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Searching Techniques DEANSHIP OF LIBRARY AFFAIRS
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Outlines of Effective Searching for Electronic Information and Resources Defining your topic and breaking it down into component concepts. Choosing keywords. Combining keywords - using Boolean operators to structure the search. Using truncation. Using advanced techniques such as field searching, brackets and controlled vocabulary. Refining search results.
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Outlines of Effective Searching for Electronic Information and Resources Searching in Summon Discovery Service A-Z e-resources Search and Browse Which database should I use? Planning your search Searching techniques Using your search result
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Plan your search What Where Whom When
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Ways to access online information Browse Simple keyword search Advanced search and Expert search
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Browse Finding information by looking at it in an alphabetical, chronological, subject or any other order You may see all information resources one by one
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Browsing in IEEE Xplore
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Simple keyword search It is used to search any word from subject, author or title when you have incomplete information.
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Advanced searching techniques Boolean operators Phrase searching Truncation / wildcard searching Focusing / limiting a search
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Boolean operators To join terms together, widen a search or exclude terms from search results. This means you can be more precise in locating your information. AND OR NOT
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Boolean operators in IEEE Xplore
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Phrase searching It narrows your search down by searching for an exact phrase or sentence. It is particularly useful when searching for a title or a quotation. Usually quotation marks are used to connect the words together. For example “Oil and gas reservoirs in Saudi Arabia”
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Phrase searching in Google
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Truncation / wildcard These search techniques retrieve information on similar words by replacing part of the word with a symbol usually a * or ?. However, different databases use different symbols, so check what is used. In truncation the end of the word is replaced. For example physiother* will retrieve physiotherapy, physiotherapeutic, physiotherapist and so on. In wildcard searching, letters from inside the word are replaced. For example wom*n will retrieve the terms woman and women.
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Truncation and wildcard in ProQuest Truncation Searching for econom* will find economy, economics, economical, etc. Searching for *old will find told, household, bold, etc. Wildcard Searching for t?re will find tire, tyre, tore, etc. Searching for ad??? will find added, adult, adopt, etc.
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Focusing / limiting a search There are many ways to focus your search and all search tools offer different ways of doing this. Examples of filters / limiters: Date within 3 years Language Arabic Place Saudi Arabia Publication type Journal Article TitleMosque
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Limiting search in Summon iau.summon.serialssolutions.com
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Expert Search Basics Google Search Image Search https://images.google.com/ https://images.google.com/
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A typical Expert search
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Google Expert Search Filetype: Filetype:pdf Site: (no space between and url) Google site:TIME.com site:.gov or.edu or.ac,.sa Use “DEFINE:” to learn the meaning of words—slang included Define: truncate Search social media Put @ in front of a word to search social media. For example: flowers @twitter. Search within a range of numbers Put.. between two numbers. For example, camera $50..$100. Search for related sites Put "related:" in front of a web address you already know. For example, related:time.com. See Google’s cached version of a site Put "cache:" in front of the site address.
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Image Search Live Google Image Search Search through Camera (related images) Image Search Tools Snipping Tool
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Information resources at IAU Library Print books Print journals Electronic books Electronic journals
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Access to E-resources https://library.iau.edu.sa
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Login to E-Resource Portal First part of IAU email
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https://library.iau.edu.sa
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Summon – Web scale discovery tool
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Summon advance search
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Summon search result
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Related Articles in Summon
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library@iau.edu.sa
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