Library 101 - Part 2: Research Methods and Strategies

Most of the search boxes that you will encounter on the Lyman Beecher Brooks Library website and resources like databases will offer a basic keyword search by default. This kind of search box is common because of its ease of use and familiarity to common search boxes like Google, but it is important to remember that the results that you get from a keyword search can vary in quality due to the wide spectrum of sources and can often produce an enormous results list that would be impractical to read through.

An example of a basic search box.

Remember these limitations when using a basic keyword search and be prepared to clean up your results with filters as shown in the next box:

• This is broad type of search will look for your search terms anywhere and everywhere from article titles to tables of contents, author names, subjects, and beyond.
  • For example, a keyword search of "Brooks" intended to find books written by an author with the last name Brooks might return books written by authors with the last name Brooks, but it will also return results for articles about the subject of brooks (the natural formation, a kind of small stream).
     
• In addition to mixing up authors and subjects, keyword searches often include a feature where the search engine will suggest alternative terms to the one that you used and you may see the question "Did you mean:...?" or the statement "Showing results for ..." with the substituted word shown. You may also experience "fuzzy search" which will look for your search term with multiple spellings even if you did not type in any alternatives, such as a search for "theater" showing results for both "theater" and "theatre".
   
• Sometimes a basic keyword search can help you find the exact item that you are looking for or related items that are still useful. This can be a great opportunity to use some advanced search techniques as shown on the following guide: Library 101 - Advanced Research Techniques
   

Keyword searches can still be a great tool, especially when combined with filtering as described in the next box, but you can also improve your search techniques with some additional skills in the advanced research technique guide: Library 101 - Advanced Research Techniques

Effectively using filters is an important skill to develop and use alongside all kinds of searches, but especially important for keyword searches.

Filtering results in research databases and library catalogs is the same idea as filtering your shopping search results in Amazon. Filters let you restrict the larger pool of results to those that are likely to be useful to you.

These are some filters that are common in many databases and can be very helpful in making a large batch of results more useful:

• Peer Reviewed / Scholarly
  • Limits your results to only peer-reviewed/scholarly content. This is a very helpful tool to make sure that your resources meet the requirements of your assignment if your professor requires peer-reviewed resources.
     
• Full Text / Content I Can Access / Unlocked  / Open Access  / Free 
  • These filters limit your results to only materials that you have full access to, i.e. a full length book, article, etc.
  • Without this kind of filter, your results list will often include index or abstract results that only present a description of the resource, but not the full material.
     
• Item / Document type: book, ebook, article, journal, podcast, audiobook, DVD, case study, conference paper, etc.
  • Whether you are looking for a particular item type or just need to break up your results list into smaller pieces, filtering by item/document type can help you make your results list more manageable.
     
• Publication date
  • For many assignments, professors will require that your sources are current or that they were published within the last 3, 5, or 10 years. Carefully check your assignment for the publication date requirement for your assignment and use this filter to make sure that all of your sources comply with the limitation.
     
• Language
  • Many databases include results in multiple languages. If you do not want results in multiple languages, use this filter to limit to a single language or selection of languages to meet your needs.
     
• Subject
  • Use the Subject filter to limit your results to the subject area that is appropriate for your research. This is very helpful for differentiation when your search term has multiple meanings. For example, if you are using the search term "Tesla", you can use the Subject filter to differentiate between resources about Nikola Tesla and the electric car manufacturer.