INFORMATION LITERACY

Course Code: BLS1106

Course Level: Year I
Library search, literature searching
(print and electronic)
Library Provide extensive collections of electronic, print and archival information,
Using a library for the first time can be a scary experience
With literally so many books, e-books, online journals, and other resources, tracking down
the sources of information you need for your academic work can sometimes seem confusing
and time consuming.
However, learning to use the Library and its resources is an important skill to master,
 by finding and using good quality information in your assignments.
 you are demonstrating to those marking your work that your opinions are informed and
built on research conducted by experts in your field.
 This is an essential skill to demonstrate in order to attract top marks for your work.
 you will find some clear and practical guidance on how to make effective use of library
resources
 to find the information you need for your studies and get maximum benefit from what
is available.
What you want ?

 Journal
 Specific title
 Article
 Specific article
 Any article on the subject
 Information
 Any reliable source
Why searching the library

 Have a clear overview of the current literature.

 Find out about research being carried out by others in your field.
 Helps in identifying methods that might be relevant to your own work.
 Facilitates thorough objective and reproduce search of a range of sources.
 To identify as many relevant studies as possible that are to be used in
research/ PBL.
 Provides an overview of research activity in a given area.
 Get up-to-date data/ literature .
 Allow rapid communication of results and ideas to be used in research.
 A systematic search in LIS

 Systematic search in Library and Information Science (LIS) refers to a

methodical and structured approach to finding relevant information from
numerous sources. These include;
library catalogs,
databases,
digital repositories,
and websites.
Systematic search is used to gather comprehensive and reliable information on a
specific topic.
Steps in a systematic search
Define the Investigation Question for a review:
 Clearly articulate the research question. Properdefined question helps in formulating
search terms and strategies.

Develop Search Terms:

 Identify Important keywords, phrases, and synonyms related to the research
question.
 These terms will enable you search for information in catalogue and databases..

Select Information Sources:

 Define which databases, library catalogs, and other resources are appropriate for
the research topic.
 Consider both general and specialized sources to ensure a comprehensive search.
Construct Search Queries:
 Use the identified search terms to create search queries.
Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine and refine search terms for
more accurate results.

Construct Search Queries:

 Use the identified search terms to create search queries. Boolean operators
(AND, OR, NOT) and other search operators are often used to combine and
refine search terms for more accurate results.

 Execute Searches: Conduct searches in selected databases and catalogs using

the constructed search queries. Record the number of results for each search.

 Screen Search Results: Evaluate the search results to identify relevant articles,
books, reports, or other types of information. This step involves reviewing
titles, abstracts, and keywords to determine the relevance of the material.
Retrieve and Store Relevant information Material:
 Obtain and save citations of important information materials for further
study/ investigation and citation in the research.

Document the Search Process:

 Save record of the search strategy, as well as the databases searched, search
queries used, and the number of results at each stage.
 This documentation is essential for transparency and reproducibility in
research.

Cite Sources:
Correctly cite all the sources used in the research following the appropriate
citation style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).
The Search Process.

 Library Search is the best place to start looking for academic books, e-books,
journals and other sources.
 You may want to do more targeted searches within a research database, e.g..
journal articles.
 When doing an Information search, begin with an assessment of your
information need and an acknowledgement of the type of question you have.
 Your next steps depend upon your assessment.
Searching resources
Steps.
1. Planning your search
Under this,
 Check what you are being asked to do
 Think about what you already know.
 Think about synonyms, or alternative terms for your subject, for example,
soccer or football; children or young people.
 What sort of information are you looking for? For example, a basic
introduction, a detailed explanation, a set of statistics providing evidence of
research?.
 Decide on the best place to look: Library Search, a Library database, Google
Scholar.
2. Focusing your search
 To learn how to focus your search using targeted keywords explore the 5
minute choosing good keywords activity on Being Digital.
 Have a go at searching using some of the keywords you’ve identified and
adapt your search as you go along, depending on what you find.
 If you don't find anything within a reasonable time period, e.g. 30 minutes, be
prepared to change your strategy. For example, use different words to search
or use a different resource.
 You can add keywords to make your search more specific if you have too many
results. If you find too few results, try removing words to make your search
broader.
 Most search tools give you the option to filter your search results by subject
or resource type.
 Advanced search options allow you to look for your search terms within a
particular part of the details associated with each item, e.g. author or
subject.
3. Where to look
 Library Search
 Subject databases in Selected resources for your study
 Google Scholar
4. Using Library Search
 Searching for the title of the resource such as an e-book, database or
journal, should bring up the item you are looking for at or near the
top of the results.
 You can find particular articles using Library Search, by searching for
the article title.
 Library Search also searches across a large number of databases or
collections.
5. Evaluating what you find
 If you have a large number of results you will first want to filter them to weed
out any that are not relevant.
 Who is the author of the source?
 What authority or expertise do they have in this area?
 Why was the source created?
 When was the source last updated?
 For journal articles, peer review can provide a guide to academic quality, but
you should still carry out your own evaluation, to be sure the information
meets your needs.
6. Evaluating in more depth
 To thoroughly check the relevance of sources you find you can use the
PROMPT mnemonic (Provenance, Relevance, Objectivity, Method,
Presentation, Timeliness) which is detailed in the Evaluation using PROMPT
activity on the Being Digital website.
7. Keeping track of what you find and acknowledging your sources
 For any material you consult it is a good idea to record what you find, and where
and when you found it. This will make it easier to acknowledge your sources
correctly and retrace your steps if you need to. For more guidance see Referencing
and plagiarism.
Process of Searching
Where can I search for the Resources/
information
Text Books:
This proves to be an instrumental source of information for your studies
 There will be particular textbooks that are recommended by lecturers
through your reading lists/ references.
Why use Textbooks
 Textbooks can provide valuable background information,
 Provide an in-depth overview of a subject,
 Proves an explanation of theories and a judgement of differing ideas,
approaches and opinions.
To find a specific journal

