Creative searching

http://flic.kr/p/9pyXKZ

Creative Search

Methods

A Frame of Reference

http://youtu.be/BNHR6IQJGZs

Preparing Your Canvas

• What do you really need to know?– Questions to answer

• List of key words– Synonyms– Alternate phrasing

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Sketching Your Search

• Simple Search Engine• Simple Search Terms

• Get a baseline of results

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Gluing Terms Together• Quotation Marks– “Georgia State University”– “University of Georgia”– “Georgia Southern University”– “University of West Georgia”

http://goo.gl/5Z3zWI

Sculpting Your Search• Using advanced search tools–Google Advanced Search–Yahoo•What do you NOT mean?–Synonyms–Reading levels

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Cutting Out the Junk

• Ads• Anything that would let YOU, a

middle school student, be the authority on a topic.– Yahoo Answers–Wiki-pretty much

anything.

We will discuss Wikipedia separately.

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Adding Variety

• Different search engines return different results.– Bing vs Google– SweetSearch– NetTrekker (in CDL)

http://flic.kr/p/ukiwH

• Databases– CDL-MackinVia• EBSCO• Gale• Opposing Viewpoints

Back to the Drawing Board

• If you have not found what you are looking for in the first 10 to 20 sites, give it up. –Reformulate your search–Try another search tool

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Google Bing

NetTrekker

SweetSearch

MackinVia

Yahoo

Don’t use a limited palette.

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Resources

• http://hanlib.sou.edu/searchtools/searchtips.html

• http://mediasmarts.ca/tipsheet/how-search-internet-effectively

• http://websearch.about.com/od/searchingtheweb/a/sevenhabits.htm

• http://websearch.about.com/od/enginesanddirectories/p/websearch101.htm

• http://websearch.about.com/library/cheatsheet/blgooglecheatsheet.htm

• http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/just-google-it-developing-internet-search-skills/?_r=0