WR122 Instructional Session
When using the library website you can focus your attention on the following three Research Tool icons:
- Articles & More....for when you're looking for current information, opinions, peer-reviewed articles, or specific information;
- Books, Movies & More...for when you don't necessarily need current information, but want a broader overview of your topic;
- Resources by Subject...for when you want a comprehensive list of library resources (and websites) relevant just to your topic.
Getting Started
There's a lot of information on this page, but to determine where you need to search, we need to know what you're searching! Let's get started learning about library resources by completing the Google Form below.
Construct an effective keyword search for your research question.
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.
Subject Searching: It can be difficult coming up with the right keywords for your topic. If I'm searching for heroin addiction, but the database refers to it as heroin abuse, how am I supposed to know that? Subject headings are not keywords, they don't necessarily appear in your article, but they are assigned to an article to describe what it's about. Subject headings use a very specific vocabulary (a person can't assign all possible variations of a word to describe one article, they need to have a list of words that are used), so you have to know that vocabulary to search with Subjects. There are two ways to do this: Use the Subject Term thesaurus provided by the database, or find an article you like and use the subject headings that were assigned to that article.
Don't forget, if you're choosing to search using Subject headings, tell the database that's what you're doing by selecting SU Subject Terms from the drop down menu next to the search field.
Create an ILL Account
That means you can read a summary of the article, but you don't have immediate access to read the full article. Fear not! You can still read the full text, you just have to request it through Interlibrary Loan!
This should not be a barrier to you receiving the article you want! On average, it takes no more than 1 business day for you to receive the requested article in your inbox. To remove one obstacle from using ILL, let's create an account together!
This should not be a barrier to you receiving the article you want! On average, it takes no more than 1 business day for you to receive the requested article in your inbox. To remove one obstacle from using ILL, let's create an account together!
Start exploring on your own using Barber Library Resources.
To get started, go to the library homepage and choose the Research Icon that fits your need. Here are a few places to get you started:
- Academic Search Premier...for a mix of news, magazine, and scholarly articles from across many disciplines--a good place to start!
- The Barber Library and Summit Catalog...you can even get an ebook to start reading right now!
- Resources by Subject--Social Sciences page...to give you some other subject-specific suggestions
Know how to get help from librarians.
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 the Need Help? page under Quick Links 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! |