Lesson Notes: Developing Search Strategies PDF

Lesson Notes: Developing Search Strategies Lesson Title: Developing Search Strategies Objective: To learn effective methods for formulating research questions, identifying keywords, and using advanced search techniques to locate relevant information. 1. Introduction to Search Strategies Search S...

Lesson Notes: Developing Search Strategies Lesson Title: Developing Search Strategies Objective: To learn effective methods for formulating research questions, identifying keywords, and using advanced search techniques to locate relevant information. 1. Introduction to Search Strategies Search Strategy:  A systematic plan for finding information relevant to a research question or topic.  Involves formulating questions, identifying keywords, and using search tools effectively. Importance:  Efficient searching saves time and effort.  Helps in locating high-quality, relevant information. 2. Formulating Research Questions Understanding the Research Question:  Clearly define what you are looking to find out.  Break down broad topics into specific, manageable questions. 3. Types of Research Questions:  Descriptive: What is happening? (e.g., What are the effects of social media on teenagers?)  Comparative: How do two or more things compare? (e.g., How does social media usage differ between teenagers and adults?)  Causal: Why is something happening? (e.g., What causes teenagers to spend more time on social media?) 4. Communicating with Clients In order to provide an efficient reference service, staff must communicate effectively with their clients. They must be able to identify requests that have legal and ethical concerns, and demonstrate and apply their knowledge of standard procedure. Reference staff must learn to communicate with clients and interpret their needs. These skills involve  determining an appropriate level of communication for each client  interviewing clients to establish their needs  explaining procedures for accessing information  providing information in a language and format appropriate to the client’s needs  obtaining feedback on the appropriateness of the information supplied  understanding the principles and practices of high quality customer service. 5. Reference Interview A major part of reference work is finding out exactly what information a client wants. Some clients will explain what they want, but many give very unclear clues. All reference staff need to develop good communication skills to ensure a good service, and to save time and effort. In order to find out what information is required, you often need to conduct reference interview. A reference interview is a face-to-face exchange between a librarian and a reader to communicate, refine or clarify a reference enquiry. Purpose of Reference Interview  determine the information needs of the client  assist the client to locate the required information quickly  enable the library staff to assess the client’s library skills  explain the library’s resources and services if required Reference staff may need to encourage the client by asking questions and rephrasing questions, in order to find out exactly what is being asked. By spending time checking the question, you will avoid wasting time seeking the wrong information, and ensure that you meet the client’s needs. Steps in Reference Interview 1. Find out what information the client requires. The client might carefully explain what he or she wants, but in many cases clients use an indirect approach. 2. Ask the client to clarify the topic. You must avoid misunderstanding over the meaning of the question. 3. Repeat or paraphrase the question to ensure you know what is involved.  4. Try to find out what the client already knows and what source have been consulted. It is sometimes useful to know why the client needs the information, but you need to ask tactfully because it may invade their privacy. 5. Develop a search strategy. In order to find the required information quickly and efficiently, you need an effective search strategy. 6. Identifying Keywords and Phrases Keywords:  The main words or phrases that represent the key concepts of your research question.  Include synonyms and related terms to expand your search. Steps to Identify Keywords: 1. Write down your research question. 2. Highlight the main concepts. 3. List synonyms and related terms for each concept. Example:  Research Question: What are the effects of social media on teenagers? o Keywords: effects, social media, teenagers o Synonyms/Related Terms: impact, social networking, adolescents 7. Using Boolean Operators Boolean searching is based on an algebraic system of logic formulated by George Boole, a 19th century English mathematician. In a Boolean search, keywords are combined by the operators AND, OR and NOT to narrow or broaden the search (you do not have to enter them in capitals). Boolean Operators: Logical connectors used to combine or exclude keywords in a search. AND: Narrows the search by combining terms (e.g., "social media AND teenagers"). OR: Broadens the search by including any of the terms (e.g., "teenagers OR adolescents"). NOT: Excludes terms from the search (e.g., "social media NOT Facebook"). Using Boolean Operators: Combine keywords using AND, OR, NOT to refine search results. Example: "effects AND social media AND (teenagers OR adolescents) NOT Facebook" 8. Advanced Search Techniques Phrase Searching:  Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase (e.g., "social media effects").  Ensures that the search engine looks for the exact sequence of words. Truncation and Wildcards: 1. Truncation: the act of making something shorter or quicker, especially by removing the end of it. Use an asterisk (*) to search for multiple forms of a word (e.g., "teen" will find "teen," "teens," "teenagers"). The term "novel" is a truncation of the Italian word "novella." 2. Wildcards: The wildcard is an advanced search technique that can be used to maximize your search results in library databases. Wildcards are used in search terms to represent one or more other characters. The two most commonly used wildcards in our library databases are: 1. An asterisk (*) may be used to specify any number of characters. It is typically used at the end of a root word, when it is referred to as "truncation." This is great when you want to search for variable endings of a root word. For example: searching for educat* would tell the database to look for all possible endings to that root. Results will include educate, educated, education, educational or educator. 2. A question mark (?) may be used to represent a single character, anywhere in the word. It is most useful when there are variable spellings for a word, and you want to search for all variants at once. For example, searching for colo?r would return both color and colour. Use a question mark (?) to replace a single character in a word (e.g., "wom?n" will find "woman" and "women"). 9. Using Controlled Vocabulary: Controlled vocabularies are methods to organize knowledge for subsequent retrieval, using predefined, preferred terms. They aim to standardized terms used to knowledge organization, making information retrieval more efficient. This ensures consistency in how subjects are described and retrieved across different databases.  Key Characteristics of Controlled Vocabulary  Standardization. Each concept is represented by a single preferred term, while synonyms are linked to it.  Scope Notes. Terms often come with definitions or explanations to clarify their usage.  Hierarchal Relationships. Terms can have broader or narrower relationships, helping users understand the context better. Types of Controlled Vocabulary 1. Subject Headings These are list of terms primarily in library catalogs and databases  Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). A widely used system in the libraries for categorizing books resources.  Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), Used extensively in medical literature for indexing articles and research.  Sears List of Subject Headings. A standard and popular subject cataloguing tool for more than eight decades, the Sears List of Subject Headings was first designed in 1923 by Minnie Earl Sears (1873-1933) in deference to demands of small libraries for simpler and broader subject headings for use in their dictionary catalogues. 2. Thesauri Thesauri provide a more detailed structure than subject headings, including relationships among terms (e.g. broader, narrower, related terms). They are often used in specialized fields such as art or psychology. 3. Taxonomies These are hierarchal classifications that organize concepts into categories and subcategories. They are commonly used in fields like biology and information science to classify data systematically. Importance of Controlled Vocabulary Tools Controlled vocabularies enhance information retrieval by:  Increasing Precision. By using standardized terms, they reduce irrelevant search results caused by ambiguous language.  Improving Recall. Users can find all relevant documents associated with preferred term without needing to think of synonyms or variations.  Facilitating Search Efficiency. They guide users in formulating searches by providing a clear structure for what terms to use.  REFERENCE Columbia University Libraries. (n.d.). Boolean operators using and, or, and not to refine your keyword search. Retrieved September 24, 2024 from https://library.columbia.edu/find/clio/classic-help/boolean_operators.html Gosling, M. (1999). Learn reference work. Book Promotion & Service Co.