DA 145 Instructional Sessions
What are we talking about today?
- Where to search when we use the library website.
- How to search efficiently in library resources (and how that's different from what we might be used to).
. - And then we'll actually search!
Let's talk about where to search when we use the library website.
There's a lot of information on the library homepage. What's the first thing you notice on this page? Let's click on the arrows in the image to view a roadmap that will help you make decisions about where to click on this page.
Let's talk about how to search efficiently.
When you search in a database you want to search only the most important words--I call it Hulkspeak, but you can call it whatever you want! The good news is, you already know how to search in a database if you've used a database like Netflix or Hulu before!
If I type in "I want to watch cooking shows" into Hulu, I get a bunch of stuff--but none of it is relevant to what I want to watch!
If I type in "I want to watch cooking shows" into Hulu, I get a bunch of stuff--but none of it is relevant to what I want to watch!
But if I just type in the most important word, "cooking," I get stuff that's a lot more relevant to what I want to watch!
Once you've got the best keywords, you can get real advanced in your search strategies.
Combine multiple keywords with Boolean: AND, OR, NOT (make sure you use all capital letters)
AND limits your results (fluoride AND decay)
OR expands your results (remineralize OR decay)
NOT removes unnecessary words [fluoride AND (remineralize OR decay) NOT nuclear]
To get some practice coming up with keywords, click here to share your keywords. If you're feeling fancy, try using Boolean to combine two or more concepts.
Combine multiple keywords with Boolean: AND, OR, NOT (make sure you use all capital letters)
AND limits your results (fluoride AND decay)
OR expands your results (remineralize OR decay)
NOT removes unnecessary words [fluoride AND (remineralize OR decay) NOT nuclear]
To get some practice coming up with keywords, click here to share your keywords. If you're feeling fancy, try using Boolean to combine two or more concepts.
Once you have your keywords and you know where you want to start searching, you can type your keywords into your selected database and start working with a results page.
Sometimes you get too many results, or results that aren't relevant to your search. If you did a search in Amazon, to the left below, to find a phone cover, you might start by typing in "phone cover" as your keywords. From you results, you might then filter your results to only show phone covers for a certain brand, or in a certain price range or color. This allows you to take your results from a lot to a more relevant little.
Same principle in library databases. This may look different depending on where you search, but you will always have filter options by date, source type, language, etc.
Sometimes you get too many results, or results that aren't relevant to your search. If you did a search in Amazon, to the left below, to find a phone cover, you might start by typing in "phone cover" as your keywords. From you results, you might then filter your results to only show phone covers for a certain brand, or in a certain price range or color. This allows you to take your results from a lot to a more relevant little.
Same principle in library databases. This may look different depending on where you search, but you will always have filter options by date, source type, language, etc.
Sometimes you'll find an article--the *perfect* article--but it will have this link rather than a link to the full text. What would you do?
Regardless if we have full text, you'll find a lot of helpful tools available in the library databases. Look for these tools, they are your friends!
Let's start searching!
Now you know where you're searching and how you're searching, let's start searching!
But remember, when you search, you might find yourself getting stumped. That's totally normal, there's a lot to this whole research thing! To help you, the library offers a wide range of services. We'll help even if you're not using library resources, you just have to ask!
But remember, when you search, you might find yourself getting stumped. That's totally normal, there's a lot to this whole research thing! To help you, the library offers a wide range of services. We'll help even if you're not using library resources, you just have to ask!