Introduction

• Parts of this are redundant, but I want to emphasize certain points several times.
• When searching any database, but particularly Dialog because of the potentially high costs, you should carefully plan your search strategy.
• This involves several steps:
  • Determining your information need.
  • Stating the search topic.
  • Expanding the terms.
  • Developing the search statement/algorithm/strategy.
  • Selecting the Database.
• The Worksheet is a tool intended to facilitate this process.

Information Need

• This typically involves a reference interview, whether formal or informal.
• It is vital to:
  • Clarify what exactly your customer wants.
  • Determine what are the core and other relevant terms.
  • Find out what time frame is desired:
    • In the content.
    • For delivery of the results.
  • Find out what the budget (ie., limit) is for doing the searching if it is to be paid by the customer or come from another account.

State the Topic

• Try stating the problem in different ways.
• The purpose for doing so is to get different perspectives on the
• As a Question:
  • What is the relationship between nutrition, rest, exercise, and emotional condition and good grades?
• As a Statement:
  • Nutrition, rest, exercise, and emotional condition may have a positive impact on academic performance.

Concept Chart

• Use a chart like this to organize your search for maximum effectiveness in terms of recall and precision. The Search Worksheet contains one example. Below are two examples of Concept Charts. Find a way of organizing a search that best fits your style.
• Remember that you need to balance two issues in the creation of your search:
  • Precision - You design your search to get specifically what you need and nothing else. This is the usual strategy when you need a very particular piece of information such as the name of the person who invented the hula hoop, a list of Nokia cell phone models, the name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first vice president, and so forth.
  • Recall - You design your search to be sure to gather all information related to your information need. This is particularly important when:
    • You are trying to get a general perspective on a subject such as the growth strategies of a company.
    • You need to get all the relevant information for some critical issue such as the clinical trials and leading-edge research on a particular form of cancer.

Steps in Using the Concept Chart A Below

1. Enter what you think is the best search term for the first concept you are concerned with under Concept A.
2. Enter synonyms or similar terms for that concept in the same column but below "or (add related terms)."
3. Do the same for each additional concept (Concepts B, C, etc.) in their respective columns.
4. You may also want to limit your search results in several ways.
   • Examples:
     • Limiting the search to English.
     • Limiting it to recent publications. (Important, if you are looking at medical information.)
     • Excluding references to concepts that use similar terms, such as excluding "law schools" if you are looking for information on paralegal programs
     • Excluding whatever else you feel like excluding.

   Concept A		Concept B		Concept C
   music	and	popular?	and	new york
   or (add related terms)
   concerts		attendance		manhattan
   bands		crowds		new york city
   musicians				big apple
   not (add limits)
   Pavarotti
   any date before 1998
   lawrence welk

Steps in Using the Concept Chart B Below

1. Enter what you think is the best search term for the first concept you are concerned with under Concept A.
2. Enter synonyms or similar terms for that concept in the same column but below "or (add related terms)."
3. Do the same for each additional concept (Concepts B, C, D) in their respective columns.
4. You may also want to limit your search results in several ways.
   • Examples:
     • Limiting the search to a certain language, typically English.
     • Limiting it to a recent period.
     • Excluding references to concepts that use similar terms.
     • Excluding whatever you feel like excluding.

   Concept A	and or not w, n	Concept B	and or not w, n	Concept C or Limits	and or not w, n	Concept D or Limits
   music		most popular		new york
   						not before 1996
   concerts		highest attendance		manhattan		articles in english
   bands		largest crowds		new york city
   musicians				big apple

Plan Search Algorithms/Statements/Strategies

• It is preferable to do your search in multiple statements isolating different subject components of your search.
• For example:
  • In a search on the most popular music being performed in New York City, you might creat the following statements:
    • ss music or bands or concerts
    • ss perform? or present?
    • ss new(w)york or (new(w)york)(2n)city or manhattan
    • ss (most or more)(2w)popular or (high? or greatest)(w)attendance
  • These will create multiple sets of results that you can successively combine in various ways using Booleans, proximity, and other operators.

Select the appropriate database to search.

1. Look at whatever information you may have on databases that are logically relevant to the search problem.
   • This may include:
     • Database utility catalog of databases
       • In Dialog, looking at the OneSearch categories is a good place to start.
     • Bluesheets
     • Database-specific manuals
     • Recommendations by information professionals in professional journals.
     • Recommendations in online forums.
     • Doing a DialIndex (File 411) search to identify databases with the greatest number of occurrences of the search terms/phrases that you are using.
2. Select the databases for the specific search problem.

Logon

Execute Your Search Strategy / Expression / Algorithm