1. Finding information effectively
Louise Fletcher

2. 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

3. Search strategy

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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,

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

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

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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)

14. 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!

15. More advice
Contact:
Louise Fletcher