Effective Searching
Strategies and Techniques
Objectives
Understanding the importance of effective searching
Development of guidelines for planning and implementing searches
Gain experience of structuring effective searches in a range of different environments
Strategy
Define your information need Decide which sources to use Find out how they function Run your search Review and refine you search
Information Required
Phase 1 What sort of information are you looking for? Who is going to use the information?
Phase 2 Keywords Selection
Keywords from the article Related Key Concepts Synonyms Alternative spellings Plurals or Capitalisation
Key Words Selection
Search for Health Implications of Water Pollution
Keywords: ‘water’ ‘pollution’ ‘health’Concepts: ‘Environmental Degradation’ or ‘agricultural management’ or ‘health’Synonyms: rivers, lakes, sea,’domestic water, ‘oil spills’, chemical, biological, etcAlt. Spells: nonePlurals: river(s), lake(s), disease(s)Capitals: Name of a specific lake, disease, region
Search Comparisons
Acid Halogen Acid
Hydrochloric Acid
Google 26,000,000 240,000 531,000
Cross Reference - - 80,500
Blackwell
All Journals 98,190 552 1,068
Chemistry 18,195 69 79
All Journals with “”
- 1 1,018
Chemistry with “”
- 0 78 Search Slides
Sources
What sources are appropriate for your information need?
Chemistry Multidisciplinary
Familiarization with databases
Search Features in Resources
Features Available
Symbol/Details
Boolean AND Yes AND
Boolean OR Yes OR
Boolean NOT Yes NOT
Phrase Searching Yes “ ”
Truncation/Wildcard
$, ?, *,!
Case Sensitive No -Fields - Full Text, Article, Keyword,
Abstract
Stop Words Blackwell Synergy
Boolean Operators
Other Features Disciplines and Availability Search Criteria
Disciplines Subjects
Search Types Basic Advance Saved Quick
QUESTIONS
THANKS
Top Related