Competency 6a: Databases - Specific Facet Search: Books In Print

The specific facet first search is a search strategy in which it is assumed that the user can identify the most specific facet out of all the facets or concept groups available in a search (Chu 2003). For example, in the search group "effects of the USA Patriot Act on libraries," one might identify "US Patriot Act" as the most specific facet out of the three facets in the group, with "effects" and "libraries" being the other two facets. The most specific facet should retrieve the fewest results. Depending on the number of hits retrieved using the most specific facet, it may not be necessary to continue searching.
In the specific facet search using this example, I used the Books In Print database accessed through the TWU Blagg-Hughey Library online databases. I decided to do an advanced search using only the keywords "USA Patriot Act" and no limiters.

The results included 43 hits.

A quick glance through the titles convinced me that, while there were very many useful articles, it would be helpful to limit my results to only the books containing information about the effects the USA Patriot Act have had on libraries. Therefore, I would probably want to continue my search by either going back to a standard building block search using other facets, or I could try a successive fractions search.