Resource Review #2: And so it begins...

October has arrived and that means a few things to Wisconsin folk and students:

• Autumnal foliage and scents enliven the senses
• Multiple projects and papers are due

That being said, I am in full swing research mode for my literature reviews. One of the big projects involves textiles and their creators. So, I went to the ever-useful Credo Reference and embarked on my first official search today. In the Search box, I typed in the word "textiles". Here's how it broke down:

• 5275 results in All Subjects
• 489 results in Art
• 4 results in Business
• 81 results in Biographies
• 58 results in Dictionaries
• 2842 results in Encyclopedias
• 2 results in Food & Beverages
• 1226 results in Geography
• 3 results in Languages
• 15 results in Law
• 1 result in Literature
• 8 results in Medicine
• 0 results in Music
• 0 results in Philosophy
• 0 results in Psychology
• 0 results in Quotations
• 2 results in Religion
• 436 results in Science
• 2 results in Social Sciences
• 0 results in Technology

I was surprised by some of the results, both positively and negatively, and had a few user comments. First of all, I appreciated that each result provided a sentence with the keyword highlighted (great for establishing context: determining whether or not that resource would be helpful). Secondly, I could narrow my search in the sidebar, which worked wonderfully with the previously mentioned context building strategy. The ways in which a search could be narrowed were by utilizing related entries, related resources, adjacent entries, and book browsing. However, I found it frustrating and tedious that I had to continually use the "back" button to return to the results list upon viewing a result (i.e. there was no "return to results" link).

Additional search options were possible in other databases (via Credo):

• 47,868 results in JSTOR
• 8208 results in PubMed
• 77,144 results in WorldCat
• 2151 results in MadCat

When I did an Image Search with "textiles" I got 582 results, most of which were relative to countries that produce textiles (their flag and geographical location were the images) or pictures of textiles (Art reference resources). The Concept Search with "textiles" was, simply put, pretty awesome. Some of the relative concepts are going to be great launch points, so that feature will probably be a place I start for future research, especially with such a broad term like textiles.

Overall, Credo Reference will be extremely useful when I need definitions, context, or history on just about any subject. Yet, I know that I will need to use it in conjunction with at least two other databases (JSTOR and Oxford Art Online). That being said, I have a good feeling my resources will be busting at the seams.