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Basic Searching Skills Graduate Student Library Instruction session taught by Dan Sich at University of Western Ontario Library, November 3, 2008
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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?