Tips for Searching Success

Tips for Searching Success Prepared by: Walter Zimmerman Electronic Services Librarian The D. B. Weldon Library The University of Western Ontario Summer 2006 Our Goals for Today 1. 2. 3. Learn how to find appropriate databases for subject searching Learn how to think like a searcher Learn how to create a successful search strategy Finding Appropriate Databases Use Our Resources by Subject Lists Select faculty, then department, then sub level, if appropriate e.g. Business & Management  Marketing Social Sciences  History  British History Arts & Humanities  English  Children’s Literature Multidisciplinary  Current Events & News  Canadian In each case, the next click is on “Articles Using Indexes” and this will bring you to a list of databases as well as print bibliographies, indexes, and abstracts Western Libraries Home Page Major Categories > Subjects Subject Level > Sub-level Sub-level Articles Using Indexes MLA Bibliography Search Screen In this and other software, it is possible to add additional databases and search them simultaneously. Use a Multidisciplinary Database  If you have problems finding an appropriate database or if your search is on a multidisciplinary topic, use a multidisciplinary database or search engine: e.g. – ProQuest Research Library – Expanded Academic Index – JSTOR – ScholarsPortal Search – CSA Illumina – LexisNexis – Project MUSE – Google Scholar …or a Combination of the Above In American History, for example, you might search: – America: History and Life – Making of America and then multidisciplinary databases like – JSTOR – Project MUSE Learn to Think Like a Searcher What’s a Synonym for “Thesaurus?”  Be creative - think of variant spellings, synonyms, closely related words, word endings, abbreviations, category names and members of the group, even opposites – Behavior OR behaviour – Teenager OR adolescent – Teenager OR adolescent OR juvenile OR youth OR young adult – manufactur* – NATO OR “North Atlantic Treaty Organization” – Citrus fruit* OR oranges OR tangerine* OR lemon* OR grapefruit* – Advantag* OR disadvantag* And What do You Do with All of These Terms?      Create “concept lists” of terms before starting your search Search concepts separately, if possible Combine only two different concepts at a time If results are too general or too large, add another concept If results are too few, remove the least important concept from the search Example 1  Search for the effects of acid rain on fish in the Great Lakes Concept B Fish Fishes Fishing Fishery Concept C Great Lakes Lake Huron Lake Ontario Lake Michigan Lake Erie Lake Superior Concept A Acid Rain Acidic Rain Acid Precipitation Acidif* Just maybe (and maybe) Impact or Effect or Effects In a Typical Keyword Search, What You Are Looking for Is… Fish* Acid Rain Great Lakes The area where all the concepts overlap AND OR ( ) What are all these about?!?! NEAR * WITHIN N AND NOT ? Search Basics   Searching is based on Boolean Logic – AND OR NOT (sometimes called AND NOT) The WebPAC also uses Phrase Searching and Proximity Searching (sometimes called Positional Searching) – “Phrase Searching” – a NEAR b – c WITHIN N d (where N is a number from 1 to 10) Searching also uses Truncation and Wildcards – Term* Term** Te?m Sometimes, Parentheses are also necessary   – ( ) Details will vary by database but the concepts generally apply. Boolean Operators  AND OR OR = at least one of the terms must be present in the document – cats OR felines OR tomcats – bread OR toast OR rolls AND NOT  AND = all of the terms must be present to retrieve the document – “peanut butter” AND jelly – software AND crime AND punishment  AND NOT = the term following the AND NOT must NOT be present – Apple AND NOT computer – NOT very useful in a WebPAC search and can be dangerous, eliminating useful items Truncation  Whenever possible and appropriate, use truncation to retrieve multiple word endings – Pollut*  pollute, polluted, polluter, polluters, polluting, pollution… – Canad*  Canada, Canada’s, Canadian, Canadians, Canadiana… – Adolescen*  adolescence, adolescent, adolescents  “Bee” careful not to truncate too early!!! – Bee*  bee or bees but also beer, been, beef, beet, beep, Beeb, and that’s not including beech and beetle! – Cat*  cat or cats but also catch, catchup, catalog, catalyst, catcher, catchy, catapult, etc. (up to a MAXIMUM of 5 characters after the t in Western’s online catalogue)  IMPORTANT NOTE: Use double asterisks ** to retrieve more than 5 characters after the root term in Western’s online catalogue Wildcards Similar to truncation but restricts results to words matching the exact number of internal or final letters – – – – wom?n  woman, women, womyn Globali?ation  globalization, globalisation