Education (Early Years & Primary): Search Tips

When you look for information you form a search query, usually by using a keyword or combination of keywords. The search query is what you put into a search engine, whether that's on the web, FindIt or on a database. The below tips are handy for all three information sources.

Keywords

• Use the terminology your lecturers use
• Check your textbooks for definitions of terms
• Try lots of different keywords - brainstorm and think of many different ways of saying the same thing.

Scope

• Can you think of ways to make your search more specific? (eg: by adding keywords, restricting results by location or year published)
• Can you think of ways to make your search more broad? (eg: fewer keywords, less specific keyword)
• Hint: It can be useful to start broad when you are not sure about your research question.

When you go to the library website, you will find a search box that looks like:

Details of all the library resources, both physical and digital, are retrievable through the various tabs and links on this box.

FindIt gathers results from all the physical library resources, eJournals and eBooks, as well as many of the databases. If you select the various tabs to the right, you can restrict your search just to items that are 'On the shelf' (that is, physical library resources), just eJournals or just eBooks. You can also browse the databases by clicking on the Databases A-Z link.

The below video takes you through the basics of using FindIt, Melbourne Polytechnic library's discovery tool:

Specific search

The default search on FindIt is by keyword. However, if there's a particular author you're after, you can search by author:

Or by title:

Remember, you can always use the Advanced Search to create a specific search query. However, you can always filter your search results after you have retrieved the results as well, for example by resource type, year or date range, location.

Browse

Sometimes it can be difficult to start the search for information for an assignment. Remember that you can always browse by subject or topic. You can do this in a couple of ways: by subject heading or by call numbers (only applicable to print books and physical library resources). Remember you can filter these results even further in order to make your search more specific.

Hint: if you've found a great resource, check out the subject headings or call number attached to that resource - it can be a great way to find related content.