Research and Information Literacy

Michael Kahn

Based on a PowerPoint Prepared by Professor Susan Acampora

RESEARCH STRATEGY: LIBRARY DATABASES

• Research Question: To what extent has it been proven if cell phones cause cancer?

• How would you find scholarly journal articles that discuss this question?

• Databases• Boolean Searching• Reading Your Results

WHAT IS A DATABASE• A database is any collection of data that can be retrieved using organized search

procedures - Badke, 49.

• Databases we don’t call databases.

• Google-It is a collection of webpages.

• Encore-is a collection of bibliographic records for library books, ebooks, CDs, videos, etc

SO WHAT DO WE CALL DATABASES?• Academic databases

• Created by EBSCO, GALE and PROQUEST and similar companies

• Periodicals are information sources published over a period of time, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly….

• Examples are newspapers, magazines, trade journals, scholarly journals.

• Trade Journals-articles that deal with job industry information

• Scholarly journals-original research articles

WHERE ARE THE LIBRARY DATABASES

YOU CAN BROWSE ALPHABETICALYOR BY SUBJECT

LET’S BROWSE ALPHABETICALLY AND LOOK AT ACADEMIC SEARCH COMPLETE

ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TALKING TO ME LIKE THAT?

• Don’t search a database like you search Google!

• We often search Google using natural language.

• We type in full sentences, like-

• Do cell phones cause cancer• Google gives 1,460,000 results.

DISCUSSION:

• Select Terminology for searching

• Identify appropriate databases for research topics and determine their purpose and coverage

• Introduction to multidisciplinary sources such as: Credo, Academic Search Complete

• Apply search techniques and advanced database features

• Work with LinkSource to obtain articles outside of Gill Library

3 STEPS IN CREATING A SEARCH STRING

1.Write down the research question

2.Isolate key concepts in the research question

3.Add Boolean Operators

1. WRITE DOWN THE RESEARCH QUESTION

• Research Question: Do cell phone use cause cancer?

• Isolate Key Concepts In Your Research Question:

• Do cell phones cause cancer?Cell Phones Cancer

BOOLEAN LOGIC

Boolean Logic allows you to combine your search terms to help you find exactly what you need

BOOLEAN OPERATORS

• AND = limit your results

• OR = broaden your results

• NOT = will eliminate results with the term following NOT

EXAMPLE

or both heart and lung.

AND OR NOT

Each result contains all search terms

Each result contains at least one search term

Result does not contain the specific search term

The search “cell phones” AND cancer produces

results that have both cell phone and cancer

The search “cell phone” OR “mobile phone”

produces results that have either cell phone or mobile

phone (or both.)

The search “cell phone” NOT landline produces results that have cell

phone but not the landline.

• AND-Example• We want results with both terms

• cell phones cancer

Cell phones AND cancer

only yields result that have both words, cell phones and cancer in them.

Let’s search for articles and look at our results!

cell phones AND cancer

EXAMPLE“CELL PHONES” AND CANCER

EXAMPLE RESULT

EXAMPLE OF OR

OR-BROADEN YOUR SEARCH AND PRODUCES MORE RESULTS

“cell phones”

AND

cancer

OR

“mobile phones”

“CELL PHONES” AND CANCER=382 RESULTS

“CELL PHONES” OR “MOBILE PHONES”AND CANCER=438 RESULTS

TRUNCATION SYMBOL *(SOME DATABASES USE ?)

• Replace the ending of a search term with an * to find all variations of that word.

Typing Searches forCell phone* Cell phone, cell phones

Child Child, child’s, children, children’s

Legal* Legal, legality, legalization

EXAMPLE OF TRUNCATION

“CELL PHONE*” OR “MOBILE PHONE”AND CANCER=504

TEST YOURSELF AS A CLASS• Research Question:

• Does having more money increase one’s happiness?

money OR wealth AND happiness OR contentment

money

wealth

happiness

contentment

OR AND OR

MONEY OR WEALTH AND HAPP* OR WEALTH=6,014 RESULTS

TEST YOURSELF AS A CLASS

• Research Question:

• Is art therapy successful in helping the elderly with depression?“art therapy” AND elderly OR aged OR geriatric AND depression OR mood OR sadness

“art therapy”

elderly

agedANDOR

ORgeriatric

depression

mood

Sad*

EXAMPLE-1 RESULT

FOR HELP FINDING RELATED SEARCH TERMS

• Google• Wikipedia • CREDO Mind Map• Gale OneSearch Topic Finder, • Keyword or Subject Fields in book or article

records

Example-Keyword or Subject Fields in Article Records

NOT• USE SPARINGLY!!

• Use NOT when you MUST eliminate a term from your search results

• For example: Autism NOT Asperger’s

But be CAREFUL

For example: Looking for Archaeology in Mexico but not New Mexico

Don’t use “Mexico” NOT “New”

While you will avoid “New Mexico” You will also miss “New Discoveries in Mexico”

• Use only to narrow very broad searches

YOUR TURN:

WHAT IS YOUR TOPICWHAT ARE YOUR TERMS?

Your Subject 1 here Subject 2 Subject 3Related search terms Related search terms Related search terms

CREDO REFERENCE An Online Tertiary Resource of Tertiary and

Secondary Sources• Credo (formerly xrefer or Credo Reference)• Began in 1999

• A subscription database available at Gill Library

• Full-text online versions 1200 published reference works

• General and subject dictionaries and encyclopedias

• Links between reference works and links to Gill Library

• Topic Pages

• Mind Mapping Tool

SUBJECT SPECIFIC DATABASES

SEARCH TECHNIQUES• Boolean Operators

• Wildcards and Truncation

• Modifiers and Limiters

DEVELOPING A SEARCH STRATEGY WITH BOOLEAN LOGIC

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoUzX78rg5o

REMEMBER: KEYWORD VS SUBJECT SEARCHING

• Most databases default to searching by keyword anywhere in the article record.

• If you are finding too many search results or too many unrelated search results try Subject Searching which looks for your term in the subject field of each record

THESAURUS OR ONLINE SUBJECT GUIDE

• Check to see if the database

has a Thesaurus or Subject Term

list for more subject terms

to search with.

LIMITERS AND MODIFIERS

LIMITERS

MODIFIERS

ADDITIONAL MODIFIERS

“CELL PHONE*” OR “MOBILE PHONE*” AND CANCER=562 RESULTS

“CELL PHONE*” OR “MOBILE PHONE*” AND CANCER+FULL TEXT LIMITER=366 RESULTS

“CELL PHONE*” OR “MOBILE PHONE*” AND CANCER+FULL TEXT AND SCHOLARLY (PEER REVIEW) JOURNALS LIMITER+ =204 RESULTS

“CELL PHONE*” OR “MOBILE PHONE*” AND CANCER + FULL TEXT, SCHOLARLY (PEER REVIEW) JOURNALS AND DATE LIMITER =108 RESULTS

NESTING-VERY IMPORTANT Use parenthesis to separate your ORs from you ANDs and your

NOTS if you are entering your search in one search box.

(“cell phones” OR “mobile phones”) AND cancer

(money OR wealth) AND (happiness OR contentment)

(“art therapy” OR “music therapy”) AND (elderly OR aged OR geriatric) AND (depression OR mood OR sadness)

EXAMPLES OF NESTING

FINALLY, NESTING• Show nesting video

• http://lib.colostate.edu/tutorials/advboolean.html

LET’S START SEARCHING

See Lab Exercise Assignment to practice our database searching skills!

Remember to do Homework as posted in the LibGuide