1. April 28, 2014 Marie Varelas, MLIs
ENGLISH 165 – Clay
April 28, 2014
Marie Varelas, MLIs

2. OVERVIEW Your Assignment Topic to Keyword to Searching
Library Databases
Finding Two Quality Sources

3. ASSIGNMENT Union of Concerned Scientists (web source)
Topics : clean energy, food and agriculture issues, nuclear power etc.
Locate articles that support your topic
Must be from Library databases (or not?)

4. Topic to Keyword to Searching
Select your topic:
My Topic is: global warming

5. Topic to Keyword to Searching
Narrow your topic:
Effects of global warming on gray whales
Causes of global warming in the United States
Implications of global warming for agriculture
Response to global warming by environmental interest groups, such as Greenpeace
Which specific angle of your topic will you decide to research?

6. Topic to Keyword to Searching
Identify Keywords:
Think of synonyms, related terms, variations of your main concepts alternate spellings, abbreviations etc.
The first step in creating an effective search strategy is to identify the words or phrases relevant to your topic. These words or phrases will be your search terms, and they are sometimes referred to as the keywords or key concepts of your topic.
For example: global warming,, greenhouse gases, carbon emissions, fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, air pollution, etc.
To begin to search successfully you must use a variety of words that relate to your topic

7. Sample search TOPIC: Causes of global warming
The main concepts, or keywords, are:
causes
global warming
Think of synonyms and variations
reasons
factors
greenhouse gases
air pollution
carbon dioxide

8. Causes of Global Warming
Reasons
Factors
Air Pollution
Fossil Fuels
Greenhouse gases
Carbon dioxide

9. Choosing a Database
Article Databases help you find journal, magazine and newspaper articles that are often not freely available on the internet.
Science and Environment Databases:
Academic Search Premier-
GreenFILE - Information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment such as global warming, green building, sustainable agriculture, and more. Includes academic, government and general-interest articles.
CQ Researcher- In-depth reports on current social issues and problems from Congressional Quarterly
Science in Context - detailed coverage of popular subjects from earth science and life science, to space, technology, mathematics and science history
ProQuest Science-
For effective search results use keywords or phrases to search the periodical databases

10. Source Types Newspapers Popular Magazines Scholarly, Academic Journals
Different types of articles give you different flavors of the information you need

11. Search Strategies

12. Enter search words for your topic
Adding more search words to each box helps narrow your results
Option: Click to limit results to full text articles
Option: Click to limit results to scholarly journal articles

15. QUESTIONS?
Ask A Librarian Reference: (650) or Make a Research appointment

16. CREDITS
NASA/Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio and adapted for NASA’s Global Climate Change website ( [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.