First Year Seminar (FYS-101) Research Exercises

Welcome to FYS Research Exercise #3!

Outcomes

When you finish this research exercise, you will know:

• How to generate "keywords" to use as search terms in the library databases
• How to use the three major searching techniques that apply to both databases and Google searches
  • Boolean Operators - connecting "keywords" with the words AND, OR, NOT to convey to the search engine how we want a search conducted
  • Phrase searching - putting quotation marks around two or more words that form a search phrase
  • Truncation - putting an asterisk at the end of a set of letters to search for all words beginning with those letters
• How to use database Limiters and Tools to narrow search results to the most relevant items
• How to use Google Scholar to find scholarly sources and locate them in the library databases

To complete this Research Exercise, you will take a quiz located under "Course Menu"  and "Quizzes" in your FYS101 Brightspace course.

Searching in Library Databases

As we learned in Research Exercise #1, it is not as easy to search the library databases as it is to search in Google, however, once we learn the tricks, we will be able to find better quality information faster to use for our research purposes, but also on which to base important life decisions like where to live, who to date, career and health information.

Keywords as Search Terms

To search effectively in library databases, we need to pull out the KEYWORDS in our RESEARCH TOPIC or question and then connect them using special terms and symbols to tell the search engine exactly what we want it to find for us. WATCH THIS VIDEO to learn why it is important to not only select keywords from a research topic to search with, but also choose synonyms (words that mean the same thing) for each keyword.

Search Tricks

As mentioned in the video, how you CONNECT your keywords will also impact your search results. There are three main tricks to use with searching:

Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators are the words AND, OR, NOT that when used between keywords tell a search engine what to look for.

• Connecting all your keywords with AND tells the search engine to find ALL those words in each result it brings up.
• Connecting keywords with OR tells the search engine to find either word in each results, so it will bring up MORE results. When there are two or more words used to mean the same event, place, concept, etc. or there is more than one spelling for a word, you will want to include both and connect them with the word OR to enable finding all relevant resources.

For example:

In Collection #14 "Trans-gressions" the painting by George Catlin is titled "Dance to the Berdache" and yet as you research you will find that Berdache is sometimes spelled Berdash. So when you search you might use this format in your search phrase: (Berdash OR Berdache) AND ___________. This tells the search engine you want it to locate the word Berdash OR the word Berdache and another term specific to your research topic (fill in the blank).

• Using NOT before a keyword tells the search engine to leave out results with that word in them from the results list.
• Boolean operators are CAPITALIZED in your search phrase because some databases will only recognize them if they are capitalized. Also, it helps remind you that you are using those words AND, OR, NOT intentionally to guide the search engine to do a particular thing.

This search will bring up all results that contain the three words: racism, socioeconomic, and status.

Phrase Searching

Putting two or more words inside quotation marks tells the search engine to find that phrase in each result it brings up, instead of each individual word anywhere in the document.

This search will bring up all results that contain the word racism and the phrase socioeconomic status

Truncation

Putting an asterisk after the root or "trunk" of a word tells the search engine to find ALL words that begin with that group of letters in each results it brings up. Be careful to include only the letters that would appear in all forms of the word. Example:  communit* for community and communities.

This search will bring up all results with the words racism or racist and the phrase socioeconomic status.

Sample Search - Putting all the tricks together

When there are several different words or phrases used for the same concept/idea, you may include them all in your search at once by connecting them with the Boolean Operator "OR" and entering those synonyms in parentheses before you connect with an AND so the search engine will look appropriately for the words you want. It's like that old Associative Property of mathematical operations, you need to put in parentheses what you want it to do in order to have it search the correct combination.

This search will bring up all results with the words racism or racist, and the phrases socioeconomic status or social class or both.

Search Terms matter!

Library database search engines are NOT like Google. They don't have algorithms that automatically substitute synonyms for your search terms and find results that use words that mean the same thing as what you typed in. For example, when using the Library Multi-Search box on the library home page, look at the different number of results you get for these three searches below. Click HERE for images of all three searches.

