Challenge #7 - WorldCat and FirstSearch

Basic Discovery Exercise Part 1

#1  Searched "King" as a keyword, got 1590914 results with 894493 of those being books and 16522 being articles.  I knew this would be a big set because the search term is so generic.  Decided to change it to Stephen King as an author phrase.  Results here are 18 all, books 13, no articles (but 2 visual, 2 internet and 1 sound).  Next I did it as author and put it in as King, Stephen.  The results here are 24714 for all, 15843 books, 65 articles and hits for sound, visual, internet, archival, scores, computer, serials, maps, and updated resources. 

#2  I searched a tough one, put in the title phrase "IT" and limited to books.  The 2nd title is the Stephen King book, IT.  2721 is the number of libraries that own that book.

#3  Continuing to use IT by Stephen King the class descriptors (call numbers) are LC: PS3561.I483 and Dewey: 813/.54.  Clicking on the authors name to see what else he has written I get 13831 for "all", 10183 for books and 27 articles with the other assorted results being smaller.  For the subject I selected horror stories, 6392 for all, 5142 for books, 6 for articles.  There is even one score (I assume the musical Carrie but didn't go look.)


Basic Discovery Exercise Part 2

#1  Learned something new, didn't know the various FirstSearch databases were available through the drop down in WorldCat, thought you had to go through a different pathway.  Thanks, this will be very useful!

Doing the Subject Phrase search of South Dakota got me 945 results and some of the places found are amazing.  University of Nebraska/Lincoln DigitalCommons; Wichita State Univ, Ks Archaeology Labs; U.S. Department of Agriculture Library; and letters from Sinclair Lewis to Marcella Powers, May 15, 1942.  I think I'll be using this more often, it gives great results!

I've always told students that I use WorldCat as my "database of last resort" when I'm having trouble finding things in other places.  My last resort just got much bigger and should have even more information for me.  It looks like other bloggers are finding a few things out too but like me have been comfortable with WorldCat in the past, now to get used to the new options I've found on WorldCat.


Advanced Challenge

#1  I started my search with the keyword on Martin Luther, then put a second keyword in as King, but I changed the logical operator to "NOT".  That gets a lot of materials, including 159061 for all and 139223 for books.  Since that set was so big I went back and added the material type for "biography" to limit to non-fiction and specifically about Martin Luther.  Thus all was 4644 and books 3851, internet 716, articles 47 and sound 30.  Should be plenty there to help a student and I could teach the student how to look at other subject headings to limit further.


#2  I know nothing about graphic novels, no one has ever asked for them in our library that I know of, so I started out strangely.  First I search for Pride and Prejudice and graphic.  Then I looked at one of the records and noticed that it has a Genre/Form for Graphic Novels.  So, I went back out and did a search on genre/form graphic novels.  That got me 64068 for all, with 60753 for books.  Now I have a set I can look at.  I did notice while I was on Pride & Prejudice that it was illustrated by Marvel Comics which I thought was cool.  I needed to go back and add "classic" to see if I could weed down to the right books.  That worked, the first four titles are 20,000 leagues under the sea, Gulliver's travels, Frankenstein and Beowulf.    I would probably add the Jules Verne because our students love their science fiction!  Publisher is Stone Arch Books.

#3 Okay, first I limited to material type and put in score.  Then I used the key words of my fair lady, got the wrong kind of results so changed that to title phrase.  That got me lots to choose from!  Accession number is 26429906.