Information Skills Databases Effective Searching: Exploiting Search Features
Whilst we provide basic quick start guides, the databases we provide all have some form of online help that contain the information you need to become a much faster, more effective user. It helps to know what kind of features you are looking out for when you are browsing help pages. So, what are these features?
The databases you will be searching are not like Google, where you can enter a very simple search and almost always get a decent set of results. Terms like "Boolean Operators" sound very intimidating, but in fact the concepts behind then are very simple and once you have mastered them you will be able to conduct much more precise searches. Many databases that support such techniques will have some form of explanation, but we have prepared a general guide to these so called power searching methods.
As mentioned in the introduction, you will be searching carefully catalogued databases. In practice this means that you can search indexes i.e. limiting your search to a certain type of information to make your search more precise. For example, you may be looking for articles written by a particular author, in which case you would be wise to look for an author index. If you are looking for information from a particular organisation, in which a publisher index will be a big help.
Databases often use subject headings to describe records. These headings are a "controlled vocabulary" - effectively a limited dictionary of terms used to summarise the topics covered by each record. If you are not sure what terms to use in your search, or have already attempted searches but got poor results, browsing or searching through subject headings (sometimes referred to as a thesaurus or as topics) can be a good way to make progress.
Everybody who regularly searches databases knows the frustration of being presented with a huge list of search results. What can you do in this situation? Using subject headings/thesauri (see above) can help if your search terms are rather general, but there are often ways of limiting your search according to criteria independent of the topic you are searching for.
Common limiting criteria are:
Sometimes, rather than searching for information on a particular topic, you will be looking for the text of a citation, otherwise known as a reference. Many databases have a facility to search for a citation, which is much more efficient than trying to track it down via a general search.
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