Database Analysis

Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA)

LISTA is accessible through EBSCOHost at:

http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2069/ehost/search?vid=138&hid=107&sid=d820db6d0c40-4c32-a2dc-028162916a3e%40sessionmgr104 Formerly known as Information Science & Technology Abstracts (ISTA), LISTA has been expanded to increase its coverage of library science materials. This expansion included 149 ISTA titles that were upgraded to core coverage and an addition of 121 new periodicals. LISTA indexes journal articles from more than 600 publications, plus books, research reports, and conference proceedings.

Subject coverage includes librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management, search engines, printed and electronic information sources, the information industry, scholarly communication, and electronic publishing. With coverage extending back to 1966, it is the oldest continuously produced database covering the field of information science.
EBSCOHost Research Databases (http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2069/ehost/selectdb?vid=2&hid=14&sid=e2395da8-8f9d48fd-a590-f8c4c191ac31%40SRCSM1)

LISTA contains Full-Text articles, Abstracts of articles, and Bibliographic entries. It does not contain any Multimedia data.

Why LISTA?
LISTA is a good tool for Library and Information Science Scholars because it contains a wide range of Library and Information Science journals. LISTA provides scholarly and peer-reviewed articles specific to the field.

It is easy to narrow a search in LISTA to specific sources, dates, languages, authors, and more.
LISTA is indexed and allows for multiple search types

LISTA Representation Language

LISTA utilizes Controlled Language in the form of Subject Terms and Keywords Authors can also provide Keywords LISTA does not utilize Natural Language queries

Specificity Test
Searching for Joint-Use indicates good specificity However, the indexes do not indicate broader or narrower terms

LISTA allows users to select from multiple indexes to browse

Exhaustivity Test
LISTA does not contain a Thesaurus However, when looking at an individual record, the subject terms are moderately exhaustive

Exhaustivity
The exhaustivity is enhanced when the author supplies keywords

Default Index and Access Points

LISTA default fields for unqualified searches are the following:
All Authors All Subjects All Keywords All Title Information (including source title) All Abstracts

Other fields can be selected for searching using Searchable Tag codes.
These codes can be found in the More about LISTA information pages, where it is also indicated how the field is indexed. For example, AD = Author Affiliation which is Phrase Indexed

LISTA Searches
LISTA provides Basic Search, Advanced Search, and Visual Search options. LISTA also allows users to search using its Indexes, Cited References, and specific Publications.

Advanced Search Features

The Advanced Search supports Boolean searching, which is facilitated by drop-down And/Or/Not boxes.

LISTA also allows users to nest Boolean searches using parentheses and Boolean operators within a text field.
The Advanced Search also provides drop-down boxes allowing users to select a specific field, including:
All Text Author Title Subject Terms Abstract or Author-Supplied Abstract Author Supplied Keywords Geographic Terms People Reviews & Products Company Entity NAICS Code or Description DUNS Number Ticker Symbol Publication Name ISSN ISBN Accession Number

Other specific fields can be specified by typing their codes the Fill In boxes along with search terms. For example: DE = Heading or Keyword and performs an exact search of the subject headings, companies, people, and author-supplied keywords for terms describing a document's contents.

Search Protocols
LISTA allows users to truncate using the [*] command. LISTA also utilizes the wildcard command [?], With commands [W1, W2, etc.] for words in a specific order, and Near commands [N1, N2, etc.] for words together in any order. During an advanced search, users can limit or expand the search using the Refine Search screen.

Limiters
Full Text Only References Available Only Peer Reviewed Only Publication Dates Specific Publication Publication Types Document Types Number of Pages

Expanders
Apply additional terms to query Also search within full text of articles Automatically And search terms

Output Format: Basic & Advanced Searches

The output for the Basic and Advanced searches provides basic bibliographic information, as well as information about cited references and full text availability. The output can be sorted by Date, Source, Author, Relevance
No information on how relevance is decided is given.

The initial list of hits from a search is only moderately helpful in deciding the relevance of an item. Most of the items in LISTA contain detailed abstracts, because of this, users can evaluate the relevance of an item by opening the items in the initial list.

