King’s College London Pre-Sessional Programme Searching for sources: Creating a bank of information

Search Strategies: General Tips Sometimes you know what book, article or author you want to find Sometimes you just know the general subject area you want to search

Search Terms Standard search terms include: Title Author Abstract Keywords

Practice Imagine that you are writing an essay entitled: “The Benefit of e-learning to University Students”. What search terms would you use? Online learning Advantages Benefits of Higher education Benefits of e-learning to university students

Google Scholar Google scholar is often a good place to start Notice ‘related articles’ with each link and ‘key authors’ at the bottom SFX/ ‘Find it’ button This will take you to texts to download electronically (if available) when searching on King’s computers or through the King’s library website Athens Keep your password with you (you can change it at and click on ‘my Athens’) – you will need it for many electronic articles

Google Scholar

Searching by topic: general or specific? If your search gives too many hits with many that are irrelevant, you need to narrow the search (e.g. use more specific key words) If your search gives only a few hits and they are all relevant, it means you have probably missed some useful results and should widen your search

Searching King’s library website There are various search facilities on the King’s website: Library catalogue (simple, multi field, advanced) – generally only finds books available in the library Databases or quick search – you will need to choose a subject area (quick search is easier to start) Generally good for electronic texts E-Journals – usually only useful if you know the title of the journal you are looking for

Google Searches Google is best avoided as it brings up all websites irrespective of their quality. However, Google Scholar can be used to search more academic sources.

Scanning vs. Reading Don’t read through every paper you come across - it takes too long! Instead scan through papers quickly, then identify essential reading Keep a bibliographic record of every paper, book or website you use (either using paper or bibliographic software)