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Searching Smarter Not Harder

Bridgid Fennell & Kelsey Vukic

Social and Behavioral Science Librarians

January 29, 2024

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Learning Objectives

After this workshop, you will be able to:

  • Implement foundational search strategies in the USC Libraries’ databases and catalog
  • Locate peer-reviewed research in the USC Libraries collections
  • Execute advanced search strategies in library databases and internet search engines

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Lamp icons created by juicy_fish - Flaticon

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Agenda

  • Let’s define our terms
  • Research questions
  • Keywords
  • Basic search
  • Advanced search
  • Google Scholar

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What is a Database?

Database

Single Subject Databases

  • Social Work Online
  • ERIC
  • Abstracts in Social Gerontology

Multidisciplinary Databases

  • ProQuest Research Library
  • APA PsycINFO
  • ABI/INFORM Collection
  • Web of Science

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A searchable collection of electronic information sources like peer-reviewed articles, newspapers, magazines, and audio and visual materials. Library database subscriptions are included in your tuition.

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Let’s define peer-review & citations

Citation

Peer-reviewed journal article

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A reference to another source of information.

Articles that have been read and critiqued by other experts before publication. This original research must be methodologically sound and contribute new knowledge to the academic discipline.

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Research is not a straight line

Messy line by Julia Moskalenko on Vecteezy.com

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Start

Finish

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Great research questions

  • Do not have simple answers (yes/no, list facts)
  • Explore connections between different events, interventions, concepts, or phenomena
  • Are not too broad or too narrow
  • Do not lead to opinions

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Research Question:

How do culturally responsive reading interventions promote academic success for racially diverse students?

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Keyword Brainstorming

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Culturally responsive: culturally -aware, -sensitive, -competent, cultural humility, anti racist pedagogy

Reading interventions: literacy, reading comprehension, reading instruction, struggling readers, structured literacy, science of reading

Academic success: reading scores, student achievement, proficiency, assessment

Racially diverse students: racial difference, Black students, African American students

How do culturally responsive reading interventions promote academic success for racially diverse students?

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Keyword searching: “Pre Reading”

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Keyword Searching

Keyword

  • Author selected
  • Word in title or abstract (or other text field in a database)
  • For full-text databases: any word anywhere in an article (often including footnotes and references)

Use Boolean operators to combine keywords in library databases

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Boolean Operator: AND

  • Look for documents that contain all of your words or phrases.
  • Use AND to narrow your search and get fewer results

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“Culturally responsive” AND “reading interventions”

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Culturally responsive

Reading interventions

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Boolean Operator: OR

  • Look for documents that contain any of your words or phrases.
  • Use OR to broaden your search and get more results

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“Culturally responsive” OR “culturally aware”

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Culturally responsive

Culturally aware

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Boolean Operator: Not

  • Look for documents that contain one of your search terms, but not the other
  • Use NOT to narrow your search and get fewer results

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“Culturally responsive” NOT “reading interventions”

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Culturally responsive

Reading interventions

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Search Commands

Asterisk

* - The asterisk replaces an infinite number of letter following a root word. Use the truncation character at the beginning (left-hand truncation), the end (right-hand truncation), or in the middle of search terms.

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foreclos* = foreclose, foreclosed, and foreclosure

re*ding= reading or regarding

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Phrase searching

To search for a phrase, put the phrase in quotes “ ” to retrieve terms together. For example "First Amendment" or "gross national product".

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Quoted phrase results may bring back results that include noise words or plurals.

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Unquoted multiple word queries (no connectors) are treated as an AND statement. So Cat Dog is processed as Cat AND Dog.

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Source: ProQuest Search Syntax

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Recap: Basic search

Boolean operators:

  • AND will return less results
  • OR will return more results
  • NOT will return one term but and eliminate another

Truncate: use an asterisk * will yield variant spellings of your term

Phrase search: place quotation marks “ ” around a search terms to yield an exact phrase

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Let’s Search!

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Library Catalog + Articles Search

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https://libraries.usc.edu

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Search Results

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Sign into your library account, request items, view pinned items

Save / “pin” your favorites to your account

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Let’s pause for questions

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Database

Searching

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https://libraries.usc.edu/

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Find articles

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Advanced search: PsycInfo

  • Search for methodology: literature review, research study design
  • Age group or population

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Thesaurus

A thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary in which one index terms captures other similar terms.

Index terms are assigned by information professionals who work for the databases and promote consistency.

Keywords are assigned by different authors and may be variable.

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Filtering Results

Refine your results by using filters

  • Date
  • Format type
  • Peer review
  • Subject
  • Publication title
  • Audience

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Accessing the Article

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Select Full text - PDF when available, or FIND IT @ USC if the record only presents the citation and abstract

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Saving Articles

Cite: download citation or export to citation management software

Copy URL makes a persistent authenticated link

All options: email, save to database folder, Google Drive & more

Similar articles suggested by database

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Let’s pause for questions about databases

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Google Scholar

  • Not a database, it’s a directory of academic sources
  • Not all peer-reviewed
  • Configure to USC Libraries to retrieve articles we have access to

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Configure Google Scholar

Under Settings, navigate to Library Links and add University of Southern California. See Google Scholar @ USC for more information.

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Citation Chaining

In addition to reading the article’s references, find later articles that reference the source.

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Let’s pause for questions about Google Scholar

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Redirect from Paywall with Proxy Me! USC Libraries

  • Adds USC Libraries proxy section to article URL
  • Initiates a log-in to the USC network

https://libraries.usc.edu/proxy-me

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Paywall!

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LibKey Nomad Browser Extension

  • Browser add-on that facilitates access to articles available through Library subscriptions
  • Automatically redirect from publisher websites to our proxy server for authentication and full text access

For more information and instructions to add this tool, visit the LibKey Nomad research guide.

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You’ve Got This!

  • Defining terminology
  • Research questions
  • Keywords
  • Basic search
  • Advanced search
  • Google Scholar

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Thanks for learning with us. Come again!

Check out & register for future Social and Behavioral Sciences Library Skills Workshops.

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USC Library Workshops and Tutorials

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Organize Your Research with Refworks or Zotero

2/7/24 | 12 - 1:00pm

APA 7th Edition Drop In

2/12/24, 2/21/24, 3/18/24, 4/11/25

Annotated Bibliographies

2/13/24 | 1 - 2 p.m.

Advanced Searching: PsycINFO

2/22/24 | 1 - 1:50 p.m.

Get to Know ERIC

2/26/24 | 4 - 5 p.m.

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We love to help students!

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Kelsey Vukic

Applied Psychology, Gerontology, Marriage & Family Counseling, Educational Counseling and Psychology

Clarissa Moreno

Social Work

Bridgid Fennell

Education

Email your questions to sscihelp@usc.edu or contact your subject librarian.

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