Library Research
VANESSA LAWRENCE – [email protected]
Library research workshop
◦ Getting started
◦ Creating a search
◦ Choosing “good” results
◦ Changing your search
What are you looking for?
How do you decide what is a “good” result?
◦ Depends on the research context
What are you looking for?
Different types of research use different types of information
◦ Books, journal articles, news articles, and websites are some sources you might use
Different types of research need a different amount of information
A good researcher always looks for authoritative information
◦ Related
◦ Reliable
◦ Readable
Getting started
Do “pre-research” to understand the research context and:
◦ Narrow down a research topic
◦ Find synonyms for search keywords
Encyclopedia articles
◦ Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, but is it reliable?
◦ The library has academic encyclopedias
Textbooks and class readings
Library subject guides and course guides
Creating a search
Search for sources on your topic by deciding what key ideas are important
◦ Research topic  Key ideas
◦ What are the advantages and opportunities of artificial intelligence?
 artificial intelligence, advantages, opportunities
Search using key ideas in (parentheses), joined together using “AND”
◦ (artificial intelligence) AND (advantage) AND (opportunity)
More key ideas will find less results
Creating a search
Brainstorm or research some synonyms for your key ideas
◦ More synonyms will help find more results
Use synonyms as keywords to describe each idea, joined together using “OR”
◦ (artificial intelligence) AND (advantage) AND (opportunity)
(“artificial intelligence” OR ai OR “machine intelligence”) AND
(advantage OR benefit) AND (opportunity OR application)
If a keyword is one idea but more than one word, you can use “quotation marks”
to search for the words in the same order you wrote them
Activity: Creating a search
Write down a research topic you’re interested in
Write down the keywords, and think of some synonyms
◦ Share your ideas with a partner, and think of words together
Create a search with some key ideas and synonyms you can think of
◦ (key idea OR synonym) AND (key idea OR synonym)
Choosing “good” results
The most important part of searching is to actually find information that answers
your question. Look for results that are:
◦ Related
◦ Reliable
◦ Readable
Remember that you probably won’t find one perfect result, but look for a few
sources that will help you make an argument
Choosing “good” results
Find results that are related to your topic
◦ Check that your keywords show up in the title and summary
◦ Read the summary and ask:
◦ Are the keywords in the right context?
◦ Look at the book or article keywords to find the main ideas
Choosing “good” results
Find results that are reliable sources
◦ Make sure the content type is useful for your research question
◦ Make sure the information isn’t out of date
◦ If the information is from a website
◦ Find the source of the information
◦ Ask “Why did the author write this?”
◦ Compare to library sources
Choosing “good” results
Find results that are “readable” information for you
◦ Make sure you have access to the full text
◦ If you are looking at a print book, is it in the library?
◦ Make sure the writing isn’t too technical
◦ Can you understand the summary?
Choosing “good” results
Once you find a good source, write down the citation
◦ The citation will help you find it again
◦ The citation will help your instructor find it, to make sure you did good research
Activity: Choosing “good” results
In a group of three:
Choose a “good” results from the list
◦ Make sure it fits with the research context
Make an APA citation for it
Make sure you can explain why it is a “good” result
◦ Is it related, reliable, and readable? How do you know?
Changing your search
Look carefully at the results of your search to find out how to improve it
We can change keywords, change the search options, or search in a different
database
Changing your search
Change your keywords based on the words in the titles and summaries that
show up in your results
Look at the “good” results to find new synonyms to add to your search
Look at the not-so-good results to find things that don’t fit your research at all
◦ You can remove synonyms or keywords that don’t help from your search
Look for different keywords in your research question
Changing your search
Change your search with the options in Summon to find more “good” results
Narrow down your results by limiting the content types
◦ You might want to start with Book / eBook
Limit results to the discipline you’re studying to find results related to your topic
If your results are out-of-date for your research, limit the publication date
Changing your search
Sometimes you can find results that are more related or reliable for your search
topic by searching in a different place
Look on Google Scholar to find results in many subjects, like Summon
Look at course guides and subject guides to find subject-specific databases
Look at the list of “Databases by Type” to find specific content types
◦ News databases are usually better than Summon to find news articles
If you don’t need academic information, try looking in Google
◦ Be careful to make sure the source of the information is still reliable
Activity: Changing your search
Look carefully at the search keywords and the search results
How would you change the search to find more “good” results?
Write one thing on a piece of paper, and make a snowball.
Remember…
Start with background research to narrow your topic and learn the context
◦ Wikipedia, encyclopedia articles, or introductory books
Decide what you’re looking for – what does a good result look like?
Turn your research topic into key ideas and synonyms
◦ (keyword OR synonym) AND (keyword OR synonym)
Choose “good” results that are related to your topic, reliable for the context, and
readable for you
Change your search and try again to find even more “good” results
Ask for help
If you need any help with your research, you can always ask for help at the
library
◦ Visit the Research Help Desk or call 613-520-2735
◦ Email me, Vanessa Lawrence: [email protected]