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Tips for Better Database Searching

Provided courtesy of Walter Zimmerman (2008).

As graduate students in Library and Information Science, you will be performing hundreds and eventually, thousands, of database and internet searches. Here are some tips to improve your results:

  1. Think through the concepts in your search topic BEFORE you begin at the computer. Group your concepts into separate categories and think of as many synonyms, related terms, abbreviations, acronyms, etc. for each concept as you can. Sometimes, even antonyms can be appropriate search terms (e.g. "academic honesty" OR "academic dishonesty".)
  2. Truncate terms where relevant (and possible) and remember to use British and American spellings (e.g. behavior* OR behaviour*)
  3. If you need help in "brainstorming" for terms, use a thesaurus specifically designed for a particular database or, if there isn't one or if you need to use terms that are not reflected in that thesaurus, try Sara Knapp's Contemporary Thesaurus of Search Terms and Synonyms: A Guide for Natural Language Computer Searching (Second Edition) which will provide you with many ideas for search terms.
  4. If your search is clearly within the scope of a single subject area (e.g. psychology), find the best database for that subject (in this case, PsycInfo) and use it with terms taken from its thesaurus, perhaps along with keywords. The best database can generally be found by using Program Guides and selecting Databases with the top-listed database usually being the best choice.
  5. If your search topic does not "fit" neatly into a particular database or subject area, select a general purpose database such as ProQuest Research Library, Expanded Academic ASAP, Ebsco's Academic Search Complete, or Web of Science for up-to-date topics or JSTOR (for searches that do not need to be current since JSTOR does not provide access to the most recent approximately five years) or Google Scholar. Remember that Google Scholar, like all of our databases, relies on accessing electronic journals so you should go through the Off-Campus Access process first.
  6. In many search "platforms" such as ProQuest, Illumina, InfoTrac, and Ebsco, you can click on a button to add databases and cover more databases at one time.
  7. If your results list is too large, consider restricting the fields from which the terms must be found to fewer and more targeted ones; e.g. switch from searching ALL fields to searching Keywords (perhaps title, abstract, and subject heading terms) to searching terms only in the title.
  8. If the database allows, sort by relevance or by date - whichever makes the more sense for your topic.
  9. Export your citations to RefWorks rather than writing down citations or e-mailing them to yourself.