1. Successful Search Strategies How to search effectively in any database

2. Introduction b Designing an effective search strategy b Databases are all different However b Principles of searching are the same …………………… usually

3. Boolean Operators b AND b OR b NOT/AND NOT b Purpose: to broaden or narrow your search

4. AND b ie. all terms must occur in the search result b eg. Quality AND Service AND 1998 b Purpose: narrows search

5. OR b ie. either or both terms appear b eg. Hotel OR Motel b Purpose: broadens Search

6. NOT / AND NOT b eg. Performance AND appraisal NOT 1998 b Purpose: narrows search, first term appears but not the second

7. Truncation b Wildcards such as * or ? at the end of a word b Eg. * b comput* retrieves computer, computing, computerized etc

8. Wildcard Operators b Wildcard operators within a word b Eg. wom?n b retrieves woman and women

9. Field Searches b Limits the searches to chosen fields b eg. Au = Mintzberg, H b eg. Co = Marks & Spencer b eg. Jn/So = Economist

10. Thesaurus b Use to find narrower, related or broader terms b eg.quality related: accuracyrelated: accuracy narrower: total qualitynarrower: total quality

11. Noise Words b Common words are not searchable in most databases unless specified as a phrase b eg.or –on –a –at –…………….. And many more

12. And in conclusion b Plan your search strategy before logging on b Use on-line user manuals b Think laterally b And: b Sometimes, success means finding little information

13. Finally b Old Chinese Proverb: b Give a man a fish and he will eat today b Teach him how to fish and he will eat forever