LibGuides: Library Research Tutorial: Developing a Search Strategy

Before starting your research, it's important to develop a search strategy. This is an organized approach for gathering information to help you find the most appropriated resources for your topic and save you time.

Identify and develop keywords.
Look for an overview of your topic in reference sources, such as encyclopedias, to help you develop keywords and gain a general understanding of your topic.
Know how the information cycle works to match your topic to the right resources based on subject and currency of topic.

1. Identify Keywords

Pick out the words from your topic sentence/question that represent the main ideas
Build a list of keywords from these main ideas that describe your topic
Include synonyms

This short video from Suffolk Community College describes the process.

2. Get an Overview of Your Topic

To get an overview of your topic, you can start with encyclopedias; a couple online encyclopedias available through the Library are linked below. You could also look for overviews in one of the other library databases or on the World Wide Web.

Britannica Academic Encyclopedia This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the complete Encyclopedia Britannica and includes illustrations, photographs, and audio & video.
Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia This link opens in a new window
Provides over 25,000 encyclopedic entries covering multiple subject areas.

3. Search Based on Information Need

In order to choose the right search strategy to match your topic, you need to know how the information cycle works. This video, from the University of Illinois, describes how information is created and is built upon over time. The type of information you need for your research depends upon your specific research goal or topic and will determine whether you decide to search through the library, through the Web, or through a different avenue (for example, personal interviews).

Now that you know about how information and knowledge are created over time, you can choose resources that best match your topic.

Social media, newspapers, and television provide breaking news of current event(s) posted, written or broadcast on day of event or days after.
Popular and news magazine articles are written for a popular audience by journalists, usually a week - several weeks after event.
Journal articles are written for specific academic audiences by scholars that have credentials in their respective fields, six months to a year or more after event.
Books are written by scholars and non-scholars. Scholarly works can provide in-depth examinations of topics and are usually written several months to several years after event.
Reference books, such as encyclopedias, have short entries about well-documented events/topics that are very useful for background information
Government reports, written by local, state or federal organizations are written a year to several years after event and are focused on public policy, statistical analyses and/or legislation.

Next: Locating Library Resources