My inital search used terms "literature book award*" to get the broadest search possible without limiting it to children's or young adult literature at first. I incorporated truncation of the word "award" in order to accommodate search results for "award" or "awards." The boolean operator "AND" was automatically incorporated into the search due to the search features of the Project MUSE database.
The initial, broad search produced 4785 results.
I then limited the search further by using the database's "Search Within Results" search box feature and using the terms "adolescent and children*." I used the truncation symbol for children again, so that the search might include both "children" and "children's" literature.
The narrowing down of the search with these terms resulted in 257 documents -- many fewer than the initial 4785.
The first hit of this narrower search was a document entitled Messages in a Bottle: The 2007 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry. This was a very relevant hit, as it focuses on an award given out for exceptional children's poetry books. It would be a great resource for school librarians who strive to incorporate award-winning literature in all genres, including poetry.
Successive Fractions searching intrigued me because the use of multiple limiters during this search did help narrow down the results, with some results being quite relevant to the search query. This approach allowed me to get a feel for how the database was “weeding out” choices and documents based upon the search limits that I subsequently included. Additionally, the results from my search were quite interesting, especially in light of the scholarly and varied nature of the database Project MUSE.
