Library searches

A student may ask us:

Is it possible to make my search more narrow?

Students rely on search engines to discover online information for classroom assignments and thesis research. They may prefer Google, Yahoo, Bing or Ask, but these search engines can turn up a vast amount of material. They may find it confusing to try to go through all of the choices available, trying to see what might be applicable to their specific research project. It might save time to approach the internet search engine with a more precise question. That would result in shorter lists of findings, and ultimately save time for the researcher.

Our reply might be ask:

What keywords are you entering into the search engine?

Let us imagine that the student is preparing a thesis or academic research project on:

The Effect of Rolled Ice Cream Consumption on Childhood Obesity in Bangkok

The student may inform us that the only keywords being searched for are

Ice cream

Naturally we could suggest:

It is better to use more terms when doing a search. That will give more detailed results.

So, instead of just searching for ice cream, the student might search for the full title of the planned research:

The Effect of Rolled Ice Cream Consumption on Childhood Obesity in Bangkok

An alternate approach would be to list important terms, separated by the + symbol

Ice cream + obesity + Thailand

Since the student is looking for information about a specific type of ice cream product, rolled ice cream, it may help to also search under another common term for the same product, Stir-fried ice cream or Thai rolled ice cream or I-Tim Pad. The most detailed results may be from the Thai term, I-Tim Pad.

If the student is using the Google search engine, it is possible to limit searches by using Search Settings by clicking on the Settings link at the top of the Google webpage. The drop down menu offers a choice of Search Settings, Advanced Search, and Search Help, all of which may be useful if we are having trouble locating the information we need. For example, under Search Help, we find much advice that can pertain to specific research projects.

If the student asks:

What other keywords should I use for my search?

We may reply:

Sometimes very detailed terms can produce information we need in research.

If we try to decide what we are really researching when we are studying the effect of rolled ice cream consumption on childhood obesity in Bangkok, this may help. For example, we may be really trying to find out about dessert fads consumed in malls and how the high sugar content impacts the health of young Thais. Once we realize that this is part of what we are trying to find out, we have lots of different keywords to try for the search engine, such as:

Dessert + fads + malls + high sugar content + health + young + Thais

This may bring us some search results similar to those we received when we searched for

Ice cream + obesity + Thailand

but there may also be some information that may help us in our research that was not previously visible. We may suggest to students:

Since most academic articles are written about narrow subjects, it is always a good idea to try to make your searches as narrow as possible.

While there may be books about ice cream in Thailand or Thai ice cream, the specific subject of I-Tim Pad and its effect on the health of Thai young people is more appropriate for a highly focused article.

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)