Effective Searching

Strategies and Techniques

Objectives

Understanding the importance of effective searching

Development of guidelines for planning and implementing searches

Gain experience of structuring effective searches in a range of different environments

Strategy

Define your information need Decide which sources to use Find out how they function Run your search Review and refine you search

Information Required

Phase 1 What sort of information are you looking for? Who is going to use the information?

Phase 2 Keywords Selection

Keywords from the article Related Key Concepts Synonyms Alternative spellings Plurals or Capitalisation

Key Words Selection

Search for Health Implications of Water Pollution

Keywords: ‘water’ ‘pollution’ ‘health’Concepts: ‘Environmental Degradation’ or ‘agricultural management’ or ‘health’Synonyms: rivers, lakes, sea,’domestic water, ‘oil spills’, chemical, biological, etcAlt. Spells: nonePlurals: river(s), lake(s), disease(s)Capitals: Name of a specific lake, disease, region

Search Comparisons

Acid Halogen Acid

Hydrochloric Acid

Google 26,000,000 240,000 531,000

Cross Reference - - 80,500

Blackwell

All Journals 98,190 552 1,068

Chemistry 18,195 69 79

All Journals with “”

- 1 1,018

Chemistry with “”

- 0 78 Search Slides

Sources

What sources are appropriate for your information need?

Chemistry Multidisciplinary

Familiarization with databases

Search Features in Resources

Features Available

Symbol/Details

Boolean AND Yes AND

Boolean OR Yes OR

Boolean NOT Yes NOT

Phrase Searching Yes “ ”

Truncation/Wildcard

$, ?, *,!

Case Sensitive No -Fields - Full Text, Article, Keyword,

Abstract

Stop Words Blackwell Synergy

Boolean Operators

Other Features Disciplines and Availability Search Criteria

Disciplines Subjects

Search Types Basic Advance Saved Quick

QUESTIONS

THANKS