Database Analysis Part 2

Database Analysis part 2: Contemporary Authors

Exhaustiveness

I had to think hard about this part of the assignment because this database is different than the ones I am used to searching. This database uses controlled language. Here is a screen shot of the search fields:

The author and title fields are pretty much straight forward, so I decided to do my tests using the subject/genre and nationality features to see if it produced the author I had in mind. I decided to try this with an adult author and a children’s author. I first checked to see if the two authors I had in mind were present in the database. I searched “Palahniuk” in the author field and turned up a record for Chuck Palahniuk. (Note – I misspelled “Palahniuk” the first time, and it told me there were no records that matched my search). Then I searched “Sachar” in the author field and turned up a record for Louis Sachar. OK, now I’m ready to test.

Let’s start with Chuck Palahniuk.

Test 1: Nationality – American

Subject/Genre – Horror fiction

This search yielded 43 results, but to my surprise, no Chuck Palahniuk. No Stephen King either!?!

Test 2: Nationality – American

Subject/Genre – Mystery/Crime/Suspense Fiction

This search yielded 353 results, but again no Palahniuk! Hmmmm

Test 3: Nationality – American

Subject/Genre – Fiction

Well, needless to say, this search yielded tons of hits; 2390 to be exact. I sifted through and….No Chuck Palahniuk!!!!

OK, I stopped and looked at his record to see his subject headings. Well, there were none! How does that help a person who doesn’t know the name of an author, but is looking for a specific type of book? For a comparison, I looked at a record for Isaac Asimov. He has several genres listed: Mystery/Crime/Suspense Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Children’s Fiction, History, Literary Criticism and history, Science, Biography, Humor/Satire, and Fiction. I also noticed that most popular authors I looked for in the American Fiction search were nonexistent. Why do some authors have subject/genre tags while most don’t?

On to Loius Sachar.

Test 1: Nationality – American

Subject/Genre – Children’s Literature

I got 630 records on this search, so I was hopeful. No Louis Sachar! I do note that Richard Scarry is there.

Test 2: Nationality American

Subject/Genre – Humor/Satire

This search yielded 67 results, but (you guessed it) no Louis Sachar. I looked at his record and….no subject/genre tags.

I had one more idea. Both of these authors have had books turned into movies. I decided to search the Media Adaptations field.

Test 1: Fight Club – Immediately get the record for Chuck Palahniuk.

Test 2: Holes – Immediately get the record for Louis Sachar.

All in all, the exhaustiveness test of the Contemporary Authors database was a huge failure. I am very disappointed.

Specificity

This time I decided to search by title of work and see what I could find in terms of specificity.

Test 1: Title of Work – Harry Potter

Yields 18 results!?! OK, I clicked on the first record, which was for Bill Adler (don’t know who he is). It turns out he was a compiler or editor for a book titled Kids’ Letters to Harry Potter from Around the World: An Unauthorized Collection.

I scrolled down the list of records and, thankfully, J.K. Rowling was there.

Test 2: The Da Vinci Code

This search yielded 15 results including Dan Brown. The other records were mostly religious writers who had written books in response to The Da Vinci Code.

OK, I think the specificity test was a big failure too. If someone wants to know who wrote Harry Potter, they’d have to dig through lots of records before finding the answer. While the other authors listed should be there, they should be ranked by relevance. I could not find a way to rank the results by relevance. I clicked on the heading titled “score,” but still Dan Brown and J.K. Rowling did not get ranked first. Part 2 of this project is disappointing all around. I would recommend this database for patrons who know the name of the author they are looking for. The database gives good biographical information on authors, even if they aren’t easy to find if you don’t know their names. It would also be useful if a patron wanted to find a list of authors who have won certain awards, or who have had their works turned into movies.