1. Developing Your Search Terms (see page tab above)
- Develop a synonym chart
- Where generate ideas for search terms and synonyms?
- Oxford English Dictionary
- Library Of Congress Subject Headings: Terms are organized by term/topic then filtered started with broad concepts, see also (related terms) and narrow topics.
- Roget's Thesaurus - many available on open Internet
- Your class textbook
- Talk with your professor
- Be a word detective. Pay attention to terms used in Titles, abstracts, and subject headings (if available).
- Problem: Global Keyword Search. (NOTE: Using the book icons at the top, click the third icon from the left for more on global keyword searching.))
- Use UNIQUE search terms.
- Use double quotes for phrases. If you type Special Education as a search term, while you will find results with the phrase Special Education, you will exacerbate your search because you will include extraneous, useless results. Special may be at the top of an article or web page. Education may be at the bottom. The problem is that those were the search terms you typed, right?
- Databases and Google search only for words, not CONCEPTS (a.k.a., subject headings).
2. Database Selection and Method
- CloudSearch - search everything
- Search specific database(s) instead: ATLA (religion), Education (ProQuest Dissertations, Gale databases)
3. Search Manipulation (comments below will vary by database chosen)
- Mix and Match terms from your synonym chart used in Step 1 above.
- Start with two or three terms without any parameters (more on parameters below)
- Some results will be closer to what you need than others. Circle useful terms on your chart. Write down useful searches for future reference.
- Evaluating: although a specific result may be seemingly worthless, it may be worth gold if you spot
- Large Results
- Use filters: peer review, date (if relevant).
- Mix and match terms from your synonym chart using the dropdown parameter options (Subject Headings, Title, and Abstract will be the most useful). You might try having them all use the same parameter such as Subject Headings. You may want to try other combinations where one term is in a title, another is in a Subject Heading, while another is in the Abstract.
- Few Results
- Have you found anything useful at all yet? Use the bibliography to search our resources for those articles. Repeat for other useful articles.
- Understanding Boolean (NOTE: Using the book icons at the top and starting on the left side, slide to the right to see more information with diagrams explaining Boolean logic.)
- Nested Searching and Advanced Search text boxes.
- NOTE: Natural language searching does not work well in library databases
4. There is a place for Google. (NOTE: Using the book icons at the top and starting on the right side, slide to the left to see more information about how to use advanced searching techniques with Google.)
- Using the Google Tips, you can use advanced techniques to search specific websites, a general set of websites, date ranges, and file types.
Other Suggestions:
- If we don't have it, fill out an InterLibrary Loan (ILL) form. Some databases will copy the information from the target screen and other may not. If not, you can use our form to request your article. If may take 24-72 hours to get it.
- For multi-topic or multidisciplinary searches, sometimes, you have better luck breaking your search down into smaller or separate topic searches. You can obviously search multi-disciplines with advanced searches but "your milage may vary."
- Don't forget to write or type your citations from useful articles whether you use them or not. You may not run into that article again or find it again! Try Zotero. It is best used in Firefox, not Chrome, but there is a Chrome connector available.
