Note: These steps are not necessarily performed in the following
exact order but "recursively," as you revise your strategies and
adapt them to your search results. You may need to go back to some
questions several times.
1. Identify the problem
a. Can I state my search problem in a clear
question?
b. What type of information do I need? (overview,
scholarly, news, point of view, documents)
c. How much information do I need? (research
paper, essay, definition)
2. Select appropriate databases
or search tools
3. Brainstorm keywords
a. What are my major concepts?
b. What synonyms, broader or narrower terms,
or related ideas could I use?
c. How will I link the keywords with Boolean
operators (AND, OR, NOT)?
d. Should I be concerned about plurals or other
forms of words? (Are there truncation or wildcard
features?)
e. Will proper names (people or places) focus
my search?
f. Should I adjust my strategy for a
full-text database?
g. Is there a thesaurus or controlled vocabulary?
(Check your results for "subject headings.")
h. Are some words meaningless (for example,
"company" in a business database) in this database?
i. Have I spelled everything correctly?
4. Subject vs. keyword search/
subject directory vs. search engine
a. Do I have more than one concept to search?
b. Am I browsing for a topic or looking for
a way to narrow a broad topic?
c. Can I spell the vocabulary correctly?
d. an I search by field?
5. Refine the search online (Searching
is an interactive process!)
a. Are my hits relevant, readable, accessible?
b. Have I used all the strategies I planned
to use?
c. Have I tried different combinations of keywords?
d. Should I use broader or narrower terms?
e. Have I searched with "peripheral vision"?
(Have I examined the most promising hits for better
vocabulary, especially in the "subject" or "descriptor" fields?)
f. Did I spell my search terms correctly?
g. Do I need to ask the library information
specialist for advice?
h. Should I try another database?
i. Is my topic really not "doable"? Should
I consider another?
6. Evaluate the search offline;
examine that printout; ask, "What if?"
a. How relevant were my results?
b. Which of the results are the best? (relevant,
timely, credible, readable, available, and promote
the point of view I support)
c. Which of my strategies worked best? Should
I try them in another database?
d. Are there additional keyword clues in my
printout?
e. Did I select the best possible databases?
f. What is my next step?
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