Information Literacy: 2. Searching and finding: How to locate a source

Source: Hanze Library Minillecture

• Simply typing words in a search engine or database, will always give you a lot of results. If you want to do thorough literature research, this search method will not be enough. By using the search terms in a certain way or by combining search terms, you get a much better result.

You can use the following techniques for this:

• Boolean Operators

• Phrase search (Exact word combination)
• Trunk and Mask
• Advanced search

The Saxion Library website is a good starting point for your research and offers reliable information from reviewed sources.
On Saxion Library you can find:

• Catalogue (print and digital books, titles of journals and databases)
• Discovery Tool Saxion Library (catalogue and articles from scientific e-journals)
• Overview of all our databases (an overview of all databases selected by Saxion librarians)

Searching the internet

• Google Scholar (to find scholarly / academic articles)
• Google Advanced Search (to search more effectively in Google)

The easiest way to start a search is to just type in some search terms related to your topic and see what you discover. You will undoubtedly find useful information, but there are other and better search methods.

The most common search methods:

• Best match method / quick & dirty
• Pearl growth method
• Building stone method
• Snowball method
• Search for citation