Wiki Page, GOTT Clover II: Access and Use (4 of 5): Strategic Search and Exploration

Wiki Page
2016-08-14T21:35:44-06:00

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Later in this module, you'll put theory into practice by using a library database to search for sources. Before we get started, let's talk strategy.

You wouldn't want to rush into the big game without a plan, or hike into the woods without a compass and map, right?

It's easy to get lost in the amount of information that can be found in databases. You may pick out the perfect keywords only to find little to no results related to your topic. Does that mean the information you need isn't out there? Not necessarily!

Think back to the Identify module, your research question, the scope of your investigation, and the many keywords you generated for your topic.

In order to find and use information, you may need to take a step back and think about what you've already identified.

Ask yourself some of the following questions:

Is this the right search engine or database? Can I find the information I need here?

What keywords am I using? Is there another way to talk about what I'm trying to find? Do the people talking about this topic use different terms or phrases than I'm using?

Could I use controlled language or subject terms? What types of labels has the database assigned to similar sources?

What other requirements am I looking for and how can I narrow my results? Does it need to be scholarly or peer-reviewed? Does this information need to be a recent as possible?

You can also modify your results using various search strategies. The default of search engines and most databases is to separate keywords and search for them separately.

In a library database, you can control your results by connecting keywords with AND, OR, NOT, and by using other search strategies like putting "quotation marks" around phrases to keep them together in the search.

Use AND to narrow your results. Your results must include each term.

Use OR to broaden your results. Your results could include any one of the terms.

Use NOT to exclude terms from your results.

Quotation marks narrow your results by keeping words in a phrase together.

We can often do research without really thinking about it. But how do we know if our research strategy is the best or most efficient? What if we can't remember what's worked well or what hasn't in the past?

A research log is a document that helps you keep track of and think about how you search for sources. A research log can be as informal as jotting down keywords and notes informally, or it can be more structured like writing annotations or summaries of sources and how they might fit into your project.

The assignment in this module will ask you to keep a research log of your search strategies and results.