Exercise Y

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Smart Searching

UW Library

Winter 2007

Exercise Y

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Breaking down your Topic

• Imagine the title of the ideal book or magazine article– The virtual economies of video games

• Identify key concepts– Economies / Video Games

• Think of synonyms or alternate search words

Exercise Y

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Identifying Search Terms

Economies

Currency

Capital

Commodities

Video games

Digital games

Virtual worlds

Synthetic worlds

Economies Video Games

Exercise Y

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Boolean Operators

Boolean operators link concepts within a search.

• AND (to include all terms / concepts)

• OR (to include at least one term / concept)

• NOT (to exclude terms / concepts)

Exercise Y

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The Boolean Machine

http://kathyschrock.net/rbs3k/boolean/

Exercise Y

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Truncation or Wildcards

Expands a term to include all forms of the root word:

econom* finds economics, economy, economies, economical

Exercise Y

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Phrase Searching

Phrase searching forces the database to look for two or more words together

Instead of:

video games

Try:

“video games” or (video games)

Exercise Y

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Basic Searching Techniques

• Field Searching– title, author, subject, descriptor,

anywhere

• Setting Limits– language, date

Exercise Y

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Basic Searching Techniques – Putting it all together

(video game* OR digital game* OR synthetic world* OR virtual world*)

AND

econom* OR currenc* OR capital OR commodit*

Exercise Y

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Basic Searching Techniques

• To find FEWER results,– Search in specific fields (title, abstract,

subjects etc.)– Add or change search limits (date,

language, etc.)– Add more search terms (using AND)– Use phrase searching instead of AND

Exercise Y

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Basic Searching Techniques

• To find MORE results,– Use truncation or wildcard characters

(* or ?)– Include more synonyms (use OR)– Search “anywhere” rather than in

specific fields– Remove search limits (e.g. date,

language, etc.)– Use AND instead of phrase searching

Exercise Y

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Basic Searching Techniques

• To find more RELEVANT results,– Use NOT to exclude unwanted terms– Search specific fields (title, abstract,

subject/descriptor, etc.)– Use AND instead of OR

Exercise Y

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Some Examples…

• TRELLIS

• Research Databases– CSA– Web of Science

• Google/Google Scholar

Exercise Y

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TRELLIS

• What is TRELLIS?– 3 catalogues in 1…

• Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier, and Guelph (TUG)

• What will I find?– Books– Journals– Government documents– Conference proceedings

Exercise Y

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TRELLIS

• For searching topics, use the Advanced Search

Exercise Y

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TRELLIS

Exercise Y

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TRELLISSearch Strategy #1

Exercise Y

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TRELLIS

Exercise Y

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TRELLIS

Click on “LOCATION” or check the sign beside the

elevators

Exercise Y

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TRELLIS

Exercise Y

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TRELLIS

Exercise Y

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TRELLIS

Exercise Y

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your Library®

TRELLISSearch Strategy #2a

Exercise Y

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TRELLIS

Exercise Y

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your Library®

TRELLISSearch Strategy #2b

Exercise Y

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TRELLIS

Exercise Y

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your Library®

TRELLIS

Exercise Y

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your Library®

Getting books NOT at UW

Exercise Y

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Exercise Y

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your Library®

Exercise Y

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your Library®

Exercise Y

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your Library®

Going Beyond TUG

Exercise Y

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Exercise Y

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Exercise Y

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Your Turn!

• Try searching for books on a topic of your choice.

• What are the subjects given in the record?

• Choose a subject which you think would be appropriate.

Exercise Y

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your Library®

Research Databases

• Use to find journal articles on topics

• Choose an appropriate database– Topic/subject– Date

• You can work from home!– Use the Connect from Home link

Exercise Y

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Research Databases

Exercise Y

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your Library®

Research Databases

Exercise Y

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CSA Databases

• Over 20 databases covering a large variety of subject areas

• Can search multiple databases or a single database

Exercise Y

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your Library®

CSA Databases

Exercise Y

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your Library®

CSA Databases

Exercise Y

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your Library®

CSA Databases

Descriptors = Subjects

Complete citation

Exercise Y

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your Library®

CSA Databases

Exercise Y

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your Library®

CSA Databases

No full text available?

Exercise Y

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your Library®

CSA Databases

Available in electronic

format

Not available in electronic format

Exercise Y

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Your Turn!

• Search for articles on a topic of your choice.

• Select one article.– Write down the complete citation.– What are the subjects (descriptors)?– Is it available in full text electronically?

(don’t forget to check TRELLIS even if Get It @ Waterloo says it isn’t!)

Exercise Y

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Web of Science

• Multidisciplinary (Not just science!)

• Science Citation Index (1900 - )• Social Sciences Citation Index (1956 - )• Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975 - )

• Updated weekly• Cited Reference searching• No thesaurus• Nifty analysis features

Exercise Y

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What is Cited Reference Searching?Cited Reference Searching

1999 1965(Earlier Work)

line of research

backwards 1999 2006

(Recent Work)

line of research

forwards

End Note Chasing

• Look up the references listed at the end of an article.

• Find articles that cite a previously published article.

Exercise Y

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Cited Ref Searching: Search Example

Lastowka, F. G. & Hunter, D. (2003). The laws of the virtual worlds. California Law Review.

Exercise Y

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Web of Science

Exercise Y

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your Library®

Exercise Y

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Exercise Y

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Cited Ref Searching

Exercise Y

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your Library®

Exercise Y

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your Library® ?

Exercise Y

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Exercise Y

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Or to view your original article…

Exercise Y

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Exercise Y

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Your Turn!

• Navigate to Web of Science, and click the Cited Ref Search button

• How many times has the following article been cited?

Griffiths, MD. Breaking the stereotype: the case for online gaming. Cyberpsychology & Behavior 6 (1): 81-91 FEB 2003.

Exercise Y

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Google Scholar

• Retrieves material from scholarly journals…BUT – Questions as to what is covered and not covered – Relevancy and ranking issues– Currency

• Generally, does not retrieve articles from research databases and other fee-based services such as those to which UW subscribes

• Use, but with caution and for specific types of materials…– E.g., conference papers, technical reports, government

documents, white papers, etc.

Google, itself, is not the problem – it's what Google finds that can be a problem

Exercise Y

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Google Scholar

Exercise Y

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Google Scholar

("video game*" OR "digital game*" OR "synthetic world*" OR "virtual world*") AND (econom* OR currenc* OR capital

OR commodity)

Capitalization IS important!

Basic Search Screen

Exercise Y

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Google Scholar

Exercise Y

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Google Advanced Search

Exercise Y

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Exercise Y

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Exercise Y

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Your Turn!

• Using Google and Google Scholar, look for the article that you found in the CSA search.

• Did you find it?

Exercise Y

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your Library®

Any Questions?

Thank You!