Library Workshop – Searching 101

·  Learning Outcomes for this workshop:

·  NCU Learners will be able to prepare for the search process

·  NCU Learners will be able to select appropriate search limits

·  NCU Learners will be able to construct a Boolean search phrase

·  NCU Learners will be able to construct a search phrase using truncation

·  NCU Learners will be able to conduct a keyword search

·  NCU Learners will be able to conduct a subject search

·  NCU Learners will be able to appropriately use a database thesaurus if available

·  Preparation for the Search Process

1. Consider the main elements of your topic and break them down into key words.

Ø  Example: With the globalization of business, organizations are experiencing greater cultural diversity. You will discuss how diversity in the workplace affects job satisfaction.

Ø  Main Elements: globalization of business; greater cultural diversity; job satisfaction

Ø  Key Words: globalization; business; cultural diversity; job satisfaction

2. Consider the relationship between your key words and form a research question.

Ø  Example: How is job satisfaction positively affected by the globalization of cultural diversity in the workplace?

1.  The research question clarifies the relationship between keywords and how to combine the key words in the search process.

3. Now that you have a research question to work with you can begin your search. Are you finding articles that confirm this relationship (job satisfaction is positively affected by the globalization of cultural diversity) or are you finding articles that contradict this relationship?

4. Once you’ve reviewed your search results and found a relationship you will develop your hypothesis or thesis statement in the present tense to succinctly state your findings.

·  Example: The globalization of cultural diversity positively affects work place job satisfaction.

·  The Search Process

Go to the Research Process – Boolean Logic and Other Search Techniques page to illustrate these search concepts and more: http://library.ncu.edu/dw_template.aspx?parent_id=211

·  Boolean operators

·  What are Boolean operators?

Ø  Boolean operators are these three words: AND, OR, NOT.

·  How do they make searching easier?

Ø  Boolean operators allow you to specify how you want your search terms combined.

Ø  Example: Job satisfaction AND cultural diversity will find articles that have both of those search terms in them. Cultural diversity OR globalization will find articles that have either one of those terms in them. Job satisfaction NOT salary will find articles that only contain the words job satisfaction and not the word salary.

·  Refer to Boolean Logic page for illustrations.

Ø  http://library.ncu.edu/dw_template.aspx?parent_id=211

·  Boolean operators often appear in the drop down boxes that are in between the search term boxes.

Ø  RESEARCH TIP: The NOT operator is great to use when you are finding articles that use a term in a completely different way than what you are looking for. Ex: academics AND cheating would be a good search for articles about cheating in classes in the academic world, but you could also find lots of articles about marital cheating and infidelity in the academic world. So a better search string might be academics AND cheating NOT infidelity.

·  Search limits

·  What are search limits?

Ø  These features refer to a simple way for you to limit your search results based on set criteria. Common search limits include scholarly/peer reviewed articles, full text, and publication date.

·  When is it appropriate to use search limits?

Ø  Search limits are great to use if your assignment specifies a limit (ex: Find scholarly articles; Find articles published in the last five years) or when you are familiar with what the limits will do and you know what kind of research you are looking for (ex: you have already looked through popular and reference sources on your topic and are now ready to focus on scholarly materials).

·  Example search in the EBSCOhost databases:

Ø  Can you find the full text limit?

Ø  Scholarly limit?

Ø  Publication date limit?

Ø  Any other specialized limits?

Ø  RESEARCH TIP: Unless you know that you can only use scholarly journals, etc. try your search first without any limits. This will give you a bigger set of search results, and then you can start applying limits to lower your number of search results until it is appropriate for your topic.

·  Keyword Search

·  When should keyword searching be used?

Ø  Keyword searching is generally what you use when you are first beginning a search. Brainstorm keywords to use in your search by looking at your activity instructions or your research question. Try to break down your topic or research question into simple keywords (example at the beginning of this outline).

Ø  RESEARCH TIP: Keep a keyword list when you are researching a topic. This will help you remember the words you have already tried searching, the combinations you have used, and any new words you noticed in search results that you want to try in your searches later.

·  Phrase Searching

·  Phrase searching uses quotation marks to find words in the exact order you type them, and with no other words in between them. This is useful if you are searching an established phrase (like “social psychology”) or if you are searching a book or article title.

Ø  RESEARCH TIP: If you get a really large number of search results consider if you have use a phrase search to lower that number. Ex: Instead of job satisfaction AND cultural diversity you could try “job satisfaction” AND “cultural diversity”. Remember though – it’s best to try your broadest search first, and then narrow, so start with keywords and narrow to phrase searching if you need to.

·  Subject Search and Database Thesaurus

·  When should subject searching be used?

Ø  Subject searching should be used as a second step. Try a keyword search first, then see what subjects are recommended to you, or look at the subject headings for useful search results. Then try adding those to the keyword search, or searching the subjects alone.

Ø  RESEARCH TIP: A lot of databases will show you “Suggested Topics” or “Suggested Subjects” once you have run your search. Look for these suggestions to find subject words that are related to your keyword search.

·  What is a database thesaurus?

