Advanced Search Strategies

Information Skills tutorial

Learning Resource CentreLearning Resource Centre

Information Services

What this tutorial covers

• searching electronically–defining your search–search strings–operators–expanding/narrowing searches–electronic resources

Your aim….

• to get a small number of

• relevant

• specific

• quality

results….

Define your search

• do a pre-search analysis • list:

– topic– key words– synonyms (similar words)– spellings (e.g. Americanisms)– broader terms

Search strings

• a phrase put together for searching is called a search string

• example:"sustainable development" and ecology and

ecosystems not forests

Operators to aid searching

• quotation marks

• limiting

• wildcards

• brackets

• Boolean operators

Quotation marks

• for phrases

• finds words next to each other– “wild flowers”– “landscape design”– “turbine efficiency”– “mad cow disease”

Limiting

• by year (e.g. only articles after 2000)

• by language (e.g. English only)

• by document type (eg review, report)

• by descriptor where available– ti = title– au = author– ab = abstract etc

Wildcards or truncation

• usually * but sometimes ? or ! or other symbol• abbreviation• specifies part of a word• educ*• advert*• organi*ation• wom*n• cat* or felin* …… but what’s wrong here?

Answer:

• cat* will find

cat, cats cattle, catch, cathedral, category, catastrophe,

catastrophic, cataclysmic, catalogue, catfish…. and all other words starting with cat….

…not what is needed in this case!

Brackets (parentheses)

• order of searching by the search engine: – (brackets)– not– and– or

• water and pollution not river

• river and (otter or stoat)

Boolean operators

• named after George Boole, English mathematician 1815-64

• Boolean operators are basically just….

• AND / OR / NOT …….!

Boolean operators: OR

• OR - broadens, gives most results

• if you don’t mind either term e.g. solar or sun, or both together

solar sun

solar and sun

Boolean operators: AND

• AND – if you must have both terms - narrows, reduces the number

• e.g. results for only “solar and energy” together

energy

solar + energy

solar

Boolean operators: NOT

• NOT – removes terms

e.g. solar energy results, but without any references to heating

heating

solar energy solar energy + heating

If you don’t get enough results

expand the topic – use more, or different, termse.g: topic: why do foster parents stop fostering? List of key words for searching:(remember the pre-search analysis?)

child care foster care disruptionadoption fostering breakdowncaring failure disturbancesplacement foster parents ceasechild foster families failselection child fostering problemapproval care stopassessments issues interviewstraining visits retention

Tip: find more keywords from previous search results

If you get too many results

• if you get too many hits, you need to

• refine your search

• narrow it down by setting Limits (by year, language etc)

• try different key words from the pre-search analysis list

More examples...

• (cats and dogs)

• (cats or felines)

• chick* or hen* or poultry or fowl*

• “contact lens”

• (schools and colleges) not (nurseries or kindergartens)

• Liverpool and “football club” not Everton

General tips...

• always check the Help facility• be prepared to do many searches using

different keywords• use keywords from your previous

search results• the more operators and limits you use,

the more relevant your results will be

Electronic resources

• databases and indexes to journal articles via the Internet

• all different - in layout, terms of use, passwords, and searching techniques

• look in the Help facility

Useful facilities in databases

advanced search browse journals

keyword search Google images

marked results email results

subject search narrow by subdivision

help facility stop words, wildcards

refereed publications alerting services

personal profile shopping basket

Evaluating your results

What do you think of your search results?????

Are they… What about……relevant? …authority?…accurate? …coverage?…current? …content?…good quality? …sources?

Useful books in the library

• searching the Internet

• online searching

• search engine guides

• study skills section

Finally…..

• Please ask the library staff if you need help

• Happy searching!

Thank you !

Learning Resource CentreLearning Resource Centre

Information Services