Find Information

"What is research but a blind date with knowledge?"

William Henry

At this second stage of research a student will:

  • Craft a search strategy
  • Search the web and databases

Want a librarian to teach this and other competencies to your students? Visit our Library Instruction page!

Crafting a Search Strategy

The strength of a search strategy determines how successful a search is.

Poor:
Why did Alexander Hamilton write the Federalist papers?
Better:
Alexander Hamilton write Federalist papers
Best:
"Alexander Hamilton" motivat*"Federalist paper" author
The star at the end of motivate indicates truncation. For more on truncation, check out Search Tips below.

Crafting a search strategy means:

  • Identifying discipline specific language
  • Using database tools, like truncation

Search Tips

Use these search tips to help craft search strategies (a copy for download is available in Classroom Activities):

  • Databases scan articles for the exact search terms that you type.
  • Pull keywords out of your search question. Changing the keywords changes your results.
  • Look for up-to-date information (within the past 5 years). Check the date of the article or the date last updated for a website (usually at bottom or sidebar).
  • Plural vs. singular = various forms of the word will give you different results.
  • Use "or" to increase results. If you are searching for information specifically in the United States, try using the keywords (United States or America) to search both terms simultaneously.
  • Truncation: take the stem of any word, example "teach*" and add an asterisk. This will search for every form of the word simultaneously. For example: teach, teaches, teaching, teacher.
  • Use Quotes! This works really well when searching for a person or phrase. For example, "Alexander Hamilton" or "obsessive compulsive disorder." Keeping words together makes your search more exact.
  • Google ONLY: type in your keywords and add site:edu, gov. or org to receive only those types of websites in your results. Make sure there are no spaces between "site:" and the domain name you are looking for.

Application Example

Continuing with the example begun on the Start Research page:

Research Question: Alexander Hamilton collaborated with James Madison to write the Federalist Papers. Why did he feel the need to write them? And how did the Federalist Papers affect America?

During this stage a student will:

  • Try different searches and find the right combination
  • Search online and in databases
  • Find books, articles, and websites

Classroom Activities

Below are activities and handouts you can use in your classroom to show your students how to pick and define topics.

Library Tutorials

These tutorials are on the library web page and can be accessed at any time.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to Ask Steely Library!

Questions or comments about these pages can be directed to Ellie Jones.