Canadi?n  Canadian, Canadien carbon fib??  carbon fiber, carbon fibre Phrase Searches  When it’s important for two or more words to be found in an exact order, use “Phrase Searching” – – – – – – “World Series” “Civil War” “Great Lakes” “United Nations” “Industrial Revolution” “New York City” Positional Operators  When terms only have to be near each other, use positional operators – econom* NEAR recover* – (UN or “United Nations”) WITHIN 4 peacekeep* – Patent* WITHIN 3 infring*; e.g. • Infringement of Canadian patents • Patent infringement • Infringing Microsoft’s software patent Four plus three times seven = ?? (4 + 3) X 7 = 49 or did I mean 4 + (3 X 7) = 25 ? Therefore, when you use more than one kind of logical operator, you need to use parentheses to indicate intent Order of Operations Applied to Search Logic Search the following using parentheses:  (pollut* OR environment*) AND (law OR laws OR legislation OR regulation*) or else the logic is assumed to be: pollut* OR (environment* AND law) OR laws OR legislation OR regulation* because search systems generally will perform the AND operation first And this is NOT AT ALL what you want Mixing and Matching  Should only be done if required by a database or search engine (e.g. Google, the Western Libraries’ catalogue, etc.) – “peanut butter” AND (jam OR jelly OR preserves) AND (bread OR rolls OR toast)  There is greater flexibility to re-combine concepts if they can be entered separately Back to Example 1  Search for effects of acid rain on fish in the Great Lakes Concept B Fish Fishes Fishing Fishery Concept C Great Lakes Lake Huron Lake Ontario Lake Michigan Lake Erie Lake Superior Concept A Acid Rain Acidic Rain Acid Precipitation Acidif* (and maybe) Impact or Effect or Effects Putting it All Together 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. (”acid rain” OR “acidic rain” OR “acid precipitation” OR acidif*) fish* (“Great Lakes” OR “Lake Huron” OR “Lake Ontario” OR “Lake Michigan” OR “Lake Erie” OR “Lake Superior”) #1 AND #2 [acid rain and fish] #3 AND #4 [acid rain and fish and Great Lakes] and ONLY if necessary – impact OR effect OR effects #5 AND #6 [acid rain and fish and Great Lakes and effects] Example 2  Perform a search to find software to detect or prevent plagiarism or other kinds of academic cheating in colleges and universities Search Concepts Concept A Honesty Integrity “Honour code?” Concept B College? Universit* Academia Concept C Detect* Prevent* Promot* “Honor code?” Cheat* Dishonest* Plagiari* Concept D Software Academic Note the use of antonyms to improve the search. Example 2 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. honesty OR integrity OR “honor code?” OR “honour code?” cheat* OR dishonest* or plagiari* #1 OR #2 academi* OR college? OR universit* #3 AND #4 detect* OR prevent* OR promot* software #6 NEAR #7 #5 AND #8 What’s Next Look at search results  Determine if the results are too broad or too general (too many or too few, perhaps)  Limit to the most recent citations if the search yielded too many results but the strategy was appropriate  Next Steps Mark the items you think will be useful  Go to “marked records” list  E-mail citations or better yet, export them to RefWorks  Use Get it @ Western to check Western’s holdings in print and/or electronically  Search Example 1 - Searching for the First Concept Searching for Second Concept Use Search History Option Search History Search History Acid Rain and Great Lakes Or, if no full-text is available Special Issue on Can-Am Environmental Issues * Things To Remember Databases use many different kinds of search software  Each one has some sort of assistance available  – Search Help – Search Examples – Search Tips – Help Look at these tips until you are familiar with the software. This session is about the general “rules” for creating good searches so always check the Help to make sure of the details! Summary       Searching is a skill that can be learned Choosing the appropriate database(s) is as important as creating a good search strategy Brainstorm and/or use a thesaurus to find the best terms Proper use of truncation/wildcards, positional as well as Boolean operators, and parentheses where necessary, will create the best searches Help is generally available on search software screens – check it for database-specific information such as truncation symbols, field names, sortability of results, etc. Help is also available from staff at the Service Desks in each library or by phone Need More Information? Walter Zimmerman Electronic Services Librarian Research & Instructional Services The D. B. Weldon Library The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario N6A 3K7 519 661-2111 ext. 84763 Zimmerma AT uwo DOT ca