Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA)

Database Analysis

LISTA is accessible through EBSCOHost at:

http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2069/ehost/search?vid=138&hid=107&sid=d820db6d-0c40-4c32-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=e2395da8-8f9d-48fd-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 utilizes Controlled Language in the form of Subject Terms and Keywords

• Authors can also provide Keywords

• LISTA does not utilize Natural Language queries

LISTA Representation Language

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 AuthorsAll SubjectsAll KeywordsAll 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

• 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

• 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.

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

database’s 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 sub-

toolbar 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 EvaluationSearch Evaluation

CoverageCurrency

PredictabilityRetrievability

UsabilityUser FriendlinessSearch 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 StudiesAnnual Review of Information Science and Technology

Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science & TechnologyCollege & Research Libraries News

IFLA JournalInformation Processing & Management

Journal of Academic LibrarianshipJournal of Education for Library & Information Science

Journal of Library AdministrationJournal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology

Libraries & the Cultural RecordLibrary & Information Science Research

Library JournalLibrary Quarterly

Library TrendsPublic Libraries

School Library Journal

Coverage Test• To further test LISTA’s 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.

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

TotalMissing in

LISTAMissing in

Lib Lit

Missingin

LISA

105 45 40 46

without Library Law Design 37 20 33

Coverage Test

• LISTA also ranks lowest when it comes to being the only database missing an article

• However, it does better in the comparison when we look at which database is the only one to contain an article

Total LISTA Library Literature LISA

105 14 6 10

Total

Article only in LISTA  

Article only in Library Literature  

Article only in LISA

105 9   6   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 journal’s 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, article’s 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

UsabilityEase of use/ User Friendliness

– LISTA is easy to use, especially if one has experience using Boolean search strategies

– LISTA’s 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 didn’t 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