Ø  A database thesaurus allows you to look up subject terms without doing a keyword search first. Type in the term that best describes your topic and see what the thesaurus has that might better describe that topic and search with that word instead. Using the thesaurus can help you figure out which synonym to use, which spelling to use, or which combination of terms to use.

·  When should you use a database thesaurus?

Ø  Using a database thesaurus is great as a starting point, if you don’t want to use the keyword to subject search technique, or if you are struggling with finding keywords and need to learn about the terms that the database uses.

Ø  RESEARCH TIP: Not all databases have searchable thesauri, but many do. Look for a link that says “thesaurus,” “topics,” “subjects,” “descriptors” or “related terms.” Some databases, like ProQuest, will also display subject terms from the thesaurus on your search results page. Using the thesaurus or suggested subject terms will help you broaden or narrow your topic and pick the appropriate terminology to find useful search results.

·  Truncation

·  What is truncation?

Ø  Truncation lets you search for a word that could have multiple endings. The symbol for truncation is usually an * at the point where the spelling of the word could change. Ex: PTSD AND music* would find articles with the terms PTSD and music/musical/musician/musicians/musicality in them.

·  When should truncation be used?

Ø  Truncation is very useful when you know one of your search terms has several endings, but all of the variations represent basically the same idea. Using truncation will help you complete your search faster because you will not have to manually type in and search every variation of the word.

·  What kind of results does a truncated search return?

Ø  A truncated word search will return a larger set of search results than a regular word search. This is because you are searching several forms of a word at once instead of that single word.

Ø  RESEARCH TIP: Truncation is a great search trick to use. This allows you to find multiple forms of the same word without having to think of the forms yourself.

·  Extras!

·  Refer to the Boolean Logic and Other Search Techniques page (NCU Library home page – Research Process)

·  Short video tutorials on the Guides and Quizzes page

Ø  Using a Thesaurus

Ø  EBSCOhost Intro

Ø  ProQuest Intro

Ø  Search Like an Expert

·  Organize your citations – NCU Library offers RefWorks, a citation management database. This is a great way to organize your citations and keep track of all the information pieces that you will need to make a complete APA citation. To access RefWorks go the Find Citation Help page of the library.

Self Quiz

  1. A search of telev* would NOT return which words in your search results?
  2. Television
  3. Televised
  4. Telephone
  5. Televisual
  6. When you are just starting your search in a database it is always a good idea to:
  7. First check to see if the database has a thesaurus you can use
  8. Look over all the search limits you have available
  9. Brainstorm keywords you could use in your search
  10. All of the above
  11. The Boolean operators are:
  12. AND, OR, INCLUDES
  13. NEAR, OR, NOT
  14. AND, LIKE, NOT
  15. AND, OR, NOT
  16. To find the exact phrase social psychology you could search:
  17. “social psychology”
  18. Social psychology*
  19. ~social ~psychology
  20. Social psychology?
  21. Use the database thesaurus to find:
  22. Keywords
  23. Subject terms
  24. Search symbols
  25. Journal titles
  26. Peer reviewed/Scholarly Journals could be an example of:
  27. A truncated search
  28. A search limit
  29. A journal title
  30. A subject search
  31. Leadership AND motivation would return search results with:
  32. The word leadership or the word motivation included
  33. The words leadership and motivation right next to each other
  34. The words leadership and motivation included
  35. The phrase leadership motivation as a subject heading
  36. To move from a keyword search to a subject search you could:
  37. Use the database thesaurus
  38. Look at the subject terms of articles you found with a keyword search
  39. Look at the suggested subject terms on your search results page
  40. All of the above

Answers:

1.  C. Telephone. The asterisk (*) will let you search for any variation of the word that comes after it. Since you searched telev* all of your search results will includes words that start with those five letters.

2.  D. All of the above. Preparing and organizing yourself before you begin searching is one of the most important, and helpful, steps that you can do. Knowing the special functions in each database can help you make the most of your search, and having an idea of your search terms beforehand will help you stay on track.

3.  D. AND, OR, NOT. These three terms are Boolean operators. They will help you pair together keywords in a way that the database can make sense of, and will help you target resources that will be useful in your research.

4.  A. “Social psychology”. Using quotation marks tells the database that you want the words in the quotations to appear in that particular order with no other words between them. This can be useful if you are searching a phrase that is commonly used, or looking for a particular resource title, but should not be used to join together keywords.

5.  B. Subject terms. A database thesaurus, when available, is an excellent resource to use. This will help you find the appropriate subject terms that you can use in your searching, and will also show you the relationship between subject terms (i.e. broader, related, and narrower terms).

6.  B. A search limit. Scholarly/ Peer Reviewed Journals is one of the most common search limits that you will see in a database. Do note though that some databases in the NCU Library, like ScienceDirect and Web of Science, only contain scholarly/peer reviewed journals so you will not see this search limit there. If you are unsure about what the database contains you can always check the Help menu and read about the database.

7.  C. The words leadership and motivation included. Using the Boolean operator AND allows you to search for resources that contain all the words you pair with AND. You will not get any results that have only one of your search terms, all search results must contain all the words.

8.  D. All of the above. There are a couple different ways you could move from a keyword search to a subject search. You will want to experiment with them all to see which works best for you, and which gives you the best results.