LibGuides: Asian American Studies: Research Tips

Keywords and Subjects

Develop your topic: worksheet

Shhhh! Librarian Secrets, Revealed!

"quotation marks" tell the catalog/database to search for your terms as a phrase

"video games" OR "computer games"
"new wave"

asterisk* (truncation) finds variations...

vampire* = vampire, vampires
educat* = educate, educating, educator, educators, education
wom* = woman, women, wombat...

(so be careful how you use it!)

parentheses nest concepts -- like in math

music AND (post-punk OR new wave)

Library Research Strategies

Sample Research Questions:

Communicating through Social Media: What Do We Gain? What Do We Lose?

Brainstorming for keywords

What keywords would you use to search for information on this topic?

What keywords best describe the different facets of this topic?

Which synonyms or related terms can you think of that also reflect the different facets of this topic?

Keyword		Synonym/Related		Synonym/Related		Synonym/Related
social media	OR	"virtual space"	OR	Facebook	OR	Facebook
AND
communicating	OR	interaction	OR	conversation	OR	connecting
AND
gain AND lose	OR	consequences	OR	cost-benefit	OR	implications

Examples:

Research Question

representation of women in the film industry

Brainstorming Keywords:

Keyword	Synonym	Synonym	Synonym

movie	film	cinema
women	female	gender
representation	image	portrayal

Research Question:

birth, death, and legacy of post-punk music

Brainstorming Keywords:

Keyword	Synonym	Synonym	Synonym

post-punk	new wave	no wave
music	pop music

Boolean Logic: And, Or, Not

Boolean logic is foundational to internet/electronic-based search. The library catalog uses it, journal databases use it, even Google -beneath all those mysterious relevancy algorithms - uses it!

AND - searches for things that contain ALL of your keywords

"video games" AND therapy
post-punk AND music

OR - searches for things with ANY of your keywords (really great for synonyms!)

("video games" OR "computer games") AND (therapy OR exercise)
(post-punk OR "new wave") AND music

NOT - searches for things WITHOUT a specific keword

("video games" NOT wii) AND therapy
(post-punk NOT "new wave") AND music

Research Tips and Strategies

When keyword searching, use key words that best describe your topic. The objective is to get a small group of relevant records. People, places themes, characters, time periods, events, types of information (i.e. ethnography) issues and more can be key words. What words or phrases best describe your topic?

For locating primary source material, consider these “subject keywords”: sources, documents, personal narrative, documentary history, archives, manuscripts, correspondence, speech*, oration, statistics, cartoon*, interview*, oral history*.

Evaluate your search results. Click on the title to view the entire reocrd, including chapters and subject headings. If you don’t see related materials in the top 10-20 items of your search results, reconstruct your search using alternative keywords, synonyms, narrower terms, more terms, etc.

Note the citation/source information (journal title, volume #, issue #, and date) before leaving the database, even if just to go to another window. The citation is the most important information in the database record and is required to locate the article text, online or in print.

Raid bibliographies. Books and articles have bibliographies and references. Use them so you don’t have to spend hours database searching.

In the library, like materials are shelved together. When looking for a particular book on the shelf, also scope out what’s shelved next to it. Books and back issues of periodicals are inter-filed on the shelves in call number order.

Consult a librarian. We work across the disciplines, will refer you if necessary, and can help track down sources, explain library services, interpret citations and find the most useful keywords. The Ask a Librarian service provides 24/7 access to a librarian.