Research, Resources and Search Strategies Adult Education Foundations Institute April 2016 Suzanne van den Hoogen, MLIS

Getting Started… Student ID = Library CardCAUL Inter-University Borrowing Card Graduate Borrowing Period: Term Loans

FINDING INFORMATION

library.stfx.ca Virtual Tour: Exploring the Library Website

Subject Research Guides

How to find Books in Novanet How to find Articles in Novanet How to request via Document Delivery How to find Articles from a Database Tutorials

How to find Articles from the Library Catalogue

Search Strategies Read about your topic What do you know about your topic? Develop questions you would like to answer during your research Transform your topic into a question Keywords can have a profound impact on the results of your research Use key words and key concepts Use a thesaurus Identify synonyms and related terms Boolean Operators Phrase Searching Domain File Type Tips & Tricks

Select your key words carefully 17 th century women’s shoes, is much narrower than “Antiques” Avoid using words like “A” “An” or “The” Examples: – When were the Acadians expelled from Nova Scotia? – When do Asiatic lilies bloom? Key Words

To search a string of words as a “phrase”, simply use quotation marks around your search terms. Atlantic + Ocean or “Atlantic Ocean” Adult+ Education or “Adult Education” Phrase Searching“ ”

OR Broadens your search AND (+) Narrows your search NOT (-) Makes your search more precise Boolean Operators

Example: You are looking for information on where to go to UNIVERSITY? Boolean Operator: OR CollegeUniversity College OR University

Example: What is the relationship between health and exercise? Boolean Operator: AND (+) HealthExercise Health +Exercise Health AND Exercise

Example: You are looking to get a new pet. You want to look for information on cats, but NOT dogs Boolean Operator: NOT (-) Cat –dog Cat NOT Dog CatDog

Wildcards: * $ ! ? Also known as “Truncation” or “Stemming” Wildcard Symbols may vary: – * – $ – ! – ? Example: Teen* teens teenage teenager teenagers

Wildcards: * ? $ ! Wildcards also allow us to search for the answers to specific questions, or variations of specific words Examples: “Thermometer was invented by *” “Traffic light was invented by ?” Wom?n (women, woman) Note: Remember to verify the wildcard symbols used by individual databases

Synonym Search ~ You can search for synonyms by using the tilde symbol immediately preceding your search term: ~ Examples: ~Religion ~Internationalization

Domain/Site Search You can limit your search to a specific domain (site). Domains are “indicators” within a web address that identify the “source” or “location” of the information you are searching. Sample of Top-Level Domain Codes:.ca Canada Country Code.com company.coopcooperatives.gcgovernment Canada.govgovernment US.infoinformation.intinternational organizations.org organization.netnetwork

Domain/Site Search Strategy Example #1 Enter your search term with the domain code: Muslim.org Religion.com Muslim internationalization.ca Example #2 You can also search a specific website by entering your search term with the URL: “Muslim” site:amazon.ca Internationalization site:stfx.ca

You can search for specific file types on the WWW Examples: File Search

File Type Search Strategy:

EVALUATING INFORMATION

Scholarly vs Popular Popular Magazines Written by journalists, students, popular authors, or no author listed Flashy covers Advertisements Brief articles Trade Journals: Business, Finance, Industry (Written by experts, but may not be peer reviewed) Newspapers Scholarly Journals Written by experts Evaluated by experts: “Peer Reviewed” Authoritative Source Usually include: Credentials of the Author Abstract Bibliography Specialized vocabulary Reference List

Question! Question! Question! Is this source reliable? Is this source current? Have opinions changed? What are the current trends in this research area? Are there any gaps in the research? Is something missing? Who is the author? Are they an expert in this field? Do they represent multiple points of view or do they express bias for their own point of view?

Currency How recent is the information? Can you locate a date when the resource was written/created/updated? Based on your topic, is this current enough? Why might the date matter for your topic? Reliability What kind of information is included in the resource? Is the content primarily opinion? Is the information balanced or biased? Does the author provide citations & references for data? Authority Can you determine who the author/creator is? What are their credentials (education, affiliation, experience)? Who is the publisher or sponsor of the work/site? Is this publisher/sponsor reputable? Purpose / Point of View What’s the intent of the article (to persuade you, to sell something)? For Web resources, what is the domain (.edu,.com, etc.)? How might that influence the purpose/point of view? Are there ads on the Web site? How do they relate to the topic? Is the author presenting fact or opinion? C A R P Based on the original CRAP TEST created by Librarian Molly Beestrum, Dominican University LOEX (Library Orientation Exchange) wiki (2008). The CRAP test. Retrieved from

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