FN225 Instructional Session
What are we talking about today?
- Explore your topics.
- Discuss different source types (journals, newspapers, advertisements, websites, etc.) and where to find them.
- How to search using library resources (and how that's different from what we might be used to).
- And then we'll actually search!
Let's explore your topics.
I want to know what you're going to be speaking about! Click here to share your selected topics for this assignment.
Let's talk about source types and where to find them.
When researching, you'll find that certain sources work better for certain topics. For example, the more recent your topic the more you want to look for newspaper articles that cover current events. When you're looking for statistics, government sources might work best. Where would you look if you were wanting to find newspaper articles?
How does that translate to where you would look on the library homepage?
How does that translate to where you would look on the library homepage?
I want to know where you think you want to start searching! Click here to add where you would click (or what resource you would search) and what type of sources you'd except to find there.
Make sure you're critically thinking about your sources to ensure that they're reliable! For instance, would you want to use something like this?
Let's talk about how to search.
Now that we've selected where we're searching, how do we search for what we want?
Searching in a library database is different than how you search in Google. 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!
Searching in a library database is different than how you search in Google. 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!
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 (diabetes AND diet)
OR expands your results (diet OR nutrition)
NOT removes unnecessary words [diabetes AND (diet OR nutrition) NOT feline]
Put phrases in quotation marks ("Whole 30")
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 (diabetes AND diet)
OR expands your results (diet OR nutrition)
NOT removes unnecessary words [diabetes AND (diet OR nutrition) NOT feline]
Put phrases in quotation marks ("Whole 30")
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!