The English language presents its own set of problems in library research. Here are some things to consider:
1. Use unique terms. Instead of searching "dog and cat" you will likely get better results using "poodle and calico."
2. Avoid redundant terms like "education" when you using an education database.
3. Be a word detective. Regardless of how useful your results are, pay attention to the subject terms. The article may be worthless but the subject term(s) may be just the right ones to include on your list leading to improved results (relevance and overall number).
4. If you have too many results,
a) use the available limiting options,
b) try some searching your terms as subject headings,
c) add another term to your search.
5. If you have too few results:
a) If you used limiting options, turn them off.
b) If you have one useful article, find a citation for the article, then see what subject headings are used. Use those terms instead of your list.
c) If you have only one useful article, try doing an author search (odo indivudually if you have multiple authors).
d) If you have are using several terms in your search, reduce the number down to two or three.
e) Have you made a sufficient list of synonyms for all of your terms? When you do, then try searches using different combinations. Evaluate the results and use groups which are yielding more relevant results.
Searching databases for article is somewhat similar to searching for books. In both cases, they are built on the concept of keyword searching. You can only search for the terms you type. In both cases, neither knows that a poodle is a dog, for instance; therefore, you need to use the most unique terms as possible. In cases, library catalogs and many databases have subject terms which describe the book or journal article. Sometimes, they are called "subject headings" or "descriptors."
For this to work best, you need to know the databases best suited to the topic you are researching. Which one should you use? At Moody Library, we have organized our databases resources under Databases page on the library's home page (top left in the box group). After clicking, you will notice that we have strategically placed the most significant databases for that subject at the top of the list. The complete alphabetical list will be on the right side.
When planning your strategy, write your question or topic at the top of a piece of paper. Underline the key terms and make a separate column.
Transfer each major concept to the top of each column in the table below. Beneath each concept, write all the synonyms you can (preferably as unique as possible). Also, avoid terms which are redundant or ambiguous. For instance, why use the term "education" if you are searching in an education database? Also, be sure to include any spelling variations for any term on your list below.
Let's pretend that you are writing a persuasive paper about guns. You want to persuade people the Texas Legislature should not allow people to carry concealed handguns in colleges. Now, let's practice planning our search.
Step 1: Search Term Chart
First, write your research topic and write the important words and phrase in a grid to help you organize your thoughts.
<Picture Credit: Loyola-MaryMount University Library LibGuide>
You can also use the following resources if you have difficulty developing terms and concepts:
* Roget's Thesaurus (or http://www.bartleby.com/62/)
* http://Thesaurus.reference.com
* Library of Congress Subject Headings. You can also check the red books behind the reference desk at the library.
Be aware that some terms and concepts can be viewed in interdisplinary (cross several subject disciplines). This could affect how and where you search. If you have access to an academic library, there are several useful databases: CQ Researcher and LexisNexis (which has a legal search section) or sociological databases. For the topic and search shown above, you will first want to check the databases on the HCU library's Political Science or Government subject page, if available. Another option is newspapers. If your professors allows, you might be able to cite information from the editorial section of newspapers. Even general databases from the public library will offer good support and cover a multitude of subject disciplines. As you see, there often are many possibilities if you open you mind.
The first thing to know in database searching is that language kills. Choosing the wrong term(s) in search can make or break your results. Taking the terms from Step 1 above, you need to mix and match your terms. Take one term from one column and another word from a different column. Authors and subject indexers may prefer a certain term over another so you will probably need to make several attempts using various terms from your chart above. As you look through your results, you will probably notice that one set of search results may give you better results than another. As you compare results, strike out the bad searches from your list. I highly recommend that you keep a record of your searches in your class notebook for future referral. Keep it handy as you don't want to repeat bad searches and waste your time. When you find a result set with better results, you focus on those terms and include terms from other columns, not the same column. If the results are still too large, then use the database limiting filters to narrow it down, just like you do on Amazon. You can limit by date, subject, and scholarly peer review, among others.
Step 4: Be A Word Detective
As you search, pay attention to the terms you see in the citation (title and subject/descriptor headings in particular). Maybe these are terms you had not yet considered. Add them to your search grid. Be a word detective!