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Library and Information Sciences
Search Tips
Table of Contents
Tip #1: Select the right database(s) or resource(s).
How do you know in which database/resource to search for information? The UNT library liaisons have helped you out here by writing an annotation, or description, for each electronic resource. Using Library Science as an example, follow these steps to find all the resources in a subject area and their annotations:
1. Go to Electronic Resources at http://irservices.library.unt.edu.
2. Find the green box at the bottom left of the screen labeled, "Browse Abstracts and Indexes by Subject."
3. Since we're looking for Library Science, we will select Social and Information Sciences
4. On the next screen, you'll see further divisions of the broad subject area. Select Library Science, which has 29 resources.
5. The resources related to Library Science are listed alphabetically and each has an annotation that may include dates covered, types and numbers of publications indexed, subject areas in scope, full text or not, etc. Use this information to pick the right resource for your project.
6. Remember that databases in other fields may be relevant to your LIS research. Perhaps you are studying the psychology of information seeking, then you might check psychology databases, such as PsychInfo. Researching the history of public library architecture? Then history and art databases may also be a source of information.
Tip #2: Make a list of keywords before you start searching.
Before you actually start doing searches, write down the topic of your project or paper as a sentence or question, e.g. There are many benefits to consuming organic foods.
Now identify the important words, or keywords, in the sentence. In this case, the words would be: benefits, organic and foods.
Next brainstorm synonyms for the keywords you have identified. Why? Not all databases will use the same terms for objects or concepts nor will articles, so you need to have a variety of words to try in your search. Here are some synonyms for the example keywords: advantages, pros, natural, sustainable, fruits, vegetables, meats. Sometimes antonyms will help you find the resources you need: disadvantages, cons, pesticides, hormones, artificial, processed foods.
It is alright if your brainstorming produces phrases, such as "processed foods," because most databases will let you search for exact phrases.
When you actually get into your search, you can generate more search terms by identifying the subject headings of relevant articles and using them in subsequent searches. This search strategy is called "pearl growing" and is highly effective.
Tip #3: Do not use the terms “library” or “librarian” for keyword searches in LIS databases.
Unless you want to be inundated by results, do not search using “library” or “librarian” as keywords in a library and information science database. You can still search for libraries or librarians, but use the subject headings that the database assigns to those topics. The thesaurus or subject heading index in a database can tell you what the appropriate subject headings are.
For example, if you want to do a search on academic librarians in Library Literature and Information Science Full-Text, go to the opening search page and select the Thesaurus button on the toolbar. At Search the Thesaurus for:, enter [academic librarians]. The thesaurus tells you that College and University Librarians is the subject heading used for academic librarians and university librarians in this database. It also tells you that Community College Librarians and Technical College Librarians are narrower search terms you could use.
Go back to the Advanced Search page and enter one of the terms and set the corresponding field menu to Subjects. Search and you will get articles actually about academic librarians, rather than ones that happen to have those two keywords in them.
Tip #4: When researching the history of a concept or activity, do not use the word “change” in a keyword search.
Yikes! Think about how many articles in the world have the word “change” in them. There are more efficient and distinguishing ways to get at the topic.
Imagine that your topic is changes in youth services since 1950. Usually an article containing a chronological review would have the words “developments,” “history” and/or “trends” in it, so try combining those keywords with youth services and its synonyms.
Another way to focus your search is to limit the type of article you retrieve, a feature that many databases offer. For example, in Library Literature and Information Science Full-Text you can limit to “review article” or “bibliography,” both of which will give you articles with an overview usually helpful in historical research. If a database does not have this feature, check whether a document type field is available in the drop-down field menu next to search boxes; for example, Library and Information Science Abstracts has the field, Publication Type. If all else fails, try combining “review article,” “bibliography,” or “literature review” with your other search terms.
Tip #5: Use the truncation and wildcard symbols to reduce the number of searches needed.
Use the truncation symbol (*) and the wildcard symbol (?) to find variations on your search terms. Truncate the end of a root word, say seek*, to find seek, seeks, seeker, seeking and other variations with a different ending. Use the wildcard symbol when your search term may have an internal variation, e.g. wom?n would find women and woman.
Using the truncation and wildcard symbols saves you time because you don't have to search all variations of your keywords. The symbols are the same for most databases, but if they don't appear to be working in a particular database, check the Help files to confirm.
Tip #6: Use quotation marks to search for exact phrases.
You can't avoid jargon when you reach the graduate level of a field, so use it to your advantage and search for jargon as an exact phrase in databases. The majority of databases use quotations marks around a phrase to indicate it should be searched as an exact phrase, e.g. "data mining." Use this method for finding exact phrases in all three of the LIS databases available at the UNT Libraries.
Tip #7: Don't limit your search to "full text" or "linked full text."
