Comparing research database searches: ebrary and Safari Tech Online

Research Database Searches: Ebrary, Safari Tech Online and Google Books

Research database searches: ebrary, Safari and Google Books

Database 1: ebrary

The home page for ebrary takes the web surfer to a general welcome page. The surfer must use the toolbar at the top of the page to select "Products and Services" for individuals, public libraries, or whatever designation is relevant to him or herself to begin searching different titles. Selecting 'individuals' will take the reader to a 'simple search' page, so he or she can begin browsing titles. I first typed in "qualitative research design," and retrieved 10,926 documents, the first of which was a qualitative study on tobacco use.

To refine my search and make it more pertinent to my interests, I checked a helpfully and automatically offered 'box' that I wished to limit my search solely to books on the topic of research. This limited my selection of books to 490 items. I was next offered further automatic limitations to refine my search. Some of the books retrieved were specific to the my area of study, while others were particular to research in fields not immediately germane to my area of interest, such as qualitative nursing research. Helpfully enough, one of the next offered limitations was for 'qualitative research.' I selected this ensure that the retrieved books were focused on this type of methodology. Finally, my search was limited to a manageable six terms, and although the database offered me the option of expanding my search terms, the six books offered by ebrary was sufficient.

The most helpful volume seemed to be the Handbook for synthesizing qualitative research by Margarete Sandelowski and Julie Barroso (Springer Publishing Company, 2006, ISBN-13: 9780826156945). This book was a general introduction on the topic of approaching qualitative research, rather than a specific presentation of how qualitative research was applied to a particular field.

Database 3: Google Books

Of all of the three databases I used in this experiment, Google Books was the one with which I was most familiar. I typed 'mixed methods research' into the easily navigated search bar and Google offered me a helpful prompt for the phrase, even before I had finished all of the letters of the phrase. 20,900 books were retrieved by Google on mixed methods research, all of which seemed pertinent to my generalized search, and almost all of which offered a limited preview for me to view, as if I were in a real-life library.

I selected the book Mixed methods research: Exploring the interactive continuum by Isadore Newman and Caroline Ridenour (SIU Press, 2007, ISBN: 0809327791, 9780809327799). Google's feature allowed me to search within the book, and to preview a number of chapters of this helpful book on mixed methods of research. The main downside of the user-friendly Google approach is that the searcher has less flexibility in narrowing the search to specific terms, although this search was specific enough so that I was able to find works on my topic fairly easily.

Had I wished to specifically study mixed methods of research upon the subject of education, Google Books would still be useful search tool. Within the Newman and Ridenour book, I was able to search within the book on the topic of mixed methods of research in education: "In education, the paradigms of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research serve researchers' inquiry needs" stated the first result I retrieved, from page 13. I surveyed number of other selections from the book that further examined how data-driven and case-study approaches could be combined in mixed methods educational research.