Pearl Growing

• This is another technique that many searchers use sometimes unconsciously.


• Start with the original idea and go from there.


• Pearl growing involves false drops and precision.


• When you send your query to a database you get hundreds and sometimes thousands of results. Not all of them are relevant. The non- relevant ones are called false drops. The relevant ones are precision.


• You use the relevant articles (your precision results) to find more articles. This could mean you are using citations from the relevant articles (Citation pearl growing) or you are using more words and concepts, subject headings, descriptors from the relevant articles to grow your search further. Either way your pearl is growing.

“Site-ation pearl growing: methods and librarianship history and theory” by Sheryl L. Ramer is an interesting article on pearl growing search for medical information http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1175807