Visual Search

Visual Search Features

The Visual Search option starts off with a basic search. The results of this search are presented on a map made up of circles and squares.
The large circles represent the main categories into which the results fall. These large circles contain smaller circles. The smaller circles represent subcategories. Within the circles are squares. The squares represent articles. By selecting a larger circle, users can enlarge the smaller circles and in turn enlarge the squares. Mousing-over a square brings up bibliographic information for each article.

Searching the Indexes

LISTA allows users to perform browsing searches through the following indexes:
Author Author-Supplied Keywords Company Entity Document Type DUNS Number Entry Date Geographic Terms ISBN ISSN Language NAICS Code or Description People Publication Name Subject Terms Ticker Symbol Year of Publication

Searching the Cited References

LISTA provides a way to search the cited references in the databases articles. The searchable fields include:
Cited Author Cited Title Cited Source Cited Year All Citation Fields

Finding the Citing Articles

Once the citations are found, users can pull up the citing articles easily through the options provided.

Citing Articles

Searching Specific Publications

LISTA also allows users to view the contents of specific journals in the database using a browse option.

Searching Specific Publications

By selecting a specific journal, users call up a description screen that contains a list of all the issues contained in LISTA.

Searching Help
Because LISTA is provided through EBSCOHOST, the help options are those provided by EBSCOHost. Sometimes this means that the help does not exactly match the database. For example, when using the EBSCOHost Help Screens and Tutorials to find a Thesaurus in LISTA, the Help Screen says: To browse a list of subject headings available in the database, click the Thesaurus link on the green sub-toolbar. However, there is no Thesaurus tab on the green subtoolbar for LISTA.

Sample Building Block Search

I searched for:
S1 = School Media Center or School library = 135861 S2 = Grades or Scores = 14094 S3 = Scientific Evidence or Studies or Scientific Data = 49834 S1 + S2 + S3 = School Media Center or School Library + Grades or Scores + Scientific Evidence or Studies or Scientific Data = 135 Limited S1 to search only Abstract or Author-Supplied Abstract (To eliminate School Library Journal as a match point) = 31

Search Conclusions
Of the 31 items found
16 are highly relevant 6 are moderately relevant 9 are not relevant
When examining the non-relevant items, it appears that although some phrases were given in quotation marks, they were not searched for as exact phrases: such as School Media Center.

However, 22 items of relevance out of 31 items found is reasonable

Database Evaluation
Search Evaluation
Coverage Currency Predictability Retrievability

Usability
User Friendliness Search Screens Help Screens

Conclusion

Coverage Test
Using the Selected Readings section of Foundations of Library and Information Science, by Richard E. Rubin, I created a core list of the 17 journals which were cited most frequently. LISTA contained issues of all of the journals; however, American Studies and Annual Review of Information Science and Technology were not listed as being part of the database nor were they current in the database. The 17 journals were:
American Studies Annual Review of Information Science and Technology Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science & Technology College & Research Libraries News IFLA Journal Information Processing & Management Journal of Academic Librarianship Journal of Education for Library & Information Science Journal of Library Administration Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology Libraries & the Cultural Record Library & Information Science Research Library Journal Library Quarterly Library Trends Public Libraries School Library Journal

Coverage Test
To further test LISTAs coverage, I used the following bibliographies to create a 105 article list for comparing between LISTA, Library Literature, and LISA: Library and Information Science Abstracts:
Farmer, L. (Spring 2007). Bibliography on partnerships. CSLA Journal. 30 (2). 39. Retrieved November 8, 2007 Grassin, E. et al (2007). Stumbling, bumbling, teleporting and flying...librarian avatars in Second Life: selected bibliography. Reference Services Review. 35 (1). 90-97. Retrieved November 8, 2007 Margeton, S. G. (Winter 2005). Law library design bookshelf: an annotated bibliography. Law Library Journal. 97 (1). 77-102 Priddis, M. (2006). The well-read librarian: Nextgen resources. Indiana Libraries. 25 (3). 52-53. Retrieved November 8, 2007 Walden, G. R. (2006). Focus group interviewing in the library literature: A selective annotated bibliography 1996-2005. Reference Services Review. 34 (2). 222-241. Retrieved November 8, 2007 Wang, R. (Dec. 2006). Undergraduate research: an annotated bibliography. Serials Review. 32 (4). 227-232. Retrieved November 8, 2007

Coverage Test
In this comparison, LISTA came out second missing 45 of the 105 articles. Library Literature ranked highest missing only 40 of the 105 articles. LISA came in very close to LISTA missing 46 of the 105 articles.
Missing in LISTA 45 37 Missing in Lib Lit 40 20 Missing in LISA 46 33

Total 105 without Library Law Design

The Library Law Design bibliography inflates LISTAs numbers, however, and if the bibliography is removed from the search criteria, LISTA ranks lowest.

