Library Research Skills: Strategies for Effective Research: Searching for Sources

Now that we have our search terms and know how to combine them to make a good search, we can finally start searching! OneSearch is a good place to start looking for information, as it looks through books, encyclopedias, and articles. The link to OneSearch is directly below this text. There are 2 ways to search for information using the search terms you have come up with--keyword searching and subject searching. Read the boxes below to find out more about each kind of searching.

In the previous tab, you learned how to find search terms or keywords. You can use these terms to do a keyword search for results on your topic. Keyword searches can be done on any type of search engine, whether you are using Google, library databases, or library catalog.

A keyword search is an intuitive way of searching that anyone who has ever used Google can do. A keyword search occurs when you type your chosen search terms into a search box like Google, EBSCOhost databases, etc. The search engine will look for any pieces of information that match the exact words you typed and give you those as a result. This means that keyword searching gives you every piece of information that might mention your search terms. This has both pros and cons: you will get a lot of information, but not all of it will be as relevant to your topic as you'd like. However, this is a very easy way to search.

There are 2 ways to do a keyword search in OneSearch to find books and articles. The first is a simple search, which is the default option. Simply type one of your search terms in and hit search. You will see that all of the results mention your search term.

The second way is through an advanced search. We recommend doing advanced searches, because these allow you to use AND, OR, and NOT via the drop-down boxes next to each search box in order to make your search more specific. Note that you can  use AND, OR, and NOT within each box as well as in the drop-down boxes.

You will see that the advanced search has less than half the results of the first search, because it is more specific. This means the results will be more on your topic.

Another way to search is subject searching. In the research context, subjects are words that describe different topics; essentially a set of labels to describe topics in a database or the library catalog. Other terms that are commonly used for subjects are: subject headings or controlled vocabulary. Each book or article in a library is labeled with a different set of subjects. While subjects do organize the books, they can also be used as a way to search for information on your topic. Since each book or article is labeled with different subject headings, you can search for books or articles through a subject search in the catalog or databases.

Since subject searches look for articles or books that are labeled as being about your topic, you will get more relevant results with a subject search than with a keyword search. To do a subject search in OneSearch, first complete a regular keyword search on your topic. After doing your keyword search, look at the left sidebar. You will see a Subjects option. If you open this up, you will see several subjects that the search engine thinks might match your search.  

Click on the subject that fits your topic best, and you'll find a list of books and articles that have been labeled as about this topic. This means that a subject search is much more focused than a keyword search, and you are much more likely to find better information. In the example below of a subject search, you will see the list of search results go from 9,000 to just over 500.