If you limit to a database search to full text, then Article Linker can't do its magic. Article Linker is a link resolver software that can take you from a citation in one database to the full text article in another electronic resource, e.g. from LISTA citation to full text article in ScienceDirect. When you limit to full text, then you only have access to the full text within the database you are searching.
To use Article Linker, select the "Find Full Text" link; the link is usually located somewhere close to the article title in the results list. You'll get a blank page initially, and then you'll see Article Linker in the top left corner. Be patient while Article Linker does its work. You'll get one of three results: 1) you'll be taken directly to the article, 2) you will be taken to a page that tells you the various packages that have the article and gives you the links to it, or 3) you'll be told that the Libraries don't have the article online.
If Article Linker indicates we don't have access, don't give up yet! Not all electronic resources can "talk" to link resolvers yet, so the article may be there but requires a bit more digging. Go to the Library Catalog and do a Journal Title search for the journal. The catalog will tell you whether we have the journal online, in print, or not at all.
About 75% of the time, you'll be able to get an electronic copy of the article if you go through these steps. It takes a bit more work, but it's better than having to come to campus and copy the print version.
For more information about OpenURL link resolvers, see the article "October: OpenURL link resolvers" by Christine L. Ferguson in Computers in Libraries, October, 2004. The UNT Libraries do have this article online.
Tip #8: Combine your search terms into a Boolean search statement to get a focused search.
Now that you have a list of keywords, you need to submit them to a database in a structured way that tells the database what relationships you want between the keywords. Boolean searching is the method required by most UNT databases; it uses the words AND, OR, and NOT to indicate the relationships between keywords. In the examples below, I will use brackets [ ] to represent the search box because using quotations marks is confusing as those symbols tell a database to look for an exact phrase.
OR is the inclusive Boolean operator. The search statement [information OR data] tells a database to return all items containing either the word “information,” the word “data” or both words. OR is used to link synonyms and to broaden a search.
AND is the exclusive Boolean operator. The search statement [information AND seeking] tells a database to return only those items containing both of the words, “information” and “seeking.” AND is used to link unrelated terms and to narrow a search.
AND and OR can be used together to create a search statement. The search statement [(information OR data) AND seeking] tells the database to return items that contain: 1) information and seeking, 2) data and seeking, or 3) information and data and seeking.
NOT is the operator that eliminates some items from your search, so it must be used carefully. Say that the search for [(information OR data) AND seeking] returns many items that are book reviews, but you only want articles. You could use NOT in this way to eliminate the book reviews: [((information OR data) AND seeking) NOT book reviews].
Fortunately for you, most databases don’t require you to use parentheses to write your search statement; EBSCOHost, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, WilsonWeb and most other databases provide rows for the keywords and drop-down menus where you can select the Boolean operators that you want between the keywords.
In WilsonWeb and EBSCOHost, you will need to type in OR within a search box, for example:
[Information or data] (row 1)
AND (drop-down menu)
[seek*] (row 2)
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts has already done that work for you; it looks like this:
[information] OR [data] (row 1)
AND (drop-down menu)
[seek*] (row 2)
Tip #9: Use the database’s field designations to further tailor your search.
You’ve followed all the tips and are still getting too many results, or not what you want – what can you do? You can search for terms in particular fields of a database record to focus your search. You are probably already familiar with the fields, Author, Title, Subject, but there are many more in a database record. Usually you can find the list of searchable fields in a database as a drop-down menu to the right of the search boxes in the Advanced Search. Another place to find the list is in the Help section of a database.
The default or keyword search in most databases searches these fields: Title, Author, Subject and Abstract. To make your results more relevant, try searching for your search terms just in the Title or Subject fields. Geographic Location is a field you can use to narrow search if you are interested in a particular country or state. Phrases particular to a field tend to show up in the abstract, so the Abstract field is a good place to search for exact phrases, such as “information behavior,” “information seeking” or "Dublin core."
Tip #10: Use the Search History feature in databases to save your search statements and resulting number of hits.
In the good old days, you had to take notes to keep track of the databases you used, searches performed in each and the results. Now most databases provide a search history that can be saved or printed, so you don't needlessly repeat searches or can go back and review results when you have time.
In EBSCOHost databases such as Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts, the search history is found by selecting the Search History/Alerts tab under the search box(es) in the basic or advanced searches.
The Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) databases, including LISA, have the Search Tools tab at the top of the screen. It leads to 4 other tabs - look for History/Combine Searches. This is where your search history will be stored.
Wilson Web, the interface for Library Literature and Info Science FT, also offers a search history feature. Look on the left of the opening screen for a blue button labeled, Search History.
Was this tutorial helpful? Please send your comments and suggestions for this tutorial to Erin O'Toole, Science and Technology Librarian, at erin.otoole@unt.edu.
