on the search I performed last week.  To see the difference between a natural vocabulary search and a controlled vocabulary search, I started with a few terms that worked on the last search, except that I replaced “genealogy” with “family history,” because to me that seems more generic, and more like what a patron would use. 

37 hits.  Although the first one was close, I didn’t really get anything that I could use for my first three results: 

So I checked the thesaurus to see if there were any similar vocabulary terms that would improve my results list.  The first search term came up immediately: 

“Teach” didn’t come up as a term, either, but it provided an alternative: 

History was a valid term, so I kept that one.

My new search looked like this: 

And my first three results out of 46: 

Still not really what I was looking for.  Interestingly enough, I did find a few good results at the bottom of my search list, and a few that redirected me to JSTOR (my last database), and so I’d already seen them.  I wondered what would happen if I removed “instruction” from my search terms, but that didn’t work well, either.  I removed “instruction” and changed “history” to “history instruction” and got what I was looking for.  I had fewer hits, but they were more relevant to my searching: 

The third article is exactly the sort of information that I was aiming for in this search: a way to use genealogy and local history to teach students that history isn’t a dry, soulless list of dates and names.  It was lived by our ancestors, and without it happening, we wouldn’t be here today. 

I like the idea of controlled terms in theory, but I don't think that they are as easy to use as natural language, and I think it stumps a number of people who try to use the databases we offer at the library.  Patrons are used to natural language searching like on Google, and when databases don't bring up what they need after a natural language search, they just assume the databases don't have the information and go back to Google.

JSTOR Database

For my first search, I performed a very basic search.  I simply typed “genealogy” in the search field with no limiters.  I wanted to discern what type of content the JSTOR search database contained, so that I could limit my search to a more specific topic inside genealogy. 

What I learned: Content.  It brought up 49,937 results, based on psychology and soft sciences, with articles about genealogy and morals, Neitzsche, and irony.  Now that I’ve ascertained the type of information that this database contains, I know that I want to focus on genealogy and history.  I did a few more searches, filtering out terms with Nietzsche (who apparently wrote an article about the genealogy of morality), and found an article on using genealogy to teach history.  It gives some good tips on getting children engaged in a genealogy search, and ways to integrate that into a lesson in history that is interesting and dramatic for kids.

What I learned: Searching.  JSTOR uses the typical Boolean searching applications, so using the Boolean symbols and wildcards I crafted a search that returned the articles I needed.

Reflection: JSTOR is a database with articles on historical and psychological topics.  The database is fairly comprehensive inside of those parameters.  It would not help with actual genealogy research, but it does have tips for utilizing genealogy in a larger capacity in life, such as using it to teach history.

The top five retrieved items were: 

My name is Sarah Ross, and I'm a student in Texas Woman's University's Library Science Master's Program.  This is a blog to document database searches for my Online Database search class.  I'll be focusing on the various aspects of Genealogy for my searches.  I work in the genealogy department of the Midland County Public Library, and I hope to find more resources for our genealogy patrons.