 Lynn W Zimmerman, PhD

 The process of searching electronically stored information to locate, and identify potentially useful articles and websites o a specific word o combination of words

 What are the disadvantages of subject, title, or author searches? o Title and author – have to know what you are looking for o Subject - what terms have been entered into the subject area of the record  A Keyword search o looks for words anywhere in the record

 Write a list of key words and phrases about topic  Example o You want information on how to write a resume. o What happens if you type in the word: resume? o What can you do? o Narrow by typing ‘resume template’ or ‘resume and employment’  Interested in applying for a job in the US? o Resume template American o Resume template US

 Type in the exact word or phrase that you want to look for o For the exact phrase, use “” to identify it as a set phrase lessons “lesson plans” “grammar lesson plans”  Type in a string of words related to the topic.  Without “”, the search engine with look for the words in any order and location o Grammar lesson plans elementary EFL

 Finds a group of words or phrases linked by and, or, and not, w/# (within a range) and not w/#.  Examples: grammar lesson plans grammar lessons and elementary EFL grammar lessons or elementary EFL grammar lessons and not secondary EFL grammar w/5 EFL grammar not w/27 secondary

 Fuzzy search - Finds words even if misspelled o A search for ‘grammar” would also find ‘grammer’ or ‘gramar’  Phonic search - Finds words that sound alike o ‘pear’ in a search for ‘pair’  Synonym expansion - Finds word synonyms o ‘grammar games’ may also give ‘grammar quizzes’, ‘grammar puzzles’  Stemming - Finds grammatical variations on endings o linguist, linguistic, linguistics

 What is the topic you are thinking of for your thesis? o Think of 3 keywords, then think of 3 keyword phrases o Arrange your keyword phrases different ways using the Boolean connectors