My Search Strategies

The databases I typically use for my teaching and for my own writing probably tend to be more “old fashioned” than “tech savvy,” and most are found on my college’s library website. I use these primarily because I feel there are fewer “credibility” issues to worry about. I usually begin with MnPALS, the library catalog used for all the MnSCU colleges and universities as well as other MN private colleges; this catalog is mostly for books. I then go to the EBSCO family of databases, which is free for all faculty and students; it includes other databases such as Academic Search Premier, CINAHL (for nursing and allied health), EBSCO MegaFILE, and MasterFILE Premier. I then go to ProQuest for newspaper searching.

When I help my lawyer friend with medical research for his insurance-claims cases, we tend to go to the Diehl Hall Medical Library at the U of MN and use the computers there. I forget off-hand which specific databases we use there, but using the in-house computers not only guarantees access to those databases but also allows us to easily print full-text articles online and to physically go to the shelves if we can’t obtain a full-text article online. Another benefit is having a reference librarian right there to help us if we get stuck.

I sometimes will check Google, but it’s usually last instead of first, which is exactly opposite what I advise my students to do! I tell them to check Google first, even Wikipedia if they must, to get an overview of the topic and what’s out there. I then encourage them to go to the “better” sources and databases for their actual research. Much of this has to do, I suppose, with my own reluctance to use technology and my own skepticism of the credibility, reliability, validity, relevancy, etc. of much of the stuff on the Internet. We do, however, cover all these questions in class, and most, if not all, writing textbooks and handbooks include a section on “evaluating sources,” complete with lists of questions to ask about each different type of source.

The other advantage with the databases listed above is that, more and more, the full text of things is available online. This is ironic, because I also value the physical act of “browsing” in libraries and bookstores. More and more, I find that students will avoid going to the library if they can help it. They’d rather get the full text of things online, even if we are in a computer lab just down the hall from the library and I tell them they can walk down there during class if they need to find, get, or copy something. Rather, if they can’t get the full text online, they will probably skip that source, even though it might be the best source ever for their topic, the source with the “smoking gun,” even if the library owns a hard copy of a book or journal they could photocopy, and they go on to find something else, something similar, but probably something not as good. Another related thought: students also tend to avoid asking the librarians for help, even if the librarians are present with us in the computer lab or are wandering throughout the library.

For identifying and testing out relevant search categories or keywords, I usually begin by brainstorming as long a list as I can before even hitting the computer. I use the most obvious keywords, but I also try for synonyms, and I also try various combinations of key words. (For the law/medical research that I do with my friend, we do this together.) I also note where and when to use Boolean operators and quotation marks to group words together to be searched together.

Right now, I’m only beginning to understand, and use, RSS feeds to subscribe to things such as news, blogs, online magazines, podcasts, etc. I have feeds set up now for my three blog partners. I’m going to see if NCTE has a feed so I can receive their “INBOX” in Google Reader instead of through my email, which sometimes blocks NCTE emails for some reason. I’m also going to explore the Ed-Tech-Talk and Teachers-Teaching-Teachers that Prof. Beach has been talking about. I also still need to set up feeds for iTunes and YouTube, but I don’t yet know how to do that.

I think I’m already pretty good about teaching my students effective search strategies. I’m pretty detail oriented, and I think and do things my students don’t do, and hearing about these things helps them—I know because they tell me so. But, I admit, more and more they are actually teaching me things too—which I give them credit for and then share these tips with the entire class through the class distribution email lists. I can see already, through this digital writing class this semester, that I will have much more to teach when I return from my sabbatical in Fall 2009!