The Four Steps of Expert Database Searching
For MSEM Graduate Students
Gary Shimek
Associate Director and Library Systems Administrator
Walter Schroeder Library
Milwaukee School of Engineering
Revised: 22 September 1998
STEP 1: PREPARE YOUR SEARCH
- Many web interfaces to databases are similar to the search windows for search engines. Both are designed to look simple, easy, and inviting. The reality is that preparation is essential for good, productive online searching in fee-based databases.
- Describe, or think about, the "ideal" article or book about your topic. If you've seen such an article or book in a previous class, or in your professional reading, get it! You can use it to begin a search.
- Identify any journals that have published articles on your topic or related to it. Find out where those journals are INDEXED by looking in Ulrich's, which is located in the MSOE Library Reference section. Focus on those databases where the relevant journals are indexed.
- Identify any professional associations, organizations, groups, etc. that may be related to your topic. Look them up in the Encyclopedia of Associations, or the International Directory of Engineering Societies and Related Organizations, or via the Internet. It is also not unusual to discover associations and groups when you start searching the literature. Try to verify if the group has a library and if it sponsors research.
- Write up a list of keywords based on your proposition statement and on your thesis proposal in general. Focus on the words in your proposition and in your outline.
- Write up a list of concepts associated with your topic. Think broadly. Work outward to the "big picture." How does your topic fit in the organizational picture? How does it fit in terms of management, generally? Is it an accounting topic? A finance topic? A human resources topic? It is not unusual to find relevant literature under a broadly-indexed subject heading.
- Write a description of your topic with professional jargon whose intended target is knowledgeable professionals. Use this description to generate a list of search terms.
- Write a description of your topic for a layperson with little or no knowledge of your topic. Use the description to generate a list of search terms.
- Learn about the research tools available to you. Use the handout entitled Library Research Tools for MSEM Thesis Students. Make sure at the very least that the handout is available when you search so that you can identify what subjects a database covers, and how much retrospective coverage it provides. For example, the earliest databases go back to 1970. Many databases, however, provide coverage for only a few years. Study the MSOE User Documentation if it is available for a database which you access from the MSOE Library Homepage. This user documentation has been written by an MSOE Librarian and it seeks to distill in a page or so the most important concepts necessary for searching effectively a database.
STEP 2: THE DATABASE SEARCHING PROCESS
- The literature and database searching process is a process.
- Work in stages.
- Use the literature itself and your results to modify searches,
to suggest other search terms, concepts, and ideas, and to suggest
ways of systematically adding and subtracting individual search
components. In other words, stop searching, and look at what you've
got. Look for clues. Use these clues, other search terms, and
additional ideas to rework search statements.
The ideal general strategy in searching is to start broad, and then to focus. I recommend doing a quick, "ideal" search first, but then follow it up with the general, systematic strategy which slowly achieves focus. With the exception of a quick, "ideal" initial search, do not overqualify these first searches. Don't use too many terms in a search statement. Break it up. Deliberately cast a wide net.
- Interestingly, this approach is the opposite of the most effective searching on web search engines. On web search engines, it is best to start with many terms.
- Keep a log of your search statements. It may seem tedious,
but it will save time in the
long run. Moreover, try variations of the search statements
that appear in your log.
Use the citation network. Pay attention to frequently cited authors. Search on those authors.
- Be systematic and persistent. Search in virtually every database. Eliminate obvious databases that are probably not useful for your purposes (a music database, for example, if you're searching for business or management information), but ultimately do not neglect at least evaluating the merits of searching every database available to you. Take the time to look in databases that may not seem to be good candidates at first glance. Classic examples are the Index to Legal Periodicals and PsychFirst. This technique also has the advantage of building in a "broad" management perspective right into your search.
- Try to carry out more than one searching session.
