Finding information effectively Louise Fletcher

This session will help with….. Importance of a search strategy Keyword searching recognise the variety of information sources available identify the key databases for finding journal articles for subject area evaluate the quality of websites

Search strategy

Why bother? Ultimately saves you time Makes your searching pertinent Helps you to understand your topic Ensures that you will find ‘quality’ and relevant information Helps you to meet your deadline Way of assessing how ‘do-able’ your dissertation topic will be towards the beginning of your research

How do you develop a search strategy? Work out a timetable to meet your deadline Define your topic by identifying key concepts Identify any limits (geographical, years) Identify where to find the information you require (types and location) Brainstorm keywords to unlock the information in databases, on the web etc. Search for the information Read and critically evaluate it in relation to your topic

Choosing the right keywords The better the keywords you enter, the better your results will be! Helps you to understand what you are after and also which results will be relevant when you see them in a list of search results.

Constructing a search phrase from your keywords Link keywords with ‘connectors’ - saves time and make searches accurate AND (reduces results and refines your search) OR (increases results and searches for synonyms) Use wildcards, truncation and “phrase searching” Wildcards are for one letter, e.g. wom?n Truncation is used at the end of a stem, work* could be workforce, workers, workplace,

Search phrase (examples) “automotive industry” OR “car industry” AND production “automotive industry” OR “car industry” AND globali?ation

Types of information Journal articles Books Websites Data – statistics Newspapers (Archives and Nexis UK)

Finding journal articles on a topic Need to use a database Databases contain the details and abstracts of thousands of different journals The Library subscribes to over 22,000 e-journals, plus thousands of print titles but can’t take every title published (no library does!) Academic departments select journal titles by their relevance and academic quality

Useful databases Business Source Complete Emerald Science direct Web of Science Nexis (newspapers) Compendex (Engineering database) Sociological abstracts via Select databases – social sciences – sociology LCP – search for Facebook AND impact 70 results Add in children – goes down to 2. So need to go back to the previous results and look through them more carefully and ask questions of your research topic Are you wanting to study children or could it be University students? – there are more articles available… Could you look at schools and how they manage facebook and why? Show how to connect to the full-text.

Evaluating journal articles Is it relevant to your topic? Do you know of the author? If in doubt, research them on the web Have you heard of the journal? If in doubt as to its academic quality, check the Library catalogue (via LCP) /SFX link How well referenced is the article? Check the references/bibliography Academic or trade journal? Check pagination and references

Books Don’t forget the Library Catalogue Try using COPAC to find books available in other research libraries Use Google Book Search to search inside books and then check to see if we have them in stock. Also includes some full-text magazines. Can obtain a SCONUL Access card to visit other academic libraries (useful for Summer vacation especially)

Web searching Not just Google out there… Google Scholar Keep adding to your search to make it relevant Can use AND, OR, NOT, as well as “phrase searching” Can limit by domain .uk ; org.uk Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate!

More advice Contact: Louise Fletcher L.Fletcher@lboro.ac.uk