Topic Selection and Search
Techniques
Jane Long
MLIS, University of Oklahoma
MA, English, Wright State University
Reference Services Librarian
Al Harris Library
jane.long@swosu.edu
How Do I Choose a Topic?
• Select something that is of interest to you.
• Remember that as an academic writer, you will need
to develop a scholarly perspective on your subject.
• A scholarly topic should:
– Examine one narrowed issue, not a broad
subject.
– Address knowledgeable readers and carry them
to another plateau of knowledge.
– Have a serious purpose—one that demands
analysis of the issues, argues from a position,
and/or explains complex details.
– Meets the expectations of the instructor and
conforms to the course requirements.
Relating Your Personal Ideas to a
Scholarly Problem
• Try to make a connection between
your interests and the inherent issue of
your subject.
• Remember, you can’t write a personal
essay and call it a research paper, yet
you can choose topics close to your
life.
• Let’s look at a few ideas.
1. Combine personal interests with an area of academic studies:
Personal interest:
Football
Academic subject:
Sports medicine
Possible topics:
“Protecting the Knees”
“Therapy for Strained Muscles”
2. Consider social issues that affect you and your family:
Personal interest:
The education of my child
Academic subject:
The behavior of my child in school
Possible topics:
“Children Who Are Hyperactive”
“Should Schoolchildren Take Medicine to
Calm Their Hyperactivity?”
3. Let your cultural background prompt you toward research
into your heritage or your culture:
Ethnic background: Hispanic
Personal interest:
Struggles of the Mexican child in an
American classroom
Possible topic:
“Bicultural Experiences of Hispanic
Students: The Failures and Triumphs”
Potential Topic Ideas:
• What is the Exxon Valdez?
• What caused the oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico?
• What is social networking?
• Does health care reform impact me?
• What are potential job possibilities in
today’s society?
• Is the use of a tanning bed safe?
• Do Americans need more security
when they are using the Internet?
Where/How Do I Begin My Topic Search?
– Library Catalog
• Reference Area
• Search the catalog for:
– Books, ebooks, videos
– Databases
• Credo Reference
• TOPICsearch
• CQ Researcher
• Issues and Controversies
• Points of View Reference Center
• Pop Culture Universe
• Newspaper Source Plus
Catalog:
Finding books
Check the Reference Materials
• Almanacs, dictionaries, handbooks, and
encyclopedias are useful tools for
finding quick facts, statistics, or a broad
overview of your topic.
• If you need background information
about your topic, these tools are a good
place to start.
• You can find them in
the catalog.
Ebrary
• Ebrary provides more than 44,000
digital books in a broad range of
subject areas, including business,
technology, health and medicine,
literature and the humanities, physical
sciences, social sciences, and
interdisciplinary studies. Ebrary digital
books contain the full-text and
illustrations of their print counterparts
Open WorldCat
Credo Reference
• This is a new product that is easy to
use and an easy way to locate
background resources as well as books
from the catalog and database articles.
• The link to Credo is located in the Fast
Facts column and in the General Topics
listing.
Search Techniques:
1. Keywords
– Flexible Terms
– Easy Searches
– Less Accuracy in
Searching
– Use of Phrases
Identifying Keywords
• Identify the significant terms and
concepts that describe your topic from
your thesis statement or research
question.
• These terms will become the key for
searching catalogs, databases and
search engines for information about
your subject.
Keyword Phrases
• Single concept, multiple words
• Some electronic resources require keyword
phrases be enclosed with punctuation by using
– Quotation marks – SWOSU Catalog and Credo
– Parenthesis
Keyword Phrase Examples:
•
•
•
•
Basic phrase
Proper names
Hyphenated words
Slogans, ads
• Famous quotations
• Movie titles,
song titles
“criminal justice”
“Native American”
“x-ray”
“The quicker pickerupper”
“hope is the thing with
feathers”
“The Blind Side”
Search Techniques:
2. Boolean Operators
– Connect keywords only
– Must be placed between keywords
– AND
• Narrows your search
– OR
• Expands your search with synonymous terms
– NOT
• Excludes words from your search
• If used too much, it can work against you!
How do I pick the right keywords?
• Here is an example of a visual word
search tool:
– Visuwords
– The suggestions made in the databases
are also good choices
What can be done to use energy
sources wisely?
• First, narrow the topic
– What type of energy will I discuss?
• Alternative = Wind, solar, water resources?
• Fossil fuels = Oil, coal, natural gas
– How will the resources be used correctly?
• How much?
• Where?
• What about conservation?
– Who is responsible for efficient use?
• Government?
• Companies?
• Individuals?
How “AND” is used
• AND (narrows)
– conservation and energy
– conservation and preservation and “alternative
energy”
How “OR” is used
• OR (expands)
– conservation or preservation
– improvement or betterment
• AND & OR together
– conservation or environment and ecology
– improvement or betterment and
“alternative energy”
How “NOT” is used
• NOT (excludes)
– preparation not cookery
– maintain not embalm
• AND, OR & NOT together
– ecology and “alternative energy” or
environment not element
Truncation (Wildcards)
• Non-universal
symbols used in
searching
• Common symbols:
*?
• Used with a root
word
• Used to replace a
vowel or single
character
Truncation (Wildcards)
• Root Word- looks for multiple
endings of a word, in this case it takes
the place of ‘OR’
– jump?
– jump, jumps, jumping, jumper, jumpers
– rope and jumping or jumps or jump
– rope and jump?
Truncation (Wildcards)
• Singular/Plural- replaces a vowel or
single character in a word, in this case
it takes the place of ‘OR’
– wom*n
– woman, women
– history and woman or women
– history and wom*n
Things to remember -• Rely on the use of Boolean Operators
to search
• Remember the importance of good
keywords; use synonyms that provide
additional search possibilities
• Formulate a research question that
aids you in narrowing your search
• Example: How can the use of
alternative energy sources aid the U.S.
economy?
Using Databases to Locate
Topics
Credo Reference
• Use this database to locate information
from
– Encyclopedias
– Dictionaries
– Biographies
– Quotations
– Bilingual Dictionaries
TOPICsearch
• An Ebsco product
• Use Limiters to Narrow Search
• Example: Energy
– Topics
– Current Events
– Document Type
• CQ Researcher
• contains information on current and
controversial issues concentric to the U.S.
Government
• Points of View Reference Center
• provides a variety of essays presenting
multiple sides of a current issue
• Issues and Controversies
• provides up-to-date, objective information
on the most prominent and hotly debated
issues of the day
• Pop Culture Universe
• offers overviews of pop culture from the
1920's through the present, including TV
shows, awards, fads, fashions, and news
Questions?
• Contact me:
– Jane Long
• 774-3030
• jane.long@swosu.edu
• http://faculty.swosu.edu/jane.long/
Thanks!