Information Retrieval Concepts

Major Disciplines of Knowledge - blocks in this course

Information Containers (brainstorm)

Information Finding Tools (brainstorm)

Cost of Information - Fee-based vs. free information resources

v subscription databases and catalogs available on Library Gateway websites (scholarly journal articles and books required in college research)

v web search engines & sites (possibly useful background information; wide range of personal webpages; many commercial sites; some high quality information sites)

v print materials in libraries

Electronic Information Databases and Catalogs

v Are produced commercially, sold to many libraries, & offer powerful search features

v Contain records describing periodical articles, books, reviews, dissertations and other sources

v Some databases and catalogs contain only citations; some contain citations and short abstract summaries; some contain citations, short abstracts and full text

v Records are retrievable by searching your topic as a subject or as a keyword; you can usually also search by a known author or title; full-text databases allow searching within the text

v No library contains every source described in an electronic information database or catalog; some sources will be included in full-text in the database or catalog

v Full text articles and books are available in some databases and catalogs, if the publisher has given permission and if the database producer has paid a copyright fee

Search Formulation and Modification Protocols for Electronic Databases and Catalogs

v Start with your specific topic (e.g. stem cell research); broaden (e.g. genetics) or narrow (e.g. parkinson’s disease and stem cell research) your search as needed

• Try searching by subject (e.g. death penalty) ; use different words to describe your topic (e.g. capital punishment) because sometimes the finding tool uses a different subject than you chose

• Try searching by keyword, which picks up words in the following fields in the record: subject, title, abstract or text, if available

• Truncate your search term (e.g. famil* picks up family, families, familial)

• Use the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT to search several concepts at once

• Use subjects that have been assigned to the source to find other sources

• Use references to other sources which you find at the end of full text articles

• Use help screens within database or catalog