• Using Carlisle Indian School as your search phrase, you see 1,264 results are returned.

  

• Using Carlisle Indian Boarding School (which that institution was also called) as your search phrase, you see only 193 results. The search engine is only bringing up results that have all FOUR of those words in them. Articles/books/videos must use the word "boarding" to come up in this list. Whereas the previous list has many more results because those do not have to include "boarding" in them.
• If you search using Phrase Searching and put "Carlisle Indian School" in quotation marks as your search term, you see only 555 results because now the search engine is only bringing up results that have that EXACT PHRASE, "Carlisle Indian School" in them as opposed to results that have those 3 words in them separately in different places.

   

Spelling counts!

• Databases will not correct your spelling the way Google will offer you suggestions spelled differently than what you have entered. 

For example:

In Collection #6 "Condition of the Mother" when researching Sally HEMINGS and her room at Monticello, you will want to be sure to spelling her name with one "M" as "Sally HEMMINGS" will not bring up results.

Using the Shapiro Library Multi-Search

The library has MANY databases, but most researchers begin by using the "Multi-Search" box on the Shapiro Library home page because it will search nearly half of the resources the library subscribes to all at once which saves time! WATCH THIS VIDEO for a basic overview of using the Multi-Search tool. 

Once you conduct a search in the Multi-Search (long box on the library home page), you will see a list of results. In the video you were shown (very quickly) how to narrow your search results down. Below is a breakdown of those "limiters" and "tools" to help you refine your search results to the best possible sources.

Search Limiters

The following are some of the "limiters" to refine your search results, called that because they will "limit" your results to certain categories. These are located in the left hand margin of the list of results that come up after you conduct a search in the Multi-Search.

Peer Reviewed/Scholarly

Selecting this button will leave only sources that are published in "peer-reviewed" or scholarly resources like academic journals, videos and books. "Peer-reviewed" means that other scholars in the same field (peers) have evaluated each article or information source that is published in that journal or volume. Professors often ask you to find "peer-reviewed" or "scholarly sources" for your research papers and projects.

Publication Date

Using the slide bar, or entering beginning and ending dates in the boxes will narrow the results to those published in a specific time frame. Sometimes you want to see historical sources published at the time an event took place or a new theory was being developed. In other instances you want to see the most recent studies on a certain phenomenon.

Limit by Subject Term

Your initial search is just a KEYWORD search meaning the search engine is looking for the words you type in and bringing up results that have those words in them. When sources are put in a database, they are given "subject headings" to indicate what the source is ABOUT. This means you can narrow your keyword results down to those that are ABOUT certain topics.

Be sure to click on "Limit by Subject Term" and then click on "Show More" at the bottom of the six terms that appear in the margin. Now you will be able to see the complete list of Subject Terms and click on all that apply to your topic before you click the "Update" button.

Search Tools

Preview Tool

In the Multi-Search, the preview tool appears as an icon that looks like a magnifying glass on a piece of paper that is located to the right of each title in the results list. Hovering over this icon, or clicking on it, will bring up a box with more information about that specific source often including an "Abstract" which is a summary of the article/source. This is great to help you decide if this might be a good source for your project!

Citation Feature

In the Multi-Search, AFTER you click on a title in the results list, a landing page for that source will come up. In the right hand margin will be a column of icons. Click on the yellowy piece of paper icon that says "Cite" next to it. A list of citations for that particular source in different citation formats will appear at the top of the page. Scroll down that box to find the MLA 8th Edition citation for your FYS101 project. Copy and paste that citation into a document to keep for your annotated bibliography and website due at the end of the course.

Permalink/Stable URL

Lots of students like to save links to articles they find. Because the databases are being paid for and their content isn't available on the open web, the links to database sources are protected behind a proxy. So to find the "permalink" for an article in a database, after you click on the title of the article and are on the landing page, go to the same column of icons in the right margin and click on the chain link icon with "Permalink" next to it. The link will appear in a long thin box at the top of the page.

