Prepare your search - Library resources 101 - Guides de recherche

STEPS TO PREPARE A SEARCH

1. Identify key concepts

2. Find synonyms

3. Use search operators

Once you have defined your focused topic, you need to identify the key concepts to prepare a search strategy to use in different search tools.

Here are a few examples:

TOPIC		KEY CONCEPTS
	The effects of beauty product advertisements on teenage girls' self-esteem.	beauty product advertisements teenage girls self-esteem
	The impact of media coverage and public opinion polling on election campaigns.	media coverage public opinion polling election campaigns
	The success of environmental groups in shaping the public policy agenda in Canada.	environmental groups public policy agenda Canada

For each key concept, find synonyms that will be useful when performing keyword searches.

TOPIC	The effects of beauty product advertisements on teenage girls' self-esteem
KEY CONCEPTS	beauty products	advertisements	teenage girls	self-esteem
SYNONYMS	cosmetics skin care make-up	advertising marketing commercials	teenagers adolescents youth	self-confidence self-respect self-perception

To help find synonyms, consider using a thesaurus:

To find relevant information, you need to translate your topic into a search strategy.

Here is a list of the most common search operators:

OPERATOR	USE	EXAMPLE
AND	AND is used between keywords to find results that contain all of the keywords	propaganda AND china
OR	OR is used between keywords that are synonymous to find results that contain either keyword	violence OR aggression
NOT	NOT is used to exclude a keyword from the results	cloning NOT sheep
" "	Quotation marks - " " - are used to find results for exact phrases or expressions	"human rights"
*	The asterisk - * - is used to truncate a word to find results with various endings	environment* will find environments, environmental, environmentally, etc.
( )	Parentheses - ( ) - are used to group keywords by concept	(teenage* OR adolescen) AND (cigarette OR nicotine OR tobacco)

Operators may vary from tool to tool. Consult specific help pages within the catalogues and databases for more information.

Use this worksheet to help you prepare your search:

You can also view this video on YouTube