Searching Basics

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Searching Basics

• Larissa Moebs, MLIS, MA
• Public Services Librarian
• Illinois Central College
• July 2006

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How Do I Choose a Topic??

• START WITH WHAT INTERESTS YOU! (this is extremely
  important as you will be working with this idea
  for a long time)
• Work with something about which you already know
  a little (this allows you to spend less time on
  the general background material)
• If you are truly uninspired, the library has
  several resources that can aid you

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How do I choose a topic - II

• Bear in mind that research is an iterative
  process, meaning that you pose an idea,
  investigate, modify the idea, pose a new,
  modified idea, investigate, etc
• Do NOT limit yourself to only one TYPE of
  resource or only one Database to search!! This
  is VERY important while the databases do
  overlap in some areas, each one contains material
  that is different from the others in some way
  (otherwise we wouldnt be spending money on
  getting it).

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Now That I Have a General Topic, What do I do
With It??

• Remember that if you (or someone else) could
  write an entire book about it, then the topic is
  too broad NARROW IT (be more specific)
• Conversely, if you can answer your research with
  a single paragraph or two, your topic is too
  narrow BROADEN IT (look for an area with more
  information to work with)
• For assistance with these activities, see the
  library resources for topic choosing.

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Now that I have a general topic, what do I do
with it - II

• A good rule of thumb to help narrow your topic is
  to check and see how many and what type of
  resources are available concerning your chosen
  material.
• If there are 5-10 scholarly articles about it
  and/or a few books, then you probably have a good
  topic
• If there are only 5-10 popular articles/newspaper
  articles, but no scholarly ones and no books, you
  might want to think about a different topic.
• If there are ONLY books available, you will want
  to give serious consideration about it because
  you will be doing A LOT of reading to get to your
  topic information
• If the Web is your only resource, you will NOT
  want to continue that topic. You can assist
  yourself with using the open web as a resource
  with some of our other tutorials

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So, get out there and think ?