Full Text

To get to the actual article, select "HTML Full Text" or "PDF Full Text" or "Link to Full Text" or "Full Text Finder" beneath the source's citation in the results list. This is also available at the bottom of the box from the Preview Tool or in the left margin after you click on the title.

A-Z Database List

Using the Multi-Search on the library home page searches nearly half of the library's resources at once, however, there are many more databases with specific content that cannot be searched in the Multi-Search. To access the list of databases, click on the A-Z Database List in the Quick Links box on the library home page.

When the list comes up, there are 3 boxes across the top of the list, and an alphabet which are tools to help you select appropriate databases for your research topic.

Subjects

Click on the left-hand box (All Subjects) and a drop-down menu of subjects appears for you to select from such as Business or Education or Psychology or Statistics. This will then bring up a list of the databases that have content in that subject area for you to select.

Database Types

Clicking on the center box at the top of the A-Z Database List reveals a drop-down menu of types of content such as: case studies, videos, primary sources, industry information, reference materials, etc. from which to select the type of materials you are looking for.

Vendors/Providers

The third box at the top of the A-Z Database List provides a drop-down menu of the database vendors so you can see all the databases offered by a single vendor like EBSCO or SAGE for example. Some vendors have tools that allow you to search all their databases at once, so this can be useful in that instance.

Alphabet

The alphabet going across the top of the A-Z Database List allows you to select a specific database that you already know the name of. Later in your Library Research Exercises, you will be using specific databases like Statista (a very user-friendly statistics database), so this alphabet tools allows you to quickly go to the databases that begin with "S" and scroll down to click on that particular database link.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is Google's database of academic or research or "scholarly" sources. It has the wonderful algorithms of Google making it easier to search in than the library databases, however it will not have the full-text of all the articles for you to read them, because access to much of scholarly research costs money. Instead Google Scholar will list lots of citations for articles that you would need to look up in the library databases which are paid for by SNHU so that faculty/staff/students will have access to a broad range of scholarly content. 

Connect Google Scholar to Shapiro Library Databases

There is a tool to help you connect Google Scholar to the library databases. The directions are below. Remember you will have to do this each time you log off and return to search in Google Scholar.

Tools in Google Scholar

Links in the space to the right of a citation in a Google Scholar results list will take you to the full text of that source. Additionally, Google Scholar has a few tools to help you as a researcher:

• Date Limiter

  In the left margin of your Google Scholar results page, you may narrow your results to particular time frames such as: SInce 2021, Since 2020, Since 2017, or you may specify your own custom date range

• Citation Feature

  Clicking on the large quotation marks beneath a result will bring up a box with that source cited in 5 different formats as well as a button to export to various citation managers including RefWorks which SNHU subscribes to for its students/faculty/staff

• Cited by

  Clicking on "Cited by" beneath any result will bring up a list of sources that were published more recently that cited the original source in your results list. This is a great way to find more current information than the resources you have already.

FYS Research Exercise #3 Quiz

Please read these directions to access your quiz:

• Click on the link below to be taken to Brightspace in a new tab. This page will remain open.
• Select your FYS101 course
• Select COURSE MENU from the course navigation bar
• Select QUIZZES from the drop down menu that appears
• In the list of Quizzes, select LIBRARY RESEARCH EXERCISE QUIZ # 3
• You may use this page to answer the quiz questions. You have 2 hours to complete the quiz which is designed to take 10-20 minutes

Want to Learn More?

(Optional)

Want to learn more about database searching and earn a badge for it? Check out this Strategic Searcher badge from Shapiro Library:

Do you know all about keyword and Boolean searching? Are you an old pro at truncation and phrase searching? Know your way around Shapiro library's A-Z Database list? Prove it today to earn the Strategic Searcher badge! All the information you need to earn the Strategic Searcher badge is covered in the Search & Research Virtual Research Workshop, but you don't have to attend in order to earn the badge, you can view a recording of the workshop. Learners who complete the Strategic Searcher Quiz with a score of 80% or more earn the Strategic Searcher badge. You will find all the information you need to know at the link embedded in the badge icon above.