3. Finding information
With so much information available, how do you know where to start?
Search strategies
One of the most important things to do when looking for information for your assignment is to plan your search. There are often alternative words and phrases that you can use to find further sources about the same topic. Planning your search terms and phrases will retrieve more relevant results.
Read the Library’s Find quality information guide for an introduction to creating a search strategy.
Try entering your keywords in the following search strategy planner. You can export a Word document of the text you enter.
Refine your search further
Sometimes you can also use special punctuation or “syntax” to refine your search further.
- Brackets () can be used to logically group together your query.
- Quotation marks “” can be used to ensure all search results contain a specific word or phrase.
- An asterisk can be used to search for permutations of a word, so for example comput* would give results for computers, computation, computing etc.
Searching the Library
The Library gives you access to over 2 million book titles and over 100,000 journal titles, in print and electronically. This amount of information would be a bit overwhelming to search through by hand, so Library Search is here to help you find what you need. Library Search is also available on the Library homepage.
Watch Using Library Search (YouTube, 2m 47s) for a quick introduction to searching for resources.
You will be presented with a log in option when you run a search in Library Search. We recommend you log in to get more results and quickly access the full text of any online resources.
For a physical item, Library Search will show the location, call number, and availability. It is important to know this information before coming to the Library and trying to find the item on a shelf.
Search for the name of your program (for example, ‘Chemistry’) using Library Search. How many results do you get back? Can you narrow your search to get more useful results? Try limiting by content type or publication date.Databases
You might not find everything that you need in Library Search. You may want to use multidisciplinary and subject-specific databases when you need to search precisely or comprehensively.
Databases are high quality and subject specific online information-retrieval systems. You can use them to find journal articles and other publication types, such as books, theses, newspapers, videos and images. Although accessed over the internet, databases are not traditional websites and many require logins to use.
Databases in Library Search lists multidisciplinary and subject-specific databases. Use Databases by category to browse for your subject area. You can also find information on relevant databases in the Subject Guides for your subject area.
Watch Which database should I use to find journal articles on my topic? (YouTube, 1m 47s):
Searching databases
Before you start, it’s always a good idea to plan your search strategy, as outlined at the start of this section. At this stage, ensure that you choose the right database, and carefully select your keywords. Limiting your search to the article title or abstract fields will help retrieve a smaller number of relevant articles.
To access a database relevant to your field of study, check our Subject guides. Identify where the advanced search features are and whether it has a thesaurus.