Feature Comparison of Retrieval Performance of Eleven Online Indexes Containing Information Related to Quaternary Research, an Interdisciplinary Science Lura E. joseph Interdisciplinary research offers increas- a particular topic can be daunting to ing information challenges for research- researchers and scholars. Helping the Lura E. Joseph is Geology and Digital ers and scholars as well as for librarians. researchers and scholars with their in- Projects Librarian, University of Illinois Quaternary research is an example of a formation quests can be taxing for at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She highly interdisciplinary area incorporat- librarians and information specialists. holds a Master of Science degree ing research ranging from geochemistry The switch from print to online indexes in geology and a Master of Library and microbiology to planetary science. is both a blessing and a curse. On one and Information Studies, both from This study compares retrieval perfor- hand, the online indexes uncover much the University of Oklahoma. Joseph mance of eleven online indexes that can more information, but on the other, worked as a petroleum geologist for fif- be used for Quaternary research, and sorting through the mountain of in- teen years, as Physical Sciences Librar- discusses three others. Recall, precision, formation can be frustrating and time ian at North Dakota State University and overlap and uniqueness were ana- consuming. Quaternary research is an for six-and-a-half years, and has been lyzed using search results (12,896 re- example of a highly interdisciplinary Geology Librarian at UIUC for more cords) from the eleven databases for the area whose researchers, scholars, and than five years. Submitted for review publication year 2000. A broad search supporting librarians are faced with August 2, 2005; revised and accepted strategy was used in order to recover these problems. for publication February 28, 2006. most of the relevant information from the databases for the whole discipline Quaternary Research: Its for one publication year in order to Nature and Importance avoid problems encountered when using sampling and example searches. Impli- Quaternary research is the study of cations for interdisciplinary research the Quaternary, which is the period of in general are discussed, and federated time that spans approximately the last searching is suggested. 2.6 million years of the Earth’s geo- logic history.1 The Quaternary geologic iven the exponential in- time period includes the Pleistocene, Reference & User Services Quarterly, crease of information, sometimes known as the Ice Age, and vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 56–65 © 2007 American Library Association. staying current in a par- the Holocene, which is the geologic 2 All rights reserved. ticular discipline, verifying epoch in which we live. The Pleisto- Permission granted to reproduce for Ga particular citation, or conducting an cene covers the time period spanning nonprofit, educational use. exhaustive search for information on approximately two million years to ten 56 | Reference & User Services Quarterly Comparison of Retrieval Performance of Eleven Online Indexes Containing Information Related to Quaternary Research thousand years ago, and the Holocene specialty within Quaternary research. many Quaternary research articles ap- includes the period spanning approxi- Quaternary researchers study ice cores; pear in other highly respected general mately ten thousand years ago to the ocean sediments; ocean circulation; lake and specialized scientific journals. Oth- present. Scientists currently disagree sediments; cycles of the earth and sun; er publications include newsletters and regarding the exact boundaries and atmosphere; fossils and modern plants monographic series. See Associations dates for the beginning of the Quater- and animals, including invertebrates, and Information Resources for Quaterna- nary, and whether it should be retained vertebrates, insects, and pollen; and ry Research (www.library.uiuc.edu/gex/ as a formal chronostratigraphic unit (a other subjects. Current topics of impor- bibs/QuaternaryInformationResources. body of rock officially recognized as a tance include atmospheric, ocean, and html) for further information about the unit based on the age of its boundar- terrestrial interactions and the building various Quaternary research societies ies).3 In fact, the most recent Inter- of testable computer models; for exam- and publications. national Commission on Stratigraphy ple, models that can be used to predict removed the term “Quaternary” from climate change, sea level rise, or ocean ThE Research Question the International Geologic Time Scale circulation patterns. and included that interval of time in During the Quaternary, the Earth This study compared the retrieval per- the Neogene Period.4 The terminology has experienced frequent, extreme, and formance of eleven online indexes that is still being hotly debated among the often abrupt climate and environmen- can be used to find information pertain- geologic community, but no matter tal changes, including the advance and ing to Quaternary research. The main what the time period is called, or when retreat of continental and mountain purpose was to determine which data- the exact initial boundary is set, that glaciers.6 These climate and environ- bases contain the largest number of rel- geologic period of time will undoubt- mental changes have been accompanied evant references (recall and precision), edly remain an extremely important by global changes in plant and animal and how much overlap exists between area of research. communities and include numerous the databases. This information can be The study of the Quaternary time extinctions and the evolution and dis- used to help researchers and librarians period is particularly interdisciplinary.5 persal of humans. No matter what the determine which databases are most Figure 1 shows many of the areas of causes, Earth’s climate currently ap- appropriate for Quaternary research, pears to be warming, and significant which might safely be ignored (and and rapid environmental changes could possibly cancelled by librarians faced challenge modern civilization. Current with budget cuts), and which should Figure 1: Many of the Areas of major goals of Quaternary research be included in metasearch (federated Specialty in Quaternary Research include documenting past climate pat- search) tools. Results also can be used terns at various time scales in order to indicate which databases could best Anthropology and archaeology to understand current trends and to substitute for others that might not be Biology predict future climate patterns and en- available, and how much information Botany vironmental effects. would be missed if a particular database Climatology In 1928, a group of scientists who was not searched. Ecology were conducting interdisciplinary re- Entomology search into environmental changes Literature Review Geochronology that occurred during the glacial ages Geography founded the International Union for Research focusing on interdisciplin- Geology 7 Geomorphology Quaternary Research (INQUA). Inter- ary, cross-disciplinary, and multidisci- Geophysics national congresses are held every four plinary information has continued in Glaciology or five years, with attendance as high recent years. Ackerson discussed the Hydrogeology as one thousand participants. There are challenges of research and teaching in Isotope geochemistry more than thirty-five member countries cross-disciplinary areas, focusing on Limnology worldwide that also hold regional and engineering, and including obstacles Molecular genetics local meetings. Out of a total member- to intellectual and physical access to Oceanography and oceanology ship of 18,445 within fifteen divisions, information.8 Paleoceanography and paleoceanology the Quaternary Geology and Geomor- Other studies related to interdisci- Paleoecology phology Division of the Geological plinary research include database com- Paleontology Society of America (GSA) had 2,695 parisons. These comparisons gener- Palynology Planetary geology members (14.6 percent) in 2004, fur- ally fall into two categories: descriptive Soil Science and pedology ther demonstrating the importance of comparisons, such as the number of Structural geology and neotectonics Quaternary research. There are a num- journals indexed and the size, range, Volcanology ber of excellent peer-reviewed journals and subjects covered; and performance Zoology devoted to Quaternary research, and measures, such as recall, precision, and volume 47, issue 1 | 57 Feature novelty versus overlap. Starr reviewed of the articles known from indepen- man compared retrieval of informa- the literature and recommended that dent sources. tion of interest to historians from two future database comparisons should Brown, Edwards, and LaSee-Wil- online European journal indexes and emphasize analytic research and study lemssen conducted a “deep analysis of found that significant numbers of ar- reasons for search results differences indexing” for two education indexes.14 ticles would be missed if using only one rather than concentrating on descrip- They found that one of the indexes of the indexes.20 tive comparisons or performance mea- covered twice the number of journals Janke compared journal coverage sures.9 Her criticism of the study of but only half the number of articles. and currency of indexing for Current performance measures was that most Based on indexing policies, even so- Contents