 Is it in Directory of Open Access Journals?

 Search by title
 Search on Google
 Who is the publisher? Do you have access through other Databases?e.g. JSTOR,
Emerald ?
To find a specific article

Journal articles:
Search the topic by using a database. (A database is a collection of information
resources (usually journal articles) with a search engine that allows you to search
for the articles.)

 Use the journal platform (webpage) to browse or search for the article you
want
 Use search options to search under issue, date, author, article title etc.
 If you don’t have access to the journal, would a pre-print suffice?
 Search OpenDOAR or institutional repository of one of the authors
E-books: may include Dvds, online books
Thesis: such as dissertations,
Databases: Search the topic by using a database
Conference Papers:
Government Documents
 If you are conducting a comprehensive search or just haven’t identified
the right resources yet, try broadening your search for example you can
use ministry of Education database for “education”.
 International bodies:
for example , you can get resources on National Resources (Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention , World Health Organization (WHO)
 Online by use of World wide web.
Magazines
News Papers
Preparing a search strategy

 Effective searching is a process

 Define a search topic
 Identify possible search terms
 Refine a search strategy
What is a search strategy

i. Is a planned and structured organization of terms used to search a database.

ii. It indicate how those terms are combined in order to retrieve optimal
results.
iii. Set of decisions and actions taken throughout the conduct of search. In other
words, steps involved in searching or retrieving information, understanding of the
query.
iv. Knowledge about the nature of organization and exact needs of users are the
essentials of good strategy.
Example of a search strategy
i. High recall search: when the user needs to find out all the relevant items on
the stated topic.
ii. High precision search: users need only relevant items.
iii. Brief search: users want only relevant items as opposed to all relevant
items.
Preparation of Search Strategy

1. Necessary search aids:

i. System manuals and search aids.
ii. System and database newsletter.
iii. Vocabulary control devices and classification schemes, dictionary, glossaries
etc.
2. Information about the query:
i. Pre-search interview.
ii. Consultation of different reference sources.
iii. Determination of exact requirement of user.
3. Whether online search is necessary:
i. Availability of databases on given subjects.
ii. Its coverage, cost and other related factors.
4. Choice of databases governed by factors:
i. Sub coverage.
ii. Document coverage.
iii. Accessibility.
5. Decision regarding systems to use according to:
i. Database coverage.
ii. Search fields.
iii. Search devices.
iv. Performance.

6. Analysis of query and selection of search terms through:

i. Knowledge of the systems and files.
ii. Use of reference tools.

7. Planning and carrying our search through:

i. Preparation of initials files.
ii. Narrowing down search by reducing or terms and adding and if necessary.
iii. Broadening the search.

8. Obtaining results and communicating with the user:

i. Using most suitable format.
ii. Getting users response regarding the search results.
9. Recordings:
i. Steps followed in the search.
ii. The user’s responses regarding the search results.
Defining a search topic

 Your search topic

Sexual violence in armed conflicts
 What do you know about the topic?
 Define the scope
Regional coverage (continent, region, country, etc.)
e.g. in Africa, in Kenya, in Western Kenya…
6/10/2023
Identifying search terms/Tips on using
search engines
Issues to consider
 Acronyms (CEO, Chief Executive Office…)
 Use nouns and objects as query words: Avoid stop words
 Be specific
 If not use synonyms
 Check spelling, then search again
 Use alternative words or spellings e.g.. Luggage or baggage
 Use at least two keywords in a query e.g.. Information technology
 Enclose phrases in quotation marks
 Use AND to reduce number of hits
 Quotation marks @ capitals when searching for a proper name.
 Truncate to increase recall eg. Comput*
 Put Main subject first. Eg ( internet AND Web
Where to start the search

 Google Scholar or other search engine

 Research 4 Life website
 Open Access pages
 Publisher website
 Library website
 Other logical starting point e.g. professional institute webpage
Predicting results

 How many documents would you like to retrieve?

