Synopsis
Roy Tennant famously said "only librarians like to search, everyone else likes to find." True enough, agrees Suzanne Bell, but she ups the ante slightly: yes, "librarians like to search, we just aren't born knowing how." To succeed as searchers, she contends, all librarians require both a basic idea of how databases are put together and a repository of concepts and techniques to draw upon. With such essentials well in hand, the searcher can plunge into almost any database that comes along and master its intricacies (and idiosyncrasies) in relatively short order. The result? Flexibility and adaptability, key traits in any librarian. Bell's conversational style, coupled with her emphasis on real world applications, her Searcher's Toolbox, and a plethora of screen shots, will engage even the most reluctant and hapless of students. Particularly unique are chapters on how to teach others (peers as well as users) about databases and how to work with numeric databases. This book will prove a handy guide for librarians in every conceivable information environment and across all levels of experience.
VOYA
In this very detailed "how-to" manual on searching commercial databases, early chapters deal with database structure and general searching strategies. Although the volume is directed toward librarians and library school students, any researcher could benefit from these first three chapters. Bell recognizes that one does not need to know how to build a database to effectively search it, but she is also cognizant that understanding the organization of information helps one understand how to structure search strategies. The middle chapters deal with specific types/subject databases and their differences. These chapters are full of Web shots that are pertinent to the databases under discussion, which is excellent in the short term but means that the currency of the volume will be brief because databases are constantly morphing and changing screens. The final chapters deal with the reference interview, the information-seeking behaviors of researchers, and how to teach others about databases. It is obvious throughout this volume that the author works in the trenches and knows the subject matter. The information given is basic in the right places and more complex when necessary. It would be a useful tool for pre-librarians or working librarians, and the early chapters would be helpful to the general researcher.