For much of your academic work, you
will be required to use library databases.
These databases work a little differently from search engines
like Google, so this video will cover some strategies
for using library databases effectively.
These days, we are all pretty good at searching the internet,
and we can use Google to find just
about anything-- reviews of our favorite TV shows, the latest
weather report, or biographical information
about a famous person, all in just minutes.
We know how to do this because it's so easy.
Put in a few keywords, and in seconds, we
have exactly what we need.
But being a good Google user doesn't
mean you can easily search the resources needed
for your academic work, resources like databases
and library search tools.
And if your instructor says you need scholarly sources,
Google's not going to help you much.
That's because library databases work differently
than search engines like Google.
Using a database means you're going
to have to spend some time thinking about how and what
you're going to search.
That's your search strategy, and coming up with one
can save you a lot of time and effort.
One study found that students with a good search strategy
spent 50% less time searching for sources than students who
just put in a few random words.
Students that use a search strategy
think about the words they're going to use and the words
they aren't going to use and how they're
going to put them together.
Let's say you decided to write a paper on this question.
How does being bilingual affect children's brains?
You can take the path of least resistance
and copy and paste the question itself into a library database,
but that will most likely give you poor results.
Or you could take a few minutes and come up
with a search strategy.
Let's give it a try.
First, we want to pick out only those words that
are directly related to our research question
and eliminate the ones that are not going to help us much.
"How," "does," and "being" are not
words specific to our research question,
so we're not going to use them.
What about "affect"?
It could help, but it could also appear
in a lot of information not directly related
to our question, so let's eliminate it for now.
That leaves us with three great keywords-- "bilingual,"
"children," and "brain."
Now we're ready to put those words together.
Unlike Google, which places an invisible "and" between all
your keywords, in many library databases,
you must add the word "and" between your keywords.
So we need to change bilingual children brain to bilingual
and children and brain.
So we're done, right?
Not so fast.
Library databases also use another important word
to combine key terms, and that word is the magical "or."
"Or" can add so much to your search.
As you know, there are many different terms
you can use for the same idea or concept.
You can use "or" to include those other words, words
like synonyms, related words, and examples.
So for the word "children," we could also
use the words "child," "kid," and "childhood."
And for "brain," we could also use a related word
like "cognitive."
Now we need to put these together with our other words.
Library databases do this with the use of
"or" and parentheses.
Anytime you use an "or," you want to make sure you nest
the related words in parentheses.
In this example, you are telling the database
to look for resources that include the word
"bilingual" and the word "children" or "childhood,"
plus the word "brain" or "cognitive."
This will produce results like this one that definitely
include the word "bilingual" and either the word "children"
or "childhood" and either "brain" or "cognitive."
There really is no limit to how many words you can use.
For example, "bilingual" and "children" or "childhood"
and "brain" or "cognitive" or "memory" or "learning."
So next time you need to use a library database, save yourself
time, effort, and frustration by following these steps.
Enter only those words that are directly related to concepts
in your research question.
Eliminate words that are not relevant.
Come up with synonyms and other words related to your keywords.
Put them together with ands and ors.
Will give you results that are much more
relevant than if you just pasted the question into the search
box.