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This tutorial will guide you through using Library Search to find scholarly articles in the Simmons collection.
You'll practice:
developing keywords on your topiccombining them to get relevant resultsnarrowing down your results to the best articles
Clicking on an underlined word or phrase will give you a definition or in-depth explanation.
Use the arrows below to navigate through the tutorial.
Let's get started!
To begin, click on the Advanced Search link directly above the Library Search box.
If you are off campus, you may see a prompt at the top of the screen that asks you to log-in with your Simmons username and password.
As a student at Simmons, you will have research assignments that ask you to use a certain number of sources, including scholarly articles. For example, you might be exploring the following question:
How did Takata manage communications for the mass recall of its airbags?
What happens when you try searching for the whole question in the Library Search box?
You'll get much better search results by using keywords, rather than trying to search using your whole question.
Choose the keyword combination, to use for searching, that describes the important concepts in your question:
Click on the Advanced Search link just beneath the Library Search bar.
For a new advanced search, press the "x" button to the right of your original search question.
Now try searching for "Takata communications recall airbags" in the first search box of Advanced Search.
How many results do you get?
Library Search automatically adds AND between your search terms like Google. But remember that individual databases like Communication & Mass Media Complete don't do that.
It's good practice to connect your search terms with the word AND. You can put all the words in one search box, or you can put one concept in each search box that you see.
And while that's a decent number of search results, you might want to try to expand the search a little bit more.
Important concepts can often be described using more than one word or phrase. To search for one concept using multiple keywords, link them with OR.
You can either use the OR in the drop down menus between search boxes or type it manually. If you choose to type it, use parentheses to group the OR keywords together:
For example:
Takata AND (communications OR public relations OR PR) AND recall AND airbags
Click on Advanced Search. Clear the keywords from your previous search.
Which combination of keywords results in the most relevant articles to explore the topic?
Sometimes it can be challenging to think of additional keywords to describe a concept. When that happens, one option is to look for additional/alternative search terms by reading the abstracts of the first few search results you find. By doing this you'll see the vocabulary that experts in your field are using, and that can help you better target how you search.
When using multiple, very similar keywords you don't need to type them all out. Instead, truncate them using a * in place of the endings.
For example, use communicat* instead of typing (communication OR communications OR communicating OR communicated OR communicates).
Let's try a search combining keywords and truncation.
Clear your search box and search for the following:
TakataAND(communicat* OR PR or public relation*)ANDairbag*
How many results did you get?
Not every article in the result list is going to be relevant to your topic question or assignment requirements. But databases have tools called limits to help narrow down your results to the most relevant.
To narrow down your results, click on the Peer Reviewed button just beneath the Library Search bar. Next, click the drop-down menu from the button that says "All Time." Select "Past 10 Years."
The database will now only show articles that are peer-reviewed and published within the last ten years.
How many articles meet these criteria?
You can learn a great deal about an article from its citation and abstract.
Skim the search results until you find "Tua Culpa: When an Organization Blames Its Partner for Failure in a Shared Task." Click on the title to get more information about the article.
What journal was it published in?
Now that you've found what looks like a relevant article, you'd like to read the whole thing.
Library Search automatically limits your results to articles that Simmons has in its collection. Full-text articles are available as PDFs in Library Search, linked from other databases or journal publishers through the access options button, the download link, or available in print at the Library.
How is the article Tua Culpa available?
It's important to give credit where it's due and cite any information source you use. The Cite and Export button is built into databases to help you with this process.
In Library Search, handy tools like the Cite and Export button can be found at the top of your screen (the quotation mark icon) after you click on the title of an article.
Remember: you are ultimately responsible for making sure the citation is correct, so don't just trust the database, confirm it using a Citation Style Handbook or other resource.
This tutorial has introduced you to searching in Library Search and some of the features designed to assist your process. There are many more features and search options than covered here.
For example, since Library Search is limited to the Simmons collection, sometimes you might not find enough relevant articles. If that happens, you can try searching in an individual database like Academic Search Ultimate, which will provide you with citations to articles that you can borrow through interlibrary loan. To get to additional databases, navigate back to the Library's home page and click on the Databases button.
There is no wrong way to search, so keep trying new words, limits, and databases!
If you get stuck, contact a librarian.
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