COMPETENCY #6--LEXIS NEXIS: Building Block Search

I decided to use LexisNexis for a building block search of "(electronic resource management) and (public libraries)". I opted to search legal publications. I felt that since I had found many resources using other search techniques at other databases that I needed to add a new scope to my research topic. The legal implication of electronic resource management is a valuable, useful topic for any librarian, so I chose to find legal information relating to ebooks and public libraries. Unfortunately, only one document was located and it was a transcript from "Ethics and Professionalism in the Digital Age: Ninth Annual Georgia Symposium on Ethics and Professionalism: A Symposium of the Mercer Law Review". A quick review of the document told me it contained no information that was useful to me.

Using the same search phrase, I searched U.S. and world publications and received 232 hits. A review of random documents showed that the hits found contained the words I indicated in the search but not necessarily together in the document so that the document related to the subject I was researching.

I decided I wasn't searching the database correctly. I realized that I was doing an "Easy search" and decided I needed to click on the "Power search" link and try my luck again. After reading through the Boolean operators used at LexisNexis, I modified my search and used "(electronic w/3 resource w/3 management) and (public w/3 libraries)" with the w/3 requesting that the words appear together within 3 words of each other, in other words as phrases. This change was much more successful. I received 8 hits. I reviewed the first hit in the list, which was an article from April 2009 entitled, "Innovative's Electronic Resource Management solution utilises NISO SUSHI 1.6". When I looked at the location of the phrases in my search string, the words were shown together as requested and the article was right on point to my topic.

At first, I thought the building block search would be the easiest to do. I found the opposite to be true and it felt more like a hit-or-miss approach to searching. I had to work more to find what I needed. The biggest problem was getting the search string correct in order for the database to return applicable results. Once I figured out what LexisNexis needed in the form of Boolean operators, I was successful in my search results.

I'm glad I saved this search test for last. After seeing how successful the other search techniques were, i.e., citation pearl growing, browsing, and specific facets first, I probably will never use building block search techniques again unless I determine that it will work best for a particular database. Databases are highly complex today allowing searchers greater search capabilities for improved results. The other techniques feed into that complexity while building block searching feels like it works against it.