Transcript Learn how to search for information the smart way

Learn how to search for
information the smart way
Choose your own
adventure!
What do you want to find out
about?
How to construct a good search strategy
How to use field searching
Learn more about advanced searching
techniques
Below are 3 key tips to searching effectively
1) Find out more about how to think conceptually
2) Find out how to put a search together using
AND, OR
3) Find out how to use truncation and wildcards
Thinking Conceptually
You want to find journal articles for a project you are
researching:
“The way grasslands are managed and the impact it
has on butterfly diversity”.
What do you do next?
1)
2)
Put all of the keywords into a database and do a
search.
Break your search down into concepts.
You have decided to put all the keywords into a
database and then see what the database finds
Your ideas for keywords are –
Grassland management, Butterfly, Diversity.
Are there any other factors you need to think about?
1. No, I think I’ll find all the information I need
searching this way
2. Maybe I ought to think a bit more about my
keywords
When you are searching for information
using a database you need to think
about all of the keywords you might use
and how to put these together.
For example, you may fail to find many
useful articles because you only
searched on the words grassland
management and the author(s) used
other words such as crop management
or grazing systems.
Go back and have a look at how to
break down your search and how to use
AND, OR.
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You are right to stop and think about your keywords.
When you use academic databases such as Web of Science,
you need to think about synonyms for your keywords and
alternative spellings. The keywords you use make a big
difference to the information you retrieve. Go back and have a
look at using AND and OR and how to break down your search
into concepts.
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“grassland management and butterfly diversity”
The main keywords for your topic might include:
Grassland Management
Butterfly
Diversity
However, if we are going to do a good search you need to
think about alternative words or synonyms for the keywords
you have chosen. Remember, the words used to describe a
concept will vary and if you do not use as many alternatives
as you can you might miss out on some very important
articles.
The next stage is to make a list of keywords and synonyms,
e.g.
Grassland Management
Butterfly
Diversity
Grassland
Lepidoptera
Biodiversity
Crop Management
Species Richness
Grazing System
Species Diversity
Are there any other factors you need to think about?
1) No, I think I’ll find all the information I need
2) Not sure, tell me more
Although you’ve got a good list of search terms you still
need to think about how you are going to put your search
together using AND and OR. You also need to think about
truncation and wildcards. All of these factors make a
difference to the information you retrieve.
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You are right to be cautious. The next important stage is to
think about how you are going to put your keywords together
using AND and OR. You also need to think about truncation
and wildcards.
The way you put a search together and the search features
you use, will make a difference to the information you retrieve
and will save you time.
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An important part of searching is knowing how to put your
keywords together.
If you had to do a search on “the way grasslands are managed and the impact it has
on butterfly diversity” would you –
1) Type in a sentence
2) Enter keywords using AND, OR
Remember, computers do not
understand human language, they can
only match the words you put in with
words in the database. Rather than
typing in a sentence to tell the database
or search engine what you want to
search for use AND and OR to connect
keywords.
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This is a very good choice. Computers don’t understand
human language, they only recognise words. In order to
connect and define the relationship between the words use
AND, OR (sometimes referred to as Boolean Operators).
A good search on this topic using AND and OR would be:
(grassland management OR crop management OR
grazing system) and (butterfly OR lepidoptera) and
(diversity OR biodiversity OR species richness OR
species diversity)
This search will find synonyms with OR while
simultaneously narrowing down the search using AND.
Notice how the OR terms are in brackets and how each
main concept is joined together with AND.
Please note some databases and search engines use
other symbols, such as + for AND. Always check the
help pages for more information.
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You can add flexibility to your search by using Truncation
and Wildcards.
What do you want to find out about?
1) The use of truncation
2) The use of wildcards
Truncation is a useful way to search for all variations of a
word ending. For example, Comput* will find computer,
computing, computerize, computation, computerization.
Truncation symbols vary from database to database so
always check the help. Common symbols used are *, $, #.
In our search example you could add flexibility to your search
by adding a truncation symbol to the end of butterfl* to search
for butterfly or butterflies.
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Using a wildcard is a useful way to find words with
variations on a single letter anywhere in a word.
The symbol used for a wildcard may vary from
database to database, but a ? is often used. For
example, you can search for wom?n and the
database will retrieve woman and women.
Once again, this will save you time and adds
flexibility to your search.
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Field searching is one of the most effective techniques for
narrowing down a search. Databases and search engines
usually offer searching in specific fields such as author, title,
URL (web address) and Domain (for websites; .uk for the
United Kingdom; .ac or .edu for educational institutions; or
.gov for governmental sites.
These searches will help you to retrieve less information
with more precision.
EXAMPLE: title:“global warming”
This search would return pages that have the phrase “global
warming” in the title.
If you are searching for information from a particular kind
of site, e.g. an educational site, you may want to limit your
search to an educational domain.
EXAMPLE: domain:.ac AND title:“global warming”
will limit your search to educational sites on global
warming in the title.
When would you use field searching?
1) When you are doing a large project and want
to do a review of the literature.
2) When you are doing some research for a small
course work project
When you are embarking on a large project and you
want to find out what has been written and published
on your topic it is better to do a more general search
rather than limiting your search at this stage. If you
limit your search too early on in the research stage you
will miss important literature.
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This is a good choice. If you have a very specific
topic and you only need a relatively small number
of sources then field searching is useful.
Use field searching for small course work projects,
problem solving activities, seminar papers.
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Using Advanced Searching techniques can help you to be
very specific and limit your search to very narrow
parameters.
What do you want to find out about?
1) Thesaurus Searching
2) Limiting your search
Some databases offer thesaurus,
subject, or MeSH (Medical Subject
Headings) searches. A thesaurus
is the official subject vocabulary of
the database.
Using the words in a thesaurus will help you find all the
articles on that topic. Some databases will automatically
map your search word(s) to a recognised term and will list
narrower or specific terms under subheadings; in others
you will need to browse or search the thesaurus. A
thesaurus can give you great assistance with your choice of
keywords and is worth making use of, if it exists.
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Most databases offer a range of limits, which will help you to
narrow down your search. The limits on offer will vary from
database to database, but common limits are –
Language – to retrieve material written in a particular
language e.g. English
Dates – to retrieve material published with a selected date
range. Useful if you want to limit your search to
recently published material.
Document Type – to retrieve particular types of material,
e.g. review articles, book chapters,
theatre reviews, etc.
Groups – some databases let you restrict you search to a
particular group or type. For example, you
can restrict your search by age group.
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