Basic Searching Skills

Basic Searching Skills

Dan Sich

Librarian for Earth Sciences, Planetary Science, Physics & Astronomy,

Electrical & Computer EngineeringUniversity of Western Ontario

November 3rd, 2008

Agenda

• Identifying keywords

• Building search strategy

• Keywords vs. subjects

• Library catalogue

• Search limits

• Choosing journal article databases

Why plan?

• Save time

• Focus on what you’re after

• Shift ‘angle of attack’ in logical fashion

• Avoid wasted effort & repetition

• Eliminate ‘garbage’ from results

How to plan

• Describe your topic, make it a question

• Identify and isolate concepts

• Identify variant spellings, synonyms, abbreviations/acronyms, terminology

• Research = search, search & search again

• Try various combinations

• Try various resources (books, articles)

Concept mapping

• Visual representation of relationship between concepts

• Quick & easy way to ‘brainstorm’

• Put top in middle

• Put ideas & concepts around main topic

• Group similar ideas together

• Connect ideas with lines, to show relationships

What is the use of hip rotation in Tai Chi Chuan ‘Pushing Hands’ and how can it be applied in Wing Chun Kung Fu?

What is the use of hip rotation in Tai Chi Chuan ‘Pushing Hands’ and how can it be applied in Wing Chun Kung Fu?

Make a chart

Hip rotation Tai Chi Chuan

Pushing hands

Wing Chun

Balanc*

Root*

Force

Redirect*

Hip*

Open*

Clos*

Tai Chi

NOT Taoist

Push hands

Sticky hands

Sticking hands

Ving Tsun

Wing Tsun

Ving Chun

Ignore:•Kung Fu

Hip*

AND

Rotat*

Ignore:•Balanc*•Root*•Force•Redirect*•Open*•Clos*

“Tai Chi”

AND

Chuan

NOT

Taoist

“Pushing hands”

OR

“Push hands”

OR

“Sticky hands”

OR

“Sticking hands”

“Wing Chun”

OR

“Ving Tsun”

OR

“Wing Tsun”

OR

“Ving Chun”

Join similar & related terms

Hip*

AND

Rotat*

“Tai Chi”

AND

Chuan

NOT

Taoist

“Pushing hands”

OR

“Push hands”

OR

“Sticky hands”

OR

“Sticking hands”

“Wing Chun”

OR

“Ving Tsun”

OR

“Wing Tsun”

OR

“Ving Chun”

AND

AND

AND

Join concepts with AND

(hip* AND rotat*)

AND

(“tai chi” AND chuan NOT taoist)

AND

(“pushing hands” OR “push hands”OR “sticky hands” OR “sticking hands”)

AND

(“wing chun” OR “ving tsun”OR “wing tsun” OR “ving chun”)

Keep a search log

• Date (because new articles are published daily)• What you want to find (your research question)• Where you searched (name of database)• You search string (terms, Boolean, etc.)• Search limits used (date, language, document

type, etc.)• Number of hits (too many?), useful *new* terms

discovered, etc.• Useful results (record details somewhere)• ...helps you focus efforts and avoid repetition

Keyword searching

• Different from Title and Author searching

• Use it when you don’t know title or author

Books

Advantages:

• Introduction to unfamiliar topics

• Basic information• Data, numbers• References to further

reading

Disadvantages:

• Not as specific as your topic

• Not all online or keyword searchable

Library Catalogue contains:

• Books

• Encyclopedias

• Dissertaions

• Journals (no journal articles!)

• Conference proceedings (no articles!)

• …and more

Keyword searchingin Library Catalogue

Advantages:

• Easy• Flexible• Looks at chapters, title,

author, subjects• Useful when you’re

missing information

Disadvantages:

• You guess at terms• Words are scattered• No chapter info for older

books• Many irrelevant hits

Subject Headingsearching in Catalogue

• ‘Preferred terms’ or ‘controlled vocabulary’• Specific, pre-determined, difficult to guess

1. Try Title, Author or Keyword search first

2. Identify relevant results

3. Look at their Subect Headings

4. Click Subject Headings to search

5. Write useful Subject Headings in search log

Subject Heading searching

Advantages:

• Your results are more relevant

• Find ‘hidden’ gems

Disadvantages:

• You need to know the right terms

• Only searches in subject headings

Finding Article Databases

• Browse by Program

• Databases by Title

• NOT E-Journals (only useful when you know what article you’re after)

Criteria for choosingArticle Databases

• Subject coverage?• Date coverage?• Abstracts?• Full text?• Update frequency?• Search limits?• Controlled vocabulary (subject headings)?• Search history?• Search more than one database! Why?

Keyword and Subject searching in Article Databases

Keyword

• Try 1st

• usually default search• Article title• Abstract?• Author?• Subjects?• Journal title?• Full text?• Helps you find subjects

Subject

• Try 2nd

• aka descriptor• aka controlled vocabulary• aka classification code• Differ between databases• Maybe difficult to guess• Help you redefine your

research topic

Searching Article Databases

1. Search one concept at a time

2. Join concepts with AND (using Search History)

• Gives you flexibility

Going through search results

• Sort order?

• Relevance?

• Publication date?

• Journal title? (scholarly?)

• Number of pages?

• Language?

Going through search results

Not finding enough

• Remove non-crucial AND’d terms

• Add more OR’d synonyms (e.g., OR taiji, tai ji, quan)

• Remove NOT’d terms (e.g., NOT taoist)

• Your results may be too general, or off-topic, but they may lead you to something useful

Finding too much garbage

• Add more AND’d terms• Remove irrelevant OR’d

terms• Add NOT’d terms• Add search limits (date,

language, publication type, etc.)

Getting articles

• Get it @ Western• Try to get full text version• Search Catalogue by ISSN or Journal Title

(not abbreviation)• Search Catalogue by Conference Proceeding

information• Don’t give up too easily• We don’t have everything• Order through Interlibrary Loan for $5

Questions?