 A few very specific ones?
 Lots of general ones?
Refining a search

 Using the identified search terms separately is a broad search which may
result in overwhelming results
 To refine the search one has to narrow the search
 Boolean Operators assist a researcher to combine two or more search terms
to enhance accuracy
Phrase searching

Searching for two or more words as an exact phrase

Phrase searching

 If you want to search for a phrase, put it in parentheses

E.g. “Digestive diseases”
 If you do not do so, most systems treat separate words as if OR operator was
present
Broad or specific terms

Broad terms may yield more results, which may be more

general
E.g. Digestive diseases
 Specific (narrow) terms may yield fewer results which may
be more relevant
E.g. irritable bowel syndrome; peptic ulcers
Nesting

Nesting (or 'GROUPING') is a keyword search technique that keeps alike concepts
together and tells a search engine or database to search those terms placed in
parentheses first.
 Using Nesting in a search requires that the items in parentheses be searched
first. Generally, the items in parentheses are linked by the Boolean Operator
"OR."
 Neo can use Nestingwhen he is trying to link two or more concepts that may
have many synonyms or may be represented by a number of different terms
to obtain more comprehensive search results.
 Example: Using(South Africa OR Africa) AND HIV/AIDSwill search South Africa
or Africa first
Boolean operators

Boolean Operators consists of 3 words

 AND
 OR
 NOT
These words can be used to combine search terms to narrow or broaden the search.
Boolean operators.
By using these techniques user can narrow down their search to get the required
information.
The Boolean operator AND finds articles with all the search words. The use of OR
broadens the focus of the search, and it will include articles with at least one search
term. The researchers can also ignore certain results from the records by using NOT in
the search strategy.
 a) AND:
It includes addition of two different concepts for narrowing down the search.
For example: AND would be using “information” AND “literacy” in the search
strategy with the goal of studying information in literacy. This search strategy
will include all the articles about both depression and children.
NOT
The researchers can use NOT if they only want to study information in Literacy and want
to ignore computer studies from the search.
NOT is also a separation of complex concepts into individual simpler ones. It allows
Users to specify those terms that they do not want to occur in the retrieval records. It
excludes unwanted results. Search output will decrease with increase in NOT term.
 An example search in this scenario would be “information” NOT “computer
studies” AND “literacy.” This will help ignore studies related to Computer
studies.

Keywords
( Google, MSN search and Ask). This Controls how the computer interprets your
search.

Related words (synonyms)

 Truncation/ Wild cards:
While the researchers search a database for certain articles, they frequently face
terminologies that have the same initial root of a word but different endings.
There are three types of truncation.
a. Right truncation: truncation is on right side of the term. For example... Lib*
b) Left truncation: truncation is on left side of the term. For example... *rary
c) Simultaneous with left and right side. For example... *polymer*
Field searching:
 Here, document is presented by attributes such as Author, Title, Publication
date, Document type, File type etc. these attributes are called field
searching.
 Search is possible with the help of these fields also with;
• Parenthesis
• Abbreviations
• Plurals
Types Databases to use
i. A database is a well-organized collection of data that are related in a
meaningful way which can be accessed in different logical order but are
stored only once.
ii. A database is a collection of data.
Databases provide various formats of information.
Different databases provide different kind of information
Some of the types of Databases include:

 i. Bibliographic Database: (MEDLINE, PubMed and EMBASE) this provides a

descriptive record of an item (Author, Title, subject, publisher etc.) but the
item itself is not provided in the database.
References to publish material.
 I. Numeric Database: this provides statistical tables, demographic
information eg. Censors bureau database
 II. Full-text Database– these are complete publications eg. EMERALD,
JSTOR database.
 III. Meta database: this type allows to search for content that is indexed by
other databases.
Demonstrate some databases used for searching
Hands on exercises
• To be covered in class and take home package
References
1. Systematic review guidelines: Cochrane Handbook for systematic review of
interventions.
2. Systematic Reviews: CRD’s Guidance for undertaking Review in Health Care.
3. PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Review and Mata-analysis
4. Nusrat Jahan, Sadiq Naveed (2016), How to Conduct a Systematic Review: A
Narrative Literature Review.
5. Large, Andrew and others. (2001). Information seeking in the online age:
principles and practices.Munchen, K. G. Saur.