Deciding Which Search Tool to Use

International Baccalaureate - Diploma ProgrammeUniversity of Melbourne Library

Learning Objectives• Support you to assess your information needs• Identify search tools available to support your

information seeking• Understand the scope and value specific tools so

you can utilize relevant tools to meet your needs• Understand the value of planning your searches

and approach• How to access further support

What are the task requirements?Assess your information needs

Make a checklist of relevant source types based on the task requirements

Content from

the web

Books

Journal articles

How many search tools will you need to use?

How much has been

published about the

topic?

How much information do

you need? A defined

amount? Or a comprehensive

review?

Potential tools and approaches

Search the Library catalogue Search Discovery

Search in an Education database

Search Google Scholar

Search a Multi-disciplinary

Database

Search within a journal or website

Use cited reference searching

Use Google Advanced Search

Overview of tools and approaches There is usually more than one search tool suitable for retrieving the

same type of information source.

Become familiar with the different tools and then select an approach which suits you and your topic.

A good starting point is within a multidisciplinary databases such as Discovery.

Improve your results by searching both multidisciplinary and subject specific databases.

Keep track of keywords, authors and journals in your field.

Recognised and become familiar with common database features such as limit options, print options, how to save results and save search strategies.

Search the Library Catalogue

You can confine your search to ebooks by selecting the Search for ebooks option.

Select the Search the entire collection option to include all material types and formats

Tip: Use a title search in the library catalogue to establish if we own a particular book, or subscribe to a journal title, or have access to a database.

Selecting databases that meet your needs

Search Discovery

Discovery is a multidisciplinary tool, which can be an effective starting point for any topic. It can retrieve a range of material types such as, journal articles, and ebooks held in our collection.

Applying Limiters will allow you to

• limit the source types retrieved • the publication date range

retrieved• limit to peer review status• Find only full-text results

Watch the following videos available on the Databases page of the library guide

An introduction to Discovery searchAccessing full-text

Core Education Databases

Tip: Once you open an Informit or ProQuest database you can select to change databases to search across all their database products, and for some topics this will expand your set of results.

The Library guide offers a list of core Education databases with descriptions.

We also have Library guides for individual learning areas and these include databases which focus on specific areas of teaching.

The A+ Education database is published locally by Informit and indexes Australian and NZ content.

Informit = Australian content The database interface has fewer features than other products. You will need to open PDFs and save the articles and it won’t help you by preformatting citations for referencing. However, we recommend searching the Informit databases for unique Australian content unavailable in other databases.

How to access a database

STEP ONE: Select the database

STEP TWO: ConnectSTEP FOUR: Search

STEP THREE: Login

Use Cited Reference Searching

• A valid way to locate relevant literature and to focus your searching is to follow up on the work of a relevant paper, or an author, or investigate who has cited the original paper since it was published.

• Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar are recommended tools to support this approach, as they all offer a cited reference search feature.

Search Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a powerful search tool, use it to supplement the results you retrieve from databases or as an alternative search tool.

You need to set preferences in Google Scholar to activate access to full-text paid for by the Library.

Follow the steps outlined on the Databases Page of your library guide to make the Source it @ Melbourne links visible, so you can access the full-text content.

Access advanced search features

Use Google Advanced Search

Google Advanced search provides a structured form This will help you to locate authoritative Grey literature, such as: websites; reports; policy statements and papers; conference proceedings; and government documents.

Search Within a Journal

Assessment related journals from the journals page of the Library Toolkit Confining your search to a

particular journal title is another useful technique to target information.

If you identify a particular journal may be highly relevant to your topic, for example, a sample search reveals strong results for a particular title, it can be useful to search within this journal.

Planning your search methods will support you to search efficiently and effectively

• Assess your information needs before you start searching – make a check list of potentially relevant tools for the task including subject specific databases.

• Devise search statements, complete some sample searches. • Reflect on your results and modify your approach by including

keywords and /or authors identified through your initial searches.• Consider options for focussing your search

Using a subject specific databaseby using cited reference searchingsearching within a journal

• Document your approach and track where you search.• Save full-text and citations for referencing as you search.

Need Help?

From the Getting Started page of your library guide you can get assistance via online chat or

contact a librarian via email

Refer to your library guide