Finding information

Finding information

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  Finding Information Tips forgetting the most out of your search Laura Sloane 2015
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  1. Understanding the question Thefirst step in beginning to search for information is to analyse your topic or question to find out what it is really asking you to do. It is easy to get distracted and start frantically searching using random words, but the best results come from truly understanding your question.
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  What is yourquestion? First, look at your question in full and identify the key words or concepts. • Key words—the main concepts • Qualifying words—provides limits for your search such as a geographic area or time period • Instruction words—tells you what to do—for example discuss or analyse
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  Let’s give ita go… “Outline the history of refugee and asylum seeker policy in Australia and discuss how and why successive governments have changed their policy approach”. Key words— refugee, asylum seeker, policy, governments Qualifying words—history, Australia Instruction words—outline, discuss
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  Once you haveidentified your key and qualifying words, break them down into 3 or 4 concepts and think of synonyms or related words. You can use a thesaurus if you like: Refugee/Asylum seeker Policy Governments Irregular maritime arrivals Humanitarian entrants “Boat people” Forced migration Immigration Government policy Public policy Social policy OR specific policies • Mandatory detention • Offshore processing • “Pacific Solution” Federal government Australian government OR specific governments • Rudd • Gillard • Howard
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  2. Constructing your search Nowyou know what the question is asking you to do, and have an idea of the words and phrases that might be useful, you are ready to start searching: • Navigate to a database that will be suitable for your search such as Academic Search Complete or APA-FT • Start with a simple search, by combining your key words in a search string using Boolean operators and truncation if required • Remember that different databases have varying interfaces and rules. Most databases will have a “help” link with tutorials and videos if you are confused—here is one for EBSCO
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  Hang on! Whatare Boolean operators? Boolean operators allow you to combine search terms, and expand or refine your search as required. • AND-narrows your search— only items containing A and B will be returned • OR broadens your search—records containing both A and B will be returned • NOT- excludes words from your search—records containing A but not B will be displayed Truncation replaces the word ending with a symbol—commonly an asterisk—to return results with multiple spellings or suffices. For example AUSTRAL* will return results containing AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALASIA, AUSTRALIAN etc
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  Have a lookat the following examples of a simple search… Academic Search Complete
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  Australian Public Affairs-Full Text
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  3. Refining yoursearch strategy Once you have performed your initial search, check the results to see if they are relevant. A successful search will return neither too many nor too few results. If you are getting to many results you may need to narrow your search—try more specific terms and phrases—for example, try searching for a specific government policy such as “mandatory detention”. You can also narrow your search by: • Date published • Type of resource • Fields—such as subject headings, abstract, author or title If you are getting too few results broaden your search. Check for spelling errors, try different phrases or combinations of terms linked with Boolean operators As you find resources that are useful, you can incorporate new key words from these articles to further refine your search..
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  Using subject headings.. Onceyou’ve found an article that is useful, you can find more like it by using subject headings/subject terms. These group together articles on similar issues, and can be combined with other subject headings or search terms to further narrow your search. Have a look at the below…
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  • Select anarticle that’s relevant • Click on the title to bring up it’s record
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  • Click onsubject terms • Select a term that is relevant • Click to add it to your search • Combine the subject term with other relevant key words
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  4. Finding otherinformation- using Google Google or other search engines are fantastic tools to find out more about your topic. They particularly useful to: • Give you an overview of the topic • Link you to news and current events relating to your topic • Help you find alternative resources such as Government or peak body publications Remember! Information you find online needs to be evaluated, which is addressed in our next topic Evaluating Information
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  Don’t be discouraged! Searchingeffectively is a skill that needs to be practiced. Don’t be afraid to try different search terms, key words and combinations of words to get the most relevant results. Remember you can always ask a librarian for help
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  This presentation wasdeveloped using information from… Cassell, K. A., & Hiremath, U. (2013). Finding the answer: basic search techniques Reference and information services: An introduction (3rd ed., pp. 33- 52). London: Facet Publishing. Dalrymple, P. W., & Smith, L. C. (2011). Organization of information and search strategies. In R. E. Bopp & L. C. Smith (Eds.), Reference and information services: an introduction (4th ed., pp. 95-116). Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited.