A Librarian’s Tips and Tricks for Improved Literature Searching Elizabeth Killingsworth, MLS University of Central Florida Libraries April 5, 2013

Who I Am >>>> Elizabeth Killingsworth, UCF Librarian What we’re going to do today Why you should care! Save you time, aggravation, and keep you up-to-date!

Focusing the Question Start with a conversation with yourself: What do you really want to find? Example: I want information on improving the diet of school children

What do you REALLY want? I want information on improving the diet of school children! Diet? what does this mean to you….. School children? define please! Improve how, with what? By whom?

Turns out I really want this: How can we reduce the number of sugary drinks being consumed by children?

What are the key concepts Identify the concepts that MUST be in each article for you to want the article Are there synonyms for each concept? Related words? Aspects?

Boolean AND (smaller and smaller) OR (bigger and bigger) NOT (cut it out)

Where to look? FREE PAID PubMed Ebscohost Google Scholar OVID Google Google Books PAID Ebscohost OVID Proquest

DEMO

Find Mo’ Betta Read, read, read to expand your vocabulary on the topic, to understand the aspects you might be interested in, to learn who the experts might be and to focus your question! Use Related Citations Features Follow trails: Read bibliographies! Pay attention to author’s names

What to do if you’re not finding what you need! Re-think: how else would someone talk about this problem? What other words might they use? Use the Advanced search to enter synonyms Contact a librarian!

Contact Me! Elizabeth Killingsworth Elizabeth.killingsworth@ucf.edu 407-823-4250