Searching electronic resources effectively

BLDS, November 2012

What we will cover

Generic search skills – Useful in any database; – We will cover the following examples for article searching:

• SwetsWise (through BLDS E-Library: http://blds.ids.ac.uk/, then E-Library, then E-journals, then Searching for E-journal articles), and

• MetaLib (University of Sussex E-Library)

Session Objectives– By the end of this session, you will be able to:

• Identify a number of useful sources• Construct a search strategy• Use a range of techniques to refine results

Some Common Search IssuesYou may find problems with:– Plural and singular forms of a word– Spelling variations of a word– Different forms of the same word – Different words meaning the same thing (synonyms)

The phrase you searched for doesn’t appear

You may get too many results

You may get too few results

Search strategy...

...to address these issues and improve / refine search results, using:– Field Searching or Limits– Grouping Terms (Boolean Operators)– Word Stems (Truncation)– Phrase Searching

Using SwetsWise to demonstrate

Field Searching or ‘Limits’

Many databases allow you to restrict your searches by “field” or “limits” http://bldscat.ids.ac.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl

– e.g. Title, Subject key words/phrases, Author.

Could solve problems of getting too many results

Boolean Operators

Stand up, if you:

– Are wearing anything blue Stay standing , if you– Are wearing anything blue AND are wearing earringsStand if you– Are wearing anything blue OR are wearing earrings– Are wearing anything blue but are NOT wearing earrings

Boolean searching

Allows you to specify how the search terms are combinedUses commands (operators / connectors) such as

AND, OR, NOTDifferent search tools may use different symbols (e.g. ‘+’ for ‘AND’, ‘-’ for ‘NOT’)Search tools may use AND as a default setting (e.g. Google)

education literacy

Query: I would like information about education or literacy

education literacy

Query: I'm interested in the relationship between education and

literacy

education secondary

Query: I want to see information about education, but I want to avoid seeing anything about

secondary

Search strategies and techniques:Combining terms

The two boxes in Advanced Search on the BLDS catalogue and SwetsWise can be linked by any of these operators – but AND is the defaultSeveral databases (such as SwetsWise, but not BLDS catalogue) also allow you to use operators within boxes, e.g.– Box 1: water OR sanitation

AND– Box 2: agriculture

Or– Box 1: (women OR gender) AND (water OR sanitation) AND– Box 2: agriculture

Searching by Word Stem

Is there a short way of searching for variants of a word which start the same way ?– Nutrition, nutritional – Technology, technologies, technological

You could use the OR function, but there’s a much easier solution…

Searching by Word Stem

Truncation– Usually *, e.g. nutrition*, technolog*– Sometimes other symbols (e.g. $, ?)

Wildcard– Usually ?, wom?n

Many databases, including SwetsWise, allow thisCould solve problems to do with plurals/singulars, spelling variations, and variations of a root word

Phrase Searching

Word searching and phrase searching. If you type in more than one term:– Some systems interpret this as a phrase– Some systems give a phrase search option– Others interpret this as an “AND” a search for items containing both terms,

not necessarily as a phrase (e.g. Google, SwetsWise, Metalib), although they will often Rank by relevance

With SwetsWise, if you want to search for a phrase, enclose the words in quotation marks, e.g. “South Africa” or “primary education”. Could solve problems of the phrase you searched for not appearing

Phrase searching

Displaying and capturing

Displaying– Usually a choice of levels of fullness– Sometimes full text, sometimes just bibliographic details

Marking. Used to select records for:– Printing– Saving– Emailing

Individual / Pair Activity: 10 mins

• Using any topic you wish– Conduct searches using range of search techniques (i.e. search

strategy)– Use SwetsWise to find relevant material / resources– Make observations & be prepared to feedback your thoughts to the

group, at the end of the session

• Relevant results?• Number of results?

Some Possible Search Topics

Globalisation and genderFood security and biodiversityMigration (but excluding everything on forced migration)Do trade agreements affect levels of debt?Does participation encourage social change?Decentralisation and local government in Ghana

Search strategies and techniques:Summary of search tips

• Boolean connectors (AND, OR, NOT) to connect terms within your search.

• Quotation marks to specify a phrase or an exact match,- e.g. "action research", “human rights”.

• Asterix (*) for truncation – e.g. school* to find schools or schooling.

• Question mark (?) as a ‘wildcard’ – e.g. democrati?ation to find democratisation or democratization (note­­–­this one is not as common as other rules above)

University of Sussex Library Resources (1)

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/Choose Electronic Library– Library Search (referred to as Quicksearch on Electronic Library

screen): search several online resources at once

– Once at Library Search, choose a subject area– Enter your search– You can refine your results using the Facets on the left of the screen– Email records, etc

University of Sussex Library Resources (2)

Simple SearchAdvanced Search– Extra options (field selection, data limitation, etc)

My Favourites– Select/Mark records to go to My Favourites– They can then be emailed, etc

University of Sussex Library Resources (3)

From Electronic Library page:Online JournalsOnline Resources– Both for searching individual databases and making your own

selection)– Not all will provide the full-text– Some scholarly resources are available freely online eg ERIC (education), Pubmed (health & medicine)– Check Library resources for research... leaflet as 1st step

University of Sussex Library Resources (4)

Subject Guides and Support (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/guides) InfoSuss (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/infosuss/index.shtml) InfoPlus (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/infoplus/)

Google Scholar (1)http://scholar.google.co.uk/Both peer-reviewed and un-reviewed articles, pre-prints, institutional repositories, references to books, citationsBibliography manager options (Settings Screen)Use Library Links (from Settings Screen) to highlight links via BLDS and SussexA comparison between two academic databases and Google Scholar showed them about equal for relevant retrievalNote “Cited by” and “Related articles”

Google Scholar (2)

BUT No source listNo information on how results are ranked It is claimed there are huge gapsCitation search is not using such a large pool of articles as Web of ScienceSome say author search unreliable, search on year of publication unreliable

Individual / Pair Activity: 10 mins

• Using any topic you wish– Conduct searches using range of search techniques (i.e. search

strategy)– Use LibrarySearch at the University of Sussex Library (link to

QuickSearch from http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/electronic) or Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.co.uk/) to find relevant material / resources

– Make observations & be prepared to feedback your thoughts to the group, at the end of the session

• Relevant results?• Number of results?

Summary of search tips

Boolean connectors (AND, OR, NOT) to connect terms within your search.

Quotation marks to specify a phrase or an exact match,- e.g. "action research", “human rights”.

Asterix (*) for truncation – e.g. school* to find schools or schooling.

Question mark (?) as a ‘wildcard’ – e.g. democrati?ation to find democratisation or democratization (note­­–­this one is not as common as other rules above)

Brackets for grouping (determining the order in which terms will be combined).

How to reference e-journals and websitesYou should provide enough detail others to locate the document – such as, author name, title of article, journal title, year, volume number, pages.Which style of referencing should I use? There are two groups of referencing styles ‘Author-date’ referencing style and ‘Numeric’ styles. Here we use the first. Whatever style you use, just remember to keep it consistent. The University of Sussex recommends using the Harvard style. Useful resources:

Location: RESEARCH METHODS [FIRST FLOOR] Shelved at: PEARS, Richard. Cite them right.infosuss http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/infosuss/