Skip navigation | Standard version with graphics
Contact us | A - Z
 



information skills - developing search strategies
 

Looking for information for assignments can be time consuming and frustrating. You may find that your searching leaves you with too much or not enough information, or information that is poor quality or irrelevant. This guide aims to assist you in the information seeking process, enabling you to:

Identifying your information need

Before you start your search you will have to decide why you need information. Is it for a simple topic overview, preparing for an exam, or for an in-depth piece of research such as a dissertation or theses? Deciding what level of information you need makes it easier to determine what sources of information you will use. Other factors to be aware of before embarking on a search include:

  • timescale: how long do you have to complete the project? Will you be researching the project over a matter of weeks or months, or will you only have a few days to put something together? Thinking about your timescale will help you to be realistic about the type and amount of information that you can gather. You will not necessarily be able to trawl journals and request articles that are not in your home library if you only have a few days to prepare a piece of work. Neither will you want to overload yourself with information.
  • scope: before starting a search for information, it is useful to be as clear as possible about what the scope of the topic is to be. You may be researching the use of Information Technology in Schools. You are particularly interested in the use of IT at primary school level, so you will need to limit the scope of your topic to key stage 1 and 2, and exclude information that covers the other key stages (unless you specifically want to do a comparative study etc).
  • date: what is the earliest date of publication that is acceptable and what is the latest? Do you have specific limits e.g. 1995-2000, or is there not a particular start date or cut off date?
  • language: it is useful to be aware that when searching some databases, your search may retrieve information that is in a foreign language. You will need to check that your search will retrieve only publications printed in English, unless you particularly want to follow up publications that originate from non-English speaking countries.
  • country of origin: when searching for information, be aware of where the publication or sources of information originates. American sources of information may have a different slant on a topic than UK sources.

Considering your information needs before conducting a search will prevent you from looking for and retrieving irrelevant material. It will also ensure that you don't miss relevant material and have to perform your search again at a later date.

Defining Your Topic

When planning a search it is important to think carefully about the KEYWORDS that you'll be using. You will need to become fully conversant with the context of your chosen topic, and with the vocabulary associated with it. You can do this by looking up your topic in subject encyclopaedias or dictionaries, doing some background reading in any major textbook on the subject, or simply by discussing it with your tutor. After doing some background reading, you can pinpoint keywords by:

  • defining your subject in a single sentence. This will help to clarify your thoughts.
  • underline key words or phrases e.g. 'Teacher's role in collaborative learning'.
  • break the topic down into key concepts or broad subject groups. Be careful not to overdo this, as you may find that your topic only breaks down into two or three broad concepts e.g. 1) Teacher 2) Collaborative Learning 3) Role
  • for each concept group, list synonyms of the key words. You may find specialist thesauri and dictionaries useful, and don't forget American spellings!
  • consolidate key words/phrases you may have, and be rigorous in your appraisal of them (aim to be precise rather than ambiguous).

Choosing the right keywords and combining them in a logical way will ensure that your search is effective and successful.

Searching for Information

Every online catalogue, database, or internet search engine will have its own search rules, but following general guidelines for Simple, Boolean, and Proximity searching will prove useful.

  • Simple searches are good for casting the broadest possible net for a word or term. Using common words may retrieve a large number of items, so an advanced search will help you limit your search to finding relevant materials. The simple search is useful if you are searching for items on an online catalogue. By entering your keywords you can then browse for relevant materials, or limit your keywords by doing an advanced search.
  • Boolean searches allow you to combine concepts logically by using the operators AND, OR, and NOT.
  • Proximity or phrase searching is used with keyword searches to ensure that two keywords (or phrases) appear next to each other, or within so many words of each other, in the title/abstract of items that are retrieved. It enables you to limit your search to highly relevant items. Popular options are w (with), n (near), and adj (adjacent). Many databases have their own rules for proximity searching, so it is a good idea to check out the help files in the database you are using.
Some examples of proximity searching and proximity operators

W (with): will search for records that include both terms, in the order typed with no words between them. For example; primary w education will find: 'primary education' but not: 'primary purpose of education'.

Type w with a number (1-25), to retrieve records that include both terms and within 1-25 words of each other. For example; primary w3 education will find: 'primary education' and 'primary purpose of education' but not: 'primary purpose of early years education'

Adj (adjacent): will look for records where your search terms are next to each other. For example; primary adj education will find: 'primary education' but not: 'primary school education'

N (near): will search for records containing both terms, in random order, with no words between them. For example; primary n education will find: 'education primary' or 'primary education'. primary n3 education will find: 'primary school education' and 'education in the primary school' but not: 'primary purpose of early years education'


Some examples of Boolean Search Logic

You can apply Boolean Search Logic when you want to narrow down or broaden a search. Boolean logic uses the operators AND, OR, and NOT to combine keywords.

AND links two terms together and narrows a search. For example, if you search for 'Collaborative Learning' AND 'Teacher',only articles with both of these terms will be retrieved.

OR links terms together and expands a search. For example, if you search for 'Collaborative Learning' OR 'Co-operative Learning', you will retrieve items in which either of these terms appears.

NOT is used when you want to exclude certain keywords. Be careful when you use this search as you may eliminate some items that could still provide useful information.

As well as using operators separately, you can combine them to group concepts together. For example, (Collaborative learning OR Co-operative learning) AND (Primary OR Secondary). Most databases will allow you to combine concepts together using Boolean operators, but it's always worth checking their help files to familiarise yourself with the search conventions of individual databases.

Truncation or wildcards

Truncation allows you to expand your search by looking for alternative spellings or plurals of terms. For example, teach* will find teacher, teachers, teaching. Most databases allow truncation searches, but may use different symbols (*, $, #,?, !). You can often use these symbols at the beginning of a word or in the middle to look for alternative spellings. For example, colo?r would find colour or color, allowing for Britishand American spellings.

Limiting your search

Databases often allow you to apply limits to your search, enabling you to be very specific in the records you retrieve. Some examples are:

  • Language
  • Date
  • Type of document (journal article, conference papers)

Other limit options may be available, so check the help files of the database you are using.

Evaluating search results

Once you have completed your search, you will need to evaluate the references retrieved to assess relevance and quality. The evaluation process will determine whether you have retrieved the information you need, and whether you will need to repeat your search using different search terms, search logic, or limits. Some sources may seem irrelevant at first glance, but may have good bibliographies or have cited useful references. Evaluating sources of information requires you to address five basic questions:

  • Who: who is the author/publisher? Who is the information intended for?
  • What: what kind of source is it? Is it reliable?
  • Why: why has it been produced. Is it biased? Is it intended for commercial use?
  • Where: where was the source published?
  • When: when was the information made available? How current is it?
Recording results and citing references

It is important that you keep both accurate records of your search strategy, and the references that you eventually use for your piece of work. This may seem tedious and unnecessary, but will prove beneficial in the long-term.

Recording your search strategy is useful if you want to show a tutor your progress and get targeted advice. It is also useful if you find that you have mislaid references, or need to conduct your search again. Record your strategy manually on paper, or there may be the option to save your strategy electronically on the individual database you are using.

Recording references you find is important because you will need to produce accurate citations. This enables those looking at your work to obtain the sources you used, and acknowledges the work of others to avoid possible plagiarism. You need to record the following about every reference you find:

  • Complete bibliographic reference: using the Harvard method - see the library's guide to referencing
  • The source where the reference was found
  • Where the source can be found and availability. It is no use recording references that you won't be able to get hold of readily.

Hopefully this guide will help you to search for information with confidence. If you need further advice or information on search techniques, please don't hesitate to ask a librarian.