FYE 1220 - First Year Seminar - Gilliard-Smith: Getting Started

When information is created, it may be shared with the public in a variety of different formats. Different formats reach different audiences. The same people who learn about the information on social media may never read newspapers, for instance. Each format conveys information in a different way. These formats make up the information cycle. Information may be produced in one, some, or all of these formats to reach different audiences. These different formats make up sources that can be used by researchers to learn or share the information more. 

Deciding what type of sources will work best for your research project can be daunting. Sometimes, this is decided for you based on the perimeters set by your professor. Other times, it's wide open and you have to provide a variety of sources all relevant to your topic. Understanding the basic Information Cycle Timeline can help you determine what type of source is best to use. 

Developing an effective search strategy involves:

• Identifyng the key search concepts
• Identifying related terms to the key search concepts
• Using standard search structures to broaden and narrow your search results

While there is not ONE right way to do a search, the strategies identified here will improve your results!

For effective searching, DO NOT use sentence structure, such as your thesis statement or research question. 

Instead, use a keyword or keyword phrase (which is the process of identifying terms and then entering them into the search box to find information on your topic) to search library resources (Catalog, Databases).  This is because the library databases look for exact words that you enter. If the database cannot find all the words, it will not bring back any results.  This is why you need to identify the keywords.  

Here is an example of a research question

Is it beneficial for wild animals to have interactions with people?

The keywords for this topic are listed below:

wild animals

interactions

people

Use the worksheets provided to help guide you through developing keyword search concepts from your research question. 

Boolean terms (sometimes called Boolean operators or command terms) connect your keywords to create a logical phrase that the database can understand.  This may involve telling the database to look for multiple terms or concepts at once, which will make your search more precise. Or it may involve searching for alternative terms that will bring back more results.    

Using Boolean terms helps to create more precise and powerful searches with a higher percentage of relevant results.

This page will show you how to use the Boolean terms AND, OR, and NOT in your searches.