1. Presented by: Debbie Kaleva, NSCC Campus Librarian Suzanne van den Hoogen, Emerging Services Librarian, StFX University June 11 th & 18 th, 2012

2.   Finding Information  Developing Effective Search Strategies  Applying Search Strategies to Databases, WWW and beyond  5 Ws of Research  Who uses? Everyone? Want to buy a puppy  Who’s done some research?  When  Where  Why  What Learning Outcomes

3.  5 Ws of Research Who? What? Where? When? Why?

4.  KeywordsPhrase SearchingBoolean OperatorsWildcardsDomain/Site SearchFile SearchSynonym Search Search Strategies

5.  Taming the Beast!

6.  Select your key words carefully  17 th century women’s shoes, is much narrower than “Antiques”  Avoid using words like “A” “An” or “The”  Examples:  When were the Acadians expelled from Nova Scotia?  When do asiatic lilies bloom? Key Words

7.   To search a string of words as a “phrase”, simply use quotation marks around your search terms.  Atlantic + Ocean or “Atlantic Ocean”  Microsoft + Office or “Microsoft Office” Phrase Searching“ “

8.   AND (+) Narrows your search  OR Broadens your search  NOT (-) Makes your search more precise Boolean Operators

9.  Example: What is the relationship between health and exercise? Boolean Operator: AND (+) HealthExercise Health +Exercise Health AND Exercise

10.  Example: You are looking for information on where to send your son/daughter to UNIVERSITY? Boolean Operator: OR CollegeUniversity College OR University

11.  Example: You are looking to get a new pet. You want to look for information on cats, but NOT dogs Boolean Operator: NOT (-) Cat –dog Cat NOT Dog CatDog

12.  Wildcards: * $ ! ?  Also known as “Truncation” or “Stemming”  Wildcard Symbols may vary:  *  $  !  ? Example: Teen* teens teenage teenager teenagers

13.  Wildcards: * ? $ !  Wildcards also allow us to search for the answers to specific questions, or variations of specific words  Examples: “Thermometer was invented by *” “Traffic light was invented by ?” Wom?n (women, woman)  Note: Remember to verify the wildcard symbols used by individual databases

14.  Domain/Site Search  You can limit your search to a specific domain (site).  Domains are “indicators” within a web address that identify the “source” or “location” of the information you are searching. Sample of Top-Level Domain Codes: .ca Canada Country Code .com company .coopcooperatives .gcgovernment Canada .govgovernment US .infoinformation .intinternational organizations .org organization .netnetwork

15.  Domain/Site Search Strategy Example #1 Enter your search term with the domain code:  health.org  library.com  family.gc.ca Example #2 You can also search a specific website by entering your search term with the URL:  “library card” site:parl.ns.ca  tuition site:www.nscc.ca

16.  You can search for specific file types on the WWW Examples: File Search

17.  File Type Search Strategy:

18.  Synonym Search ~ You can search for synonyms by using the tilde symbol immediately preceding your search term: ~ Examples: ~cow ~drugs ~exercise ~pollution

20. Feedback Your opinion matters! We welcome your comments and suggestions about today’s workshop and possible future workshops.