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Library Research: Your Search Strategy

1. Before beginning your research, try to come up with a topic:

 

 
 
 
 

2. When you come up with a topic (ex. "memory"), try to then narrow down the topic. (example: "memory and learning" ):

 

 
 
 
 

3. Sometimes you may need to be more specific.   ("Memory and learning" may still seem vague.  Maybe "memorization" or "methods of memorization" and "college level education" instead of just "learning")

 

 
 
 
 
 

4. Come up with a research question (state it in a sentence).   (Example: What methods of memorization are considered most effective when it comes to preparing for exams at college level?)

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

5. To search your topic effectively, come up with search terms. You will need to use these search terms to search a database effectively (example: memory, learning, higher education, memorization, community college education)

 

 
 
 
 
 

6. Come up with related terms to your topic. They can be synonyms, broader/narrower terms. Terms somehow related to your subject. (Examples: comprehension, recall, recollection, knowledge, test taking, study skills )

Now, you are ready to phrase a search statement. You must phrase it so a database will know whether you want all your search terms, either one or the other, or to eliminate instances where a particular word or phrase exists:
 

Memory AND learning	Database searches for instances where Memory AND Learning appear
Memory OR comprehension	Database searches for instances where EITHER the words Memory OR Comprehension appear. Both CAN appear or just one of them.
motivation NOT speaker	Database finds all instances where motivation appears but ONLY WHEN the word speaker does not (say all you kept getting was "Motivation speakers")

Notice that the search statements depend on an OPERATOR to basically give the database a command as to how it should perform its search based on the terms entered: (AND, OR, NOT). This is pertinent.

Once you have come up with a SEARCH STATEMENT, you are now ready to perform searches on the Library Catalog, our periodicals databases, and our other databases.

When using search engines to search the World Wide Web, search statements you enter are slightly different. Take notice:
 

+memory +learning +college  +"values clarification" +"higher education"	A "plus" sign is used to tell the database that the words or phrases MUST appear within the web pages you are searching.
+motivation -speaker	A "minus" sign is used to tell the database that the word motivation  MUST appear but ONLY WHEN speaker does not.
"values clarification" "note taking" "study skills in higher education"	In most search engines, you MUST surround your phrase with quotation marks. Most search engines treat each word separately. If there were no quotes, the search engine will likely find pages that EITHER have the words Values OR Clarification  And anywhere these words appear on a web page, meaning a lot of non relevant results!