- Block out the time for database searching. A wealth of information is available. You can literally search hundreds of databases. The sheer number available, however, and the fact that they are all different means that database searching is tedious. It is time-consuming. Bibliographic software may help to smooth the process a bit, but it cannot replace the cognitive elements--the intellectual evaluation and critical assessment of material--that takes place in database searching. Only you can do that. Accordingly, you need to plan and make the time to do the searching.
STEP 3: USEFUL SEARCHING TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES
- Once you have selected your research tools--your databases, your indexes--review once again the user documentation to learn what to expect from the database, and what it can and can't do. Does it support boolean searching? What journals are actually indexed? Does full-text mean that all articles in a journal appear in the database, or only selected articles?
- Study the index fields and their designations in your selected database. If you wish to limit your search statement in a database, one effective way to do it is by means of index fields. For example, if I wish to locate articles about strategic alliances in the United States only, how can I use a geographic index field to do this? Or doesn't the database support this field?
- Understand the importance of controlled vocabulary. Controlled vocabulary is standardized subject headings assigned by indexers to documents. Each database features its own controlled vocabulary. Often, you need to TRANSLATE your information request into the controlled vocabulary of the database. One quick way you can do this is if you already have an "ideal" article. Look up the article and read the controlled vocabulary that has been assigned to it. Understand also that controlled vocabulary is an index field, and that depending on the database, it may be referred to as a "descriptor (de)," a "subject heading, (sh)" or a "subject (su)."
- Another useful way to determine quickly the controlled vocabulary for your topic in a database is to do a title search on the important words in your topic. You can also do a keyword search. When the results are returned, select promising articles, and note the controlled vocabulary assigned to them. Select several articles if possible.
- Use a database thesaurus if it is available to locate controlled vocabulary.
- Do the "ideal" title or keyword search first. Use the title of your proposed thesis if you wish. Then do controlled vocabulary searching. Next, translate your own keywords and concepts that you developed earlier into controlled vocabulary, and search on the controlled terms. Examine results, and modify search statements, if necessary. Finally, do keyword, or free-text, searching based on your results--use boolean operators and connectors in these keyword statements.
- If you are uncertain about what boolean searching is, look in the database user documentation for examples. You need to understand boolean searching if you are going to be successful with full-text and free-text searching.
- Don't rely exclusively on controlled searching--indexers are only human. Moreover, databases increasingly now are not using controlled vocabulary.
STEP 4: EVALUATE YOUR RESULTS
- What if you get no results? Or very few results?
- Look at your search vocabulary. You need an extensive
vocabulary. Especially in keyword and full-text searching, you
can never have too many synonyms, antonyms, alternate word
endings, related concepts, and so on.
Although you can literally search hundreds of databases here at MSOE, realize that perhaps the ones that are available may not be adequate for your topic. There are thousands upon thousands of databases, and you may have to consult one that we don't have access to--and we'll try to help you do that. However, it may not always be possible (because of cost, distance, etc.).
- You may have a topic that does not lend itself to library research, or you may have a topic in which library research can only supply you with background information. An example would be a case study. Use the library for general background information, then, but do not simply use the literature to produce a book review. However, you may have a topic where library information is not available, or not readily and easily available, and you need to evaluate whether or not this is a hindrance in your particular case.
- You may have a topic that could constitute an original contribution to the field. One way you can verify this is to check with experts.
- Look at your search vocabulary. You need an extensive
vocabulary. Especially in keyword and full-text searching, you
can never have too many synonyms, antonyms, alternate word
endings, related concepts, and so on.
- What if you get too many results?
- This is better than not getting enough results. Usually this means that you have to refine or focus your topic a bit--and you will also most likely sift through your results and end up rejecting anywhere from 40% to 60%.
- Do not rely exclusively on database searching results. Don't neglect print resources. Not everything is on computer or in a database or on the Internet.
- If you get stuck, call the library! We can make appointments for individual tutorials on searching, and we can produce a basic pathfinder, which includes recommended databases, and possible search statements.