2. Before starting to search using any
electronic database, be it the library online
catalogue (IPAC), indexes and abstracts or the
Internet, it is important to spend some time
thinking about your information needs. This is
known as developing a "search strategy" and if
done systematically it will significantly improve
your chances of finding relevant information.

3. Developing a Search
Strategy for Finding the
Information you Need

4. Points to consider as you begin your research include these:
What do I need to know about this topic?
Does it involve researching people, places,
events, or a particular time in history?
How current must my information be?

5. Do I need facts and statistics?
Do I need a general overview of my subject, or
a lot of detail?
Do I need to find out both sides of an
argument?
Is my topic controversial or still being
explored? Will there be differing viewpoints in
different sources?

6. Points to consider in determining your search strategy include
these:
Reference sources, such as encyclopedias or
almanacs, are a good starting place for an overview of
your topic and for gathering facts and statistics.
If your topic requires you to get information from
books, you would want to search the Library's Online
Public Access Catalog (OPAC), to see if the library
system has books that you can check out.

7. Do you need to find current information on your
topic?
If your topic requires a broad overview of
information, you may want to search an online
encyclopedia. These encyclopedias are generally easy to
use and can give you a large amount of information in a
short period of time.

8. Keywords
identified the kind of information you need, and
developed a search strategy regarding the types of
sources you will use, the next step is to select search
terms or "keywords" from your topic to use to
conduct your search. These keywords, which
describe the topic you are researching, are the
terms you will use when you search in any kind of
electronic database, as well as on the World Wide
Web.

9. Search operators, such as AND, OR and
NOT, are terms that allow you to group your
keywords together to retrieve a number of
different types of results. Operators are words
that may add or subtract a concept to your
search.