1. Search Techniques and Advanced tools for Researchers
Online Databases
Presented By:
Mohamed Abdul Salam
Information Resources Specialist
Arabian Advanced System

2. Objectives Learn how to : Build effective search strategies
Identify and utilize relevant reference databases
Familiarize your self with resources available in the KSU Libraries

3. How to Construct The Search Statement?
Identify keywords
& List synonyms
for each concept
Identify the logical
relationships
between
the Keywords
Determine the
search limitations
Select the relevant
information
resources

4. How to Build a Search String
Make a simple table with three columns and column titles:
MUST
Might
Must Not
MUST
MIGHT(+)
MUST NOT(-)
You will search these terms using AND
You can subtract these terms with NOT
You can add these words with OR

5. Boolean Operators Boolean operators
OR is used to indicate that any of the terms may be present
AND is used to indicate that both terms must be present
Broadening a search
Narrowing a search
NOT is to eliminate an unwanted concept or word in your
search statement

6. Example of Search Topic
MUST
MIGHT(+)
MUST NOT(-)
Computers
Network IT
Software
learning
Teaching
Training
Boolean Statement
(Computers OR Network OR IT) AND (Learning OR Training) NOT (Software)

7. Common Basic Functions in Today’s Search Engines
Basic Search
Advanced Search
Alerts
Personal accounts
RSS
Export
Print
Save
Personal Folder
Authority files

8. Example of Basic Search

9. Enter the user name & password

13. Full info about the article
View Full text
Task Bar
View article images
Full info about the article

14. Click to Save
After Clicking
On Full text
Online view

15. After Clicking
On Full text
PDF

16. Visual Search

17. Click on visual search
Under the search box

18. Enter the subject that you want

19. View the full text

20. Advanced Search

21. Progressive Discovery
ProQuest Search and Discovery is about supporting the wide range of search strategies of the many types of researchers.
Precision Search

22. Search Strategy. Other Search Options
Entering one or more words in the first row and clicking Search will bring the researcher results identical to that for the Basic Search form.
For each row the researcher can select from a list of fields to search that are specific to the database(s) selected.
The most commonly used fields are listed, and those that are not are still searchable with mnemonics
Early and General Researchers can be overwhelmed by too many options, so we accommodate that need and the Domain Specific Researcher’s need for full access to all options through mnemonics.
Next to the Basic Search form, the Advanced Search form is the most commonly used, at about 2.5% of where searches originate.

23. Search Strategy. Other Search Options
Command Line Search Form
For the Domain Specific Researcher who wants the room and the options to construct long, complex search queries to extract documents on very specific research topics.
Researchers can use any search mnemonic available.
Add Search Fields option provides a complete list of all the search indexes and the mnemonics the researcher can use to search them.

24. Search operators & Boolean rules

25. Search Strategy. Other Search Options
Look Up Citation Search Form
Designed for known citation searching
Researcher can enter as much information as known in a series of form fields for the most common metadata elements - title, author, abstract, etc.

26. Search Strategy. Other Search Options
Find Similar Search Form
Researcher can use this search form enter document snippets, which the search engine will analyze, synthesize and use to find similar documents.
The more the researcher enters – a paragraph or more – the more relevant the results should be.
This is a relatively new search innovation, and we expect to improve its application even more in the future.

27. Relevance Sort Determines the order in which results appear
Weighs a variety of factors when determining the order of results
- number of query term matches; proximity of terms; frequency of terms, context of terms
All work together to determine in which order results retrieved for a given search appear
Note that using wildcards (“*” or “?”) turns relevance ranking off for that search query
Number of query term matches—For queries with multiple terms that are not joined by AND, the more of the individual query terms that match a document, the higher the ranking of a document. It should be understood that terms with wildcard characters do not contribute to rank calculations.
Proximity of terms—Documents with multiple matching terms are ranked higher if the terms are in close proximity to one another. Known phrases are treated separately and given a higher weighting than individual terms. Proximity weighting takes into consideration both the distance between terms relative to the beginning of a searchable field.
Frequency of terms—More occurrences of an individual matching term raises the documents overall rank value. Terms that are very common across all documents have no rank value and do not contribute to overall document rank.
Context of terms—Different key fields within a document are configured to carry a higher relevance weight when they contain matching terms. The following fields in rank order from high to low are: title, subjects, abstract, author, and then full text (unless user disabled)..

28. The right tools at the right time in the right place.
My Research
My Research sharing
Integration with bibliographic tools such as RefWorks
Alerts and RSS Feeds
QuikBib Citation Tool
Last 3 slides = Search, Find, Use. That’s our focus
Cover My Research, alerts/rss feeds, function, bibliography creation, leveraging RefWorks portfolio, etc.

29. Enter the UN/PW

30. Click accept

31. Enter your topic and click GO

32. Click on view in new window to see the full text
Filters by: Codes, Drug information, patient information, Points of Care, and titles by discipline
Click on view in new window to see the full text
Additional resources: MedCalc, PubMed
Other Related Resources
Search Result

33. The Full text
Table of Content

34. Accessing Anatomy.TV

35. Click on Anatomy.tv from the home page

36. Click on Anatomy.tv from the home page

37. Select the regional that you want

45. Search History

46. Session Search History

47. Sign in to set up: personal search preferences

48. Free IEEE Personal account48
14-Nov-18

49. Create Personal Account

50. Personalization- Saved Searches

51. Personalization- Saved Searches

52. Personalization-ToC Alerts

53. Set Your Preferences 53
14-Nov-18

54. Any Questions? Please contact: msalam@aas.com.sa
The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas
Linus Pauling