WorldCat

About WorldCat:

WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services.  It allows users to locate items, but it does not grant users access to those items.  The user must get permission from the library which houses the item in order to access the item.   

Search Query:

• Is there a correlation between students that are identified as having a learning disability and the high school dropout rate?

After a Quick and Dirty search of the database using my original facets, I decided to change my concept analysis for this database. 

	Facet 1	Facet 2
Concept	graduation rate	learning disability

I conducted an advanced search using the following natural language terms: graduation rate and learning disabilities.  I placed both search terms in the keyword field.  Then I added a date range of 2012 – 2014 and farther narrowed my search to audience, non-juvenile and English language. 

The results yield 122 hits.  Since high recall means low precision, I tried to reduce the number of hits by examining the limiters on the left side of the page.  However, I did not see a limiter that would be helpful.  The most relevant item was number 13 on the list, Comparison of high school graduation rates of students with disabilities and their peers in twelve southern states.  This article can be found in the Eric database.      

What I learned: Content

This study also indicated that the rate of graduation for students without disabilities is higher than that of students with disabilities.  Once again students with emotional disabilities had the poorest graduation rate.  One of the interesting new findings from this article is that students with disabilities exit school with a diploma, followed by drop out, and then attainment of a certificate.  This is the first time that I have seen data about the various ways a student can exit high school.  Before reading this article, I thought that the exit rate via attainment of a certificate was higher, than that of the dropout rate, since so many schools steer students with disabilities towards the certificate route rather than the diploma route.       

Second Search:

Since WorldCat contains the world's largest network of library content, I thought that I should look for a book relevant to my topic. I conducted the same search; however, I limited the format to book.  I did not find a book that directly addresses my query.  After examining the hits, I found that the majority of the books about learning disabilities in this database contain information about how to address various learning disabilities in the classroom.  My best hit for this search was: Enhancing instructional problem solving: an efficient system for assisting struggling learners.   

Although, I was unable to access its content; I was able to read the summary provided by WorldCat.  This book presents a problem-solving model of instruction that is compatible with the response to intervention model. 

What I learned: Searching

World Cat is the largest OPAC in the world and it is constantly changing, due to the number of libraries from around the world that are constantly adding new records.  Therefore, it is very difficult to replicate a search from one day to the next without seeing some differences.  For example, in this search I noticed that the order in which the items appeared in the result list changed from one day to the next.  I also found the task of obtaining my article to be difficult.  The site indicates which libraries have the article available.  However if you can not borrow from that library, then you will not be able to obtain the article.  Luckily, the article is in the ERIC database and I was able to obtain the article via Texas Woman’s University library. 

Reflection:

I believe that WorldCat.org is a great site for locating items and their bibliographic records.  However, obtaining access to the items is difficult.  That said, one of the feature of the catalog that I found interesting and helpful is the “add a tag” feature.  I tested the “add a tag” feature on this site.  First, I choose an article from my result list that was retrieved only with the keyword phrase graduation rate: Comparison of high school graduation rates of students with disabilities and their peers in twelve southern states (#13 in my result list).  Since, this article was not retrieved with the keyword phrase “high school dropout rate” I added the tag “high school dropout rate” to the article.  Finally, I searched for the article using my tag.  The article came up as item # 12 in the result list.  This feature allows the average user to add tags to their favorite items, so that future users can find the items using more colloquial keywords, rather than the standardized subject headings created under the RDA and AACR2 standards.  I think this is a great feature that will enable WorldCat to become more user-friendly in the future.