Coverage Test
LISTA also ranks lowest when it comes to being the only database missing an article
Total 105 LISTA 14 Library Literature 6 LISA 10

However, it does better in the comparison when we look at which database is the only one to contain an article
Total 105 Article only in LISTA 9 Article only in Library Literature 6 Article only in LISA 4

Currency Test
Using the LISTA list of included journals, I looked up the most recent volumes of several different journals and compared those volumes to the information at the journals website as of November 9th.
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Oct2007, Vol. 45 Issue 2 Website indicates that the most recent issue is November 2007 Horn Book Magazine, Nov2007, Vol. 83 Issue 6 Website indicates that this is the most current issue Voice of Youth Advocates, Oct2007, Vol. 30 Issue 4 Website indicates that this is the most current issue Public Library Quarterly, 2006, Vol. 25 Issue 3/4 Website indicates that the most recent issue is Spring 2007, Volume 26, No. 1 School Library Journal, Oct 2007 Website indicates that the most recent issue is Nov 2007 Public Library Journal, Autumn2007, Vol. 22 Issue 3 Website indicates that this is the most recent issue

Currency Test
Three of the journals searched were updated to the most recent issue Three of the journals searched were one issue behind Judging by this, the currency of the database is good but not excellent

Predictability
From initial list, in the default setting, a user cannot tell much about the relevance of an item.
The title, articles source, and publication date are displayed All of these pieces of information are marginally helpful, especially when searching for a known item, source, or publication range

However, the user can change preferences to the Detailed format, which displays the abstract in the initial list of returned items. Abstracts are included for most items in LISTA. The abstracts are reasonably informative about each article and provide a moderate judge of relevance. Along with the abstract, the complete record shows the subject terms, which are also informative. If the item is available in HTML, the complete text is shown.

Retrievability
I searched for 10 of the Focus Group articles that I knew were in LISTA
Using individual Author Searches, I found all 10 articles Searching for Focus Group using an Author-Supplied Keyword search, 14 articles were found, but none of them were the articles I was looking for Searching for Focus Group using a Subject Term search, nothing came up Searching for Focus Group using a Title search, 8 of the 10 came up

LISTA appears to have some difficulty with subtitles

Usability
Ease of use/ User Friendliness
LISTA is easy to use, especially if one has experience using Boolean search strategies LISTAs search options are clearly market The print is easy to read and the screens are not overly crowded Screen loading and searches are reasonably quick LISTA allows users to email, export, or save bibliographic information for an individual article or for a group of selected articles LISTA allows users to save searches or create a RSS alert for a

specific search

User Friendliness
The Advanced Search screen is particularly intuitive with:
Clearly labeled search boxes Fill in text boxes Drop down connector boxes with And/ Or/ Not options Field selection drop down boxes for searching specific fields Ability to add additional rows if a search has more than 3 facets Ability to limit or expand a search from the initial search screen or from the results screen

Help Screens
LISTA is offered through EBSCOHost, and the main help screens for the database are generic to EBSCOHost The help screens are helpful and comprehensive However, because they are generic, they do not always match LISTA
For example, on the help screen, it says users can find the Thesaurus by selecting the Thesaurus tab along the green tabs; however, there is no Thesaurus tab for LISTA. I double checked against some of the other databases through EBSCOHost, and in those, I could indeed find the Thesaurus by selecting it along the green tabs.

Conclusion
LISTA is an important database for anyone studying Library and Information Science. It provides good currency, is easy to use, and covers a broad range of library and information science journals. While it is an important database to have at an academic library that caters to Library Science and Information Science scholars, it is not a necessary database for most libraries, certainly not public or school libraries. LISTA is a good resource; however, it is best used in conjunction with Library Literature and LISA if one is doing extensive research.
This was made clearest to me during the comparison between the three databases. Although LISTA didnt fair as well in a straight number comparison, it was the only database to have most of the articles from the Law Library Design bibliography. This bibliography consisted of more