The Assignment Process: Search strategies

Planning your search

Think about the keywords you will use. Consider possible synonyms, alternative spellings, plurals and other endings.

What sort of information are you looking for?

• scholarly or popular information?
• electronic versions of books, newspapers, journals or other resources?
• simple facts or complex discussion?

How much information do you need?

• a simple answer from one site?
• a range of material from several different sites?

Is the Internet the right place to look for the information you need? Often an online periodical index may be more useful, but these are seldom available free.

LibraryLink lists databases available for University of Waikato staff and students. Contact the Library for information about access to appropriate databases for your subject.

Refining a search

If you have too many hits:

• Add other terms or concepts (see Boolean Searching)
• Search a narrower concept (For example if you started with the term 'education', try 'special education' or 'K-12 education')
• Use a combination subject directory and search engine (like Yahoo) where your keyword search is limited to sites in a particular subject area.

If you have too few hits:

• Try using a broader term or concept
• Broaden the search by linking or using synonyms
• Check your spelling
• Try a different Search Engine. If you want NZ information try starting with a NZ search engine such as NZ Explorer, SearchNZ or a NZ directory like Te Puna Web Directory or Access NZ (See the University of Waikato Library Internet Search Tools page for access to these and other search engines.)
• Check the help or search tips pages at a Search Engine site
• Think about who would have made the sort of information you want available on the Internet; not all information you want is available.
• Ask your Librarian for help.

Boolean Searching

Using Boolean operators (AND OR NOT) will help to focus and define your search by specifying the logical relationship among your keywords and terms. They can help broaden (increase) and narrow (decrease) search results.

Boolean searching is an important skill to learn; you'll need these operators to effectively search the library catalogue, electronic databases and the Internet.

AND narrows a search because ALL TERMS must be present in each hit.
If you enter the following search:

Education AND Waikato

Each hit should contain both the word 'education' and the word 'Waikato'

Adding 'Waikato' to 'education' is a good strategy to use when you only need to limit your search to  information about education in the Waikato. Education is such a broad subject that a search with just 'education' as the search word it is likely to result in hundreds of hits, most of which will be irrelevant if you are only looking for Waikato related information.

OR widens a search because each hit will contain either 'education' or it will contain 'Waikato'. These terms may or may not appear in the same record. If you enter the following search:

Education OR Waikato

all the records containing the word 'education' will be retrieved, as well as all the records containing the term 'Waikato'

The best way to use OR is when you want to make sure that you cover synonyms. Have a look at the following two examples:

education OR teaching OR schooling

bike OR cycle OR bicycle

NOT narrows a search by excluding records containing specified words. If you enter the following search:

Education NOT Waikato

The word 'education' must be present in the records retrieved, but the word 'Waikato' must not be present. Use the NOT operator judiciously as you may exclude relevant records inadvertently. (Some search engines use AND NOT).

Nested Searching

Many search engines, databases and catalogues allow you to create complex queries using Boolean operators, phrases and parentheses. This is called nested searching. Usually, operations enclosed in the parentheses will be performed first followed by the operators outside the parentheses. 

mountain AND (bike OR bicycle)

Terms enclosed in parentheses without Boolean operators will usually be treated as phrases.

((university of waikato) OR (waikato university)) AND ((online OR net OR internet) AND (courses OR programmes OR classes)) 

In general, nested searches should be kept simple and used sparingly. If your nested search yeilds no
hits, double check your spelling. An incorrectly spelled word is often the problem. If not, make sure that you have not missed an opening or closing parenthesis, and that the order is logical.

Note: The University of Waikato Library catalogue and the Library web site search engine both support nested Boolean searching.

Other Operators and Search Aids

NEAR tells the search engine to find records with specified words near to each other.

Phrase searching tells the search engine to find a phrase rather than separate words. Some search engines (e.g. ANZWERS and HOTBOT) allow you to perform this type of search by selecting from a drop down menu. Others (e.g. The University of Waikato Library Catalogue) require you to put the phrase in brackets. Sometimes the phrase will need to be inserted inside quotation marks. Check the help page of each search engine you use for specific information.

Truncation is used to retrieve variations in word endings. For example: If you enter the word 'teach' your results might include records with the words 'teach', 'teacher', 'teaching'. Different search engines and databases will use different characters to indicate truncation. The University of Waikato Library Catalogue uses a ? (e.g. teach?)

Other common truncation symbols include * or $ or + Other search engines allow you to select truncation as an option.

TIP: Check the help page of the database or search engine you are using to find the techniques and symbols unique to that database.

Whatever tool you use to find your information, ultimately it is the quality of the information that is important, rather than how much information you retrieve. Learn to analyse your information:

Scope

Does it cover what you need it to cover, remembering that a great deal of Internet information is fairly recent and American?

Currency

Has the site been updated recently? Is the information up to date?

Comprehensiveness

How complete is the coverage, are some areas more detailed than others?

Authority

Who published the web page and why should you listen to them?

See also: Evaluating Internet Sites

Have fun with your searching. Experiment, practice and ask the library for help when you need it!

The search engines and directories mentioned here are all available from the University of Waikato Library search page.