INFORMATION RESEARCH
OVERVIEW
STEP ONE: Think about your topic. Most topics start out very large. Think about specific aspects of your topic. Think about the part of your topic that troubles you or fascinates you most. Do some preliminary browsing in encyclopedias or the World Wide Web so that you can shift a large topic such as “euthanasia” to a specific, intriguing topic such as “legal challenges to Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act”.
While you are thinking about your topic, however, stay aware of your time limitations (when is this paper or research paper due?), your length limitations (a two page paper is going to call for a different kind of research than a 15 page paper), and the limitations of the COCC Library (we don’t have a lot of legal research materials, for example).
Once you’ve defined your topic, think about the concepts and words that your topic involves.
The topic “nutrition for young children” for example, involves two concepts--”nutrition” and “young children”. Each concept may be described by several synonyms. For example, the word “food” or “diet” may be used instead of “nutrition”. The word “toddler” or “preschool” might be used instead of “young children”. These concepts and synonyms become useful when you employ boolean commands (see STEP SIX).
STEP TWO: Locate more background or factual information on your topic, if necessary, by using reference books. A basic encyclopedia (such as the Encyclopedia Americana) or a subject encyclopedia (such as the Encyclopedia of Religion) will provide you with a wonderful overview of your topic.
Use the Library of Congress Classification System to locate the call number area for encyclopedias and other reference books on your subject.
When looking for reference books, think of your subject in VERY BROAD TERMS; that is, if you are doing research on the topic of “nature symbols in Christianity”, you want to think of “religion”. Again, go to the Library of Congress call letters for religion to locate the Encyclopedia of Religion.
STEP THREE:
Use library online catalogs to search for books on your topic. Use boolean
commands (outlined in Step Six) to help focus your search. Books provide
additional background material, historical context, and in-depth information on
your topic. Often you will not have to read the entire book--check the “Table
of Contents” or the index to locate the information you need. Start with the
COCC Online Library Catalog. Specific instructions for using COCC’s online
catalog are:
*click on Internet Explorer
*get to the COCC homepage (www.cocc.edu)
*get to the Library homepage by clicking on the COCC Library link
*click on catalogs
*click on COCC Online Catalog
*choose to do a WORD search and use boolean commands if appropriate
*click on your book listing to get to the call number
STEP FOUR: After locating books, choose the correct periodical databases in order to locate journal and magazine articles for your topic. Never rely on one source for finding information!
Search databases using boolean commands, keywords, proximity commands and truncation (see Step Six for details). Get to our databases by clicking on the databases link on the Library homepage. Use Academic Search Premier for many academic topics.
*get to the COCC homepage (www.cocc.edu)
*get to the Library homepage by clicking on the Library link
*click on databases link
*click on alphabetical list of databases
*choose the Academic Search Premier
*choose keyword searching
*use advance searching techniques outlined in STEP SIX.
STEP FIVE: In some cases, additional information on your topic may be found on the World Wide Web. Use advanced search techniques described in STEP SIX. Take a look at Search Engine Watch to keep up with the latest web search techniques and other search engine news. Check Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org/ref/) or Librarian’s Index to the Internet (http://www.lii.org/InternetIndex/)- –either site may lead to worthy webpages on your topic. Evaluate webpages carefully—the WWW is full of flaky opinion and questionable commercial ventures!
Don’t forget to explore government documents on the web as potential sources for your topic. Get to the Monthly Catalog (otherwise known as MoCat) on the web at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/adpos400.html or from the Govt. Info link on the Library homepage.
STEP SIX: Specific searching techniques:
AND- combines two or more different concepts making the search narrower.
OR-links synonyms and makes search broader
NOT-excludes words/concepts and limits the search
* - truncation keys (also occasionally designated as ? or +) lets you use the root of a
word to expand your search results (most Internet search engines do this
automatically).
Some databases require boolean commands to be in capital letters, some do not. Generally speaking, you must use OR commands prior to AND. Use parenthesis to combine sets of words. For example:
(computer* or technolog*) and (instruction or teaching or education)
Proximity Operators for most Periodical Databases:
Use proximity operators in full-text databases where simple boolean searching may result in irrelevant hits.
Proximity operators are W, WITHIN, WITH, BEFORE, FOLLOWED BY.
Each proximity operator is used to locate two or more words in close proximity to each other and in a specific order of appearance. A number standing for the amount of words between keywords may be used with some proximity commands. Most proximity operators are not case sensitive.
Additional proximity operators are N, NEAR, ADJ. Each of these is used to locate two or more words in close proximity to each other in any order. Either word can appear first in the document.
An example of proximity searching on the Academic Search Premier
database is:
juvenile w2 crime
With this search the database looks for all documents that contain the word “juvenile” within two words (in order) of the word “crime”.
An example of proximity searching on the web search engine Alta Vista is:
web near design
Phrase searching:
Almost all databases and web search engines allow phrase searching designated by quotation marks.
An example of phrase searching on the web search engine Alta Vista is:
“web design”
Field Searching:
Field searching limits the database or search engine to locating words within one specific part of a document or webpage. Advanced searching in several databases (Infotrac and Oregon Newstand) and some search engines feature pull down menus which allow you to choose to limit your search to title, abstract, author, etc. Other databases and search engines use field codes, such as ti or title to limit searching to titles.
An example of a field search using the web search engine Alta Vista:
title: web design