HIT205 Instructional Session
When using the Barber Library site (and conducting research in general), it's important to have a strategy. Let's start off with a scenario....
Imagine you just received a research assignment.....
Your instructor has asked you to write a 5-page research paper with a minimum of 6 scholarly sources on the topic of using mobile devices in healthcare. Break into small groups and discuss (you can even do the search as you describe it) how you would start researching for this assignment by answering the following questions:
- Where do you start searching?
Protip: if you would start with Google, that's OK, but ask yourself is Google a "source"? Is the Library webpage a "source"? - What words (also known as keywords) would you use to start searching? Do you use any filtering options?
- What type of materials are you finding? How do you determine what you'll use and what you'll ignore?
- How do you determine if a source meets the definition of "scholarly" that your instructor expects? How do you define "scholarly"?
- How long does this process take for you? Do you only do it once or do you come back to it as you write?
Information Literacy
What you just did--building a strategy, making the most effective use of your time to search, and critically evaluating the source you choose--is called information literacy. Why is this important to you?
A lot of this takes practice (and sometimes you have to ask for help!), but a quick cheat sheet to help evaluate sources is available by asking yourself, is this source CRAAP?
A lot of this takes practice (and sometimes you have to ask for help!), but a quick cheat sheet to help evaluate sources is available by asking yourself, is this source CRAAP?
Basic Search Resources
Let's look at the Barber Library webpage, there are three access points:
Have you used Academic Search Premier before? Why would you use it? When would it be a good idea to use other databases?
Basic Search Skills
Protip: You should avoid combining more than four concepts in one search so that you don't get too specific and narrow your results to 0. For example: Should baseball players who are accused of using steroids be banned from the Hall of Fame? My keywords might include the following: baseball, steroids, ban, or Hall of Fame.
Protip: Avoid using relationship words like pro, con, best practice, negative, positive, etc.
But how do you combine those concepts in a library database? Use advanced search techniques, of course!
Boolean operators: Limit your results using AND, expand your results using OR, eliminate unnecessary results using NOT
Protip: make sure to use all caps when using Boolean operators.
example: (baseball OR MLB) AND steroid* AND ban NOT Pete Rose
Truncation: If you're looking for a word with plurals or various endings, try using the truncation command *
example: steroid* will search for results that contain steroid OR steroids OR both!
Phrase Searching: If you want your keywords to appear in a specific order, like a phrase, try using quotation marks ""
example: "Hall of Fame"
Title Searches: Too many results? Using the drop-down menu next to the search bar, limit your search keywords to only appearing in article titles.
Protip: Avoid using relationship words like pro, con, best practice, negative, positive, etc.
But how do you combine those concepts in a library database? Use advanced search techniques, of course!
Boolean operators: Limit your results using AND, expand your results using OR, eliminate unnecessary results using NOT
Protip: make sure to use all caps when using Boolean operators.
example: (baseball OR MLB) AND steroid* AND ban NOT Pete Rose
Truncation: If you're looking for a word with plurals or various endings, try using the truncation command *
example: steroid* will search for results that contain steroid OR steroids OR both!
Phrase Searching: If you want your keywords to appear in a specific order, like a phrase, try using quotation marks ""
example: "Hall of Fame"
Title Searches: Too many results? Using the drop-down menu next to the search bar, limit your search keywords to only appearing in article titles.
Using Library resources you can filter your search even further, evaluate the author and--oh yeah--you can even create a fully-formed citation!
Too much? Ask for help!
I know that there's a lot of information here, and you might still have questions, even after this session. That's what librarians are for! You can always contact me, but there are also several other options for you to contact any Barber Library librarian.
Just look for this icon or go directly to Help page and you'll be connected to someone who can help you come up with keywords, cite your sources, choose databases, and help with your general library needs! |