A search for related information about my Whirly Pop popcorn maker yielded:  Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America” (Book)

It is very important that the Metadata mentions after the title that this object is a book.  Since I searched for popcorn…it might have been anything.

The American History & Life Fields included the Author (Trudy Eden), the Source  (H-Net Reviews in the Humanities & Social Sciences. Jul2004, p1-6. 6p.); The Historical Period (1830 to 1999); The Document Type (Book Review) ; Subject Terms POPCORN, NONFICTION, SOCIAL change; Keywords (Andrew F. Smith important as he is the author of Popped Culture),  Reviews & Products (This took me to another review by Philip Hiscock in Ethnologies), Abstract, Notes (incl. Publication Information: Washington: Smithsonian Inst. Pr., 2001. 264 pp.), Author Affiliations (Department of History, University of Northern Iowa), ISSN (1538-0661), Accession Number (15099661)

This Metadata did not include a Description or Summary Field that would have given me an idea about the review.  Although the Period was identified, the context of the object was not.  A “Review” for social change is not the same thing as “Review” for ethnography (which only came from knowing the nature of the publications for the different reviews). The publication information did not let me know if the book was drawn from an exhibit or independent research on the topic – which might have been included as part of the exhibit).

I appreciated the embedded links made searching the related sites and information quick and easy.

The Author information and Reviews and Products information made it possible for me to “place” this review in some of the fields of history to which it belongs (ethnography and Social change).  It did not tell me if the reviewer is a significant person in the field.  The subject field was very limited as it did not lead me to any other potential resources or search terms for my Popcorn maker – like Cooking or any information about the location of the subject other than (America) or its connection to industries like theaters or circuses.  It did not identify related materials (if it was in an exhibit) or if this book covered the entire history of popcorn or just a period of popcorn or if this was the epitome of Popcorn and there has been a decline since.

My search of the metadata of the American History & Life reinforces my conclusions described in my Search Review.