Introduction to Expert Online Searching Techniques

By Roberta Tipton

University of Salford Press Office. Salford Business School Launches Unique Open Access Online Course. 2013. Flickr Commons. Web. 11 July 2014. <https://www.flickr.com/photos/salforduniversity/9718507502/>Photo not altered. Creative Commons License at <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode>

Expert Online Searching Techniques Work in Library Databases or on the Web

What Is a Database?

da·ta·basenoun \ˈdā-tə-ˌbās, ˈda- also ˈdä-\

: a usually large collection of data organized especially for rapid search and retrieval (as by a computer)

"Database." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2014. Web. 11 July 2014. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/database>.

Examples of Databases

• IMDb (Internet Movie Database)

• Library Catalogs

• Google (Yes, Google)

Databases Are Made Up of Records Hryck, Todd. Put Your Records On. 2007. Flickr Commons. Web. 11 July 2014. Digital Image <https://www.flickr.com/photos/hryckowian/2176673733/> Photo not altered. Creative Commons License at <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode>

About Records

• Records represent real items.• Records are not the real item itself (in most

cases), although they might be linked.• Records are formatted.• Records are made up of pieces called fields.• Records are more easily searchable than the

real item.

Records Are Made Up of Fields Guy, Romain. Waves. 2006. Flickr Commons. Web. 11 July 2014. Digital Image.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/romainguy/289881919/Photo not altered. Creative Commons license at <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode>

Example: Fields in a Record

Author

Title

Subject

Abstract

What Does a Record Look Like? (IMDb)

What Does a Record Look Like? (Google)

· Invisible Web - The University of California Berkeley Librarieswww.lib.berkeley.edu/.../Invi...University of California, Berkeley LibrariesMay 8, 2012 - The Invisible Web - what it is and is not, definitions. How to find it. Where it fits in your search strategy.· Deep Web - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_WebWikipediaDeep Web (also called the Deepnet, Invisible Web, or Hidden Web) is World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web, which is indexed by standard ...

What Does a Record Look Like? (Library Catalog)

Personal author: Pariser, Eli.

Title: The filter bubble : what the Internet is hiding from you / Eli Pariser.

Publication info: New York : Penguin Press, 2011. Physical descrip: 294 p. ; 22 cm.

Contents:

The race for relevance -- The user is the content -- The Adderall society -- The you loop -- The public is irrelevant -- Hello, world! -- What you want, whether you want it or not -- Escape from the city of ghettos.

Subject: Invisible Web. Subject: Information organization. Subject: Semantic Web--Social aspects. Subject: World Wide Web--Subject access. Subject: Internet--Censorship.

These Records All Look Different, But…

• They are all collected as the result of a search.• They are formatted.• They are made up of fields.• They represent the content in the database.

Searching Databases McBride, Taylor. “Searching.” 2011. Flickr Commons. Web. 11 July 2014. Digital image. <https://www.flickr.com/photos/taylor-mcbride/5367077863/> Image not altered. Creative Commons license at <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode>

Characteristics of Useful Keywords

• The rarest words• The most specific words• As many forms of the words as you know

You Put In a Keyword or Search Term;The Computer Matches It Exactly in

the Records

Keyword

Records

“Little Words”, Called “Stop Words”, Are Often Not Searched

A, an, of, the, from...

In, on……and so forth

Why Not Use Stop Words?

Stop words are so common in human language that they do not add any meaning to an online search. Google parses full sentences and filters out stop words, but other search software requires you to do the filtering.

Keywords Can Be Combined

“And” Makes Searches Smaller

Learning AND Organization

Exact Quotes Imply “And” Plus Word Order

Public and Administration

“Public Administration”

jobs OR employment

“Or” Makes Searches Bigger

Truncation Marks Imply “Or”

architect*(?, #, $) yields

architect

architects

architecture

architectural

Subject Headings

Library Databases Often Include Descriptors or Subject Headings as

Well as Simple KeywordsPersonal author:

Pariser, Eli.

Title: The filter bubble : what the Internet is hiding from you / Eli Pariser.

Publication info:

New York : Penguin Press, 2011.

Physical descrip:

294 p. ; 22 cm.

Contents:

The race for relevance -- The user is the content -- The Adderall society -- The you loop -- The public is irrelevant -- Hello, world! -- What you want, whether you want it or not -- Escape from the city of ghettos.

Subject: Invisible Web.

Subject: Information organization.

Subject: Semantic Web--Social aspects.

Subject: World Wide Web--Subject access.

Subject: Internet--Censorship.

About Subject Headings

• Subject headings are often assigned by human beings.

• The words in a subject heading might not appear in the item itself.

• Items on a similar subject are retrieved together by their subject headings.