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LIS2004 Strategies for Online Research

This guide contains resources for students in Prof. Lizeth Garcia's LIS2004 course.
Competency 2

Locate information effectively by:   

a. Demonstrating an understanding of how information is organized and disseminated online.  

b. Choosing relevant electronic information sources.  

c. Employing appropriate search strategies, such as using Boolean operators, keywords, subject headings, and database thesauri.  

Learning Outcomes

Critical Thinking

Information Literacy

Computer/Technology Use

Research as Inquiry

Research is iterative and depends upon asking increasingly complex or new questions whose answers in turn develop additional questions or lines of inquiry in any field.

Research Ally: Library Databases
Slide 1
Advanced Searching

Most databases provide an advanced search feature. The advanced search usually contains pull-down menus that allow you to search specific categories. Those categories are typically: subject headings, author, date, journal title, and article title. Depending on the database, additional search fields might be available.

By applying limiters, you can narrow your search results to exclude sources which do not meet the criteria you have chosen. Popular limiters are:

  • Full Text: only sources with access to the complete article will be included
  • Scholarly (Peer Reviewed): only articles from peer reviewed journals will be included
  • Publication Type: only sources of the specified type, like newspaper, book, or primary source document, will be included
  • Published Date: only sources published within the date range set will be included
  • Language: only sources in the language chosen will be included

Depending on which database you are using, the advanced search feature may look slightly different.

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators are used to connect your keywords to either broaden or narrow your search. 

AND is the default in most databases. AND works to narrow your search. If I search for "obesity" alone I will get many results. If I search for "obesity" on the first line connected by AND to "childhood" on the second line, I will eliminate all search results which discuss obesity without mentioning the childhood, thus narrowing my search.

Connecting words with OR has the opposite effect. OR works to expand your search.  OR is good for use with synonyms. For example, I could search for "child" OR "juvenile". The results for this search will include all results about child and juvenile and about both.

Activity 4

Choose appropriate search terms to locate 3 articles on your topic. Save the permalinks.