FINDING INFORMATION
Kevin Klipfel, Information Literacy Coordinator, California State University, Chico.
kklipfel@csuchico.edu
Developing Keywords
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One you’ve gone through the process of choosing an
effective research topic, the next thing you’ll need to do
is develop some keywords.
Keyword is the term researchers use for the search
terms you need to develop – based on your initial
research topic choice – in order to search the library
catalog and databases well.
If you develop good keywords, you’ll be able to
strategically search library resources for materials on
your topic. This will make doing research much easier.
This module will get you started choosing keywords.
Let’s start off by considering an example.
Example 1: Health Sciences Topic
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Suppose you were assigned the following paper topic,
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The purpose of this assignment is to teach you to do research at the college level. In this paper you will
research one recent research finding (published within the last 5 years) relating to student health, and write
a 3-5 page essay discussing your findings, using well-researched sources as evidence. Use your research to
make a recommendation to the university health center about how they can use your research to improve
student services.
And that, based on your interests - and after you went through
the process of developing a topic - you decided you wanted
to write about:
Tentative topic:
Whether mediation can help
college students reduce stress.
Developing Keywords: Step 1
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How would you get started searching for
information? What you can do is go through the
steps in our Keyword Exercise Handout. This will
help you develop effective keywords you can use to
search the library for information.
Developing Keywords: Step 2
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The next step is to identify the key concepts from
your initial research interest.
Developing Keywords: Step 3
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This will allow you to separate out the main concepts you are working with. You can
then figure out synonyms you might use for those topics. They will be useful if for
some reason your initial terms don’t work out. Also, once you start searching, you
can write in the scientific terms scholars use for your keywords.
A Quick Search: Discovery
Now you’re well prepared to begin to search our
databases. Even just a simple search of Discovery –
our main library search box – with
“meditation stress reduction college students” as our
keyword:
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turns up some pretty useful results.
Simple Search Results
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These relevant results will help you get started with your
research.
If you click on an article title, you can browse the
abstract – or basic summary of the article – to see if
it’s relevant to you. There’s no need to read an entire
article just to see if it might work for your purposes.
Another good trick is to click on the article title and see
what other keywords and subject headings are given.
This can help you conduct further, and even more
effective, searches.
Searching is a Process
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One of the most important things to remember
about searching for information is that it is a multistep process. Even if you find a lot of great articles
with your first search – which may be rare – the
more searches you conduct, the better your
information, and the more informed you’ll tend to
be.
Play with different searches based on your
keywords and synonyms. This will produce even
more relevant results.
Searching is … not an exact science.
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Searching is something that you’ll learn to get good at.
Following the concepts in this module will definitely help you.
But there’s no substitute for practice: like anything else, the
more often you do it, the better you’ll get. Just remember
that searching for information is a process, done in several
steps. This will help you feel less frustrated if you can’t find
what you need immediately.
And don’t forget: although the general principles will be the
same – using good keywords; conducting multiple searches;
using subject headings; and so forth – each search will be a
little different. There’s no algorithm for perfect searching;
that’s why it requires you to think critically.
The Perfect Source? – Forget about It.
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One common frustration students face is that they think
they are unable to find information on their topic
because they can’t find that one “perfect” source – the
one that contains all the information they’ll need to
write the paper they want to write.
But that perfect source is rare – so rare you’ll probably
just want to forget about it.
Instead, be mindful that you may need to use multiple
different sources – of multiple types – in order to find,
and then creatively combine, the right kind of
information for your paper. Let’s consider an example
of this.
Combining Sources: Music Topic
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Suppose you’ve been given an assignment like the
following:
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Your assignment is to write a music review for the popular
music website Pitchfork.com. Your feature story can critique
a particular song, album, or live performance, and should
be the length of the average Pitchfork review.
Topic adapted from an assignment designed by Christina Lee, Nicole Berland, and several librarians, for English 105, UNC Chapel Hill (Spring 2013).
Selecting a Topic
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When thinking about my topic – and after going through the process
of topic selection – I thought that what I wanted to write about was
the new album of my favorite singer, “alt-country” musician Justin
Townes Earle, entitled Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel
About Me Now.
I’d read lots of reviews on the free web that said the new album –
which sounds a lot like a classic soul record – strayed from JTE’s
country roots.
But, in interviews, JTE said that if you understand the history of
American music, country and soul actually have the same roots.
So, I was thinking that my Pitchfork review could find information to
support the argument that, contrary to many critics, JTE’s new sound
is actually not a departure at all: he’s always been making music
grounded the roots of American music.
Choosing Keywords: Summarizing my
Topic
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So, again, I went through the process of developing
keywords:
Choosing Keywords: Identifying Key
Concepts
Choosing Keywords: Synonyms
Analyzing my Concepts
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Now, what I notice here by looking at my chart is
that I’m going to have to do a couple things:
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Build my argument using several different concepts: 1.
The critical response to Nothing’s Gonna Change … 2.
information about the history of country music in
America 3. information bout the history of soul music in
America.
 2. Find information related to each of my concepts.
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need to find information – by conducting independent
searches – on 1., 2., and 3., separately, and then combine
them to support my main thesis when I write my paper.
Search 1: Concept 1 (New Album)
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1. Articles and interviewers about the new album.
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I might want to use “popular” sources. I could
search Google for:
 Justin
Townes Earle.
 Justine Townes Earle “Nothing’s Going to Change the Way
You Feel About Me Now”
 Justine Townes Earle “Nothing’s Going to Change the Way
You Feel About Me Now” Album Review.
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can also perform similar searches in Discovery. The
library has lots of popular articles, in addition to its
scholarly sources.
Search 2: Concept 2 (Country Music)
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2. Now I want to search for information about the
history of the genre of country music. Since this topic
is pretty general, I’m going to use our library
catalog to search for a book on this topic.
A simple book search of “Country Music” in the
library catalog turns up relevant books that are
worth checking out. A search like “country music
roots” or “country music history” might be even
better.
Search 3: Concept 3 (Soul Music)
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3. My last major concept search has to do with soul
music. In many of the interviews I read, JTE mentions
Stax Records, an old soul record company that
made music he was influenced by. This might be
worth checking out for my purpose of learning
about the overlap between country and soul music.
If I search for books on Stax Records I get a result
that should have the exact kind of information I
need.
Combining Sources
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Now I can take the information from my three main
searches and creatively combine them to make the
argument I originally wanted to make:
There’s no one source that would have allowed me
to do this. But, by combining popular and scholarly
materials, I’m able to make my argument, using
good evidence and scholarly research.
Summing Up
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These are some of the major conceptual issues
involved with searching for information when doing
your research.
As you advance in your college career, you’ll want
to begin using more specific databases related to
your particular subject.
Instruction from a librarian in how to do so will be
very helpful!
But the information in this module should help you
get started.
Contact a Librarian
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If you’re having any trouble finding information,
don’t forget to contact a librarian: it’s what we do!
For questions about this module, or how to incorporate it into specific courses, contact:
Kevin Klipfel, Information Literacy Coordinator, California State University, Chico. Contact: kklipfel@csuchico.edu