Health records, online searching, and information retrieval are discussed in the recently published Volume 5, Issue 1 of the Student Research Journal (SRJ). All articles are available in PDF format and freely accessible online.

The spring issue of the Student Research Journal (SRJ), published by graduate students at the San José State University (SJSU) School of Information (iSchool), is now available online. SRJ continues to provide library and information science (LIS) professionals with critically reviewed and topical articles that contribute to the advancement of scholarly research.

The featured paper “Patient Access to Electronic Health Records: Strengths, Weaknesses and What’s Needed to Move Forward,” written by iSchool student Alicia Zuniga, discusses the need for digitizing personal health records, in order to provide easier access by patients to their health records. Zuniga examines three models of electronic health records (EHRs) and the need for improving the adoption of digital records in the health industry.

Dr. Virginia Tucker, an instructor at the SJSU School of Information, focuses on threshold concepts and strategic areas for improving search results in her essay, “Sharpening the Saw: Lessons from Expert Searchers.” Drawing upon her expertise in online searching, she provides a brief overview of searching concepts, such as use operators and limiters, controlled vocabulary, pearl growing, and citation searching.

Adrienne Mathewson, editor-in-chief of SRJ, discusses the importance of managing information overload through effective retrieval methods in her editorial.

The Student Research Journal is an open-source journal. All articles are available in PDF format and can be downloaded at Volume 5 Issue 1. Past issues are also freely accessible online.

Call for Submissions

The SRJ invites original research or critical review essay manuscripts from graduate students at any university on topics in the fields of information science theory, policy, application or practice. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. Please see the call for submissions.

About the Student Research Journal

The SRJ promotes graduate scholarship and intellectual inquiry in library and information science, archives and records management, and museum studies by publishing two issues annually. It is San José State University’s first student-governed research journal. For more information about the SRJ, please visit http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/slissrj/.