Discussion: Search Tool Analysis
Instructions
First Post
Choose ONE of the search tools listed below, analyze it, and post your analysis. Use your own words, with full sentences in paragraph form, to discuss your findings. Your post should be at least 150 words.
Search:
• Read the “Help” or the “About” section of the tool to learn more specifics about using this particular tool;
• Search for information on your research topic and keep track of the search terms you used;
• Explore using different keywords and/or advanced search strategies you’ve learned in this course.
Answer the following questions in your post:
1. Which search tool did you explore? What topic did you search for?
2. Which search terms and search strategies worked best with this search tool to find information on your topic?
3. Who is the audience for this search tool? What kinds of information needs would you recommend this source for?
4. What type(s) of sources is the tool useful for finding (books, articles, websites, videos, etc.)? Can you access the full text of these sources, or just information about them? How credible are the results, in general?
Tip: You do not need to mention specific sources you find, but keep track of them – you may be able to use them later in the course.
5. Identify some strengths and some weaknesses of the search tool, such as ease of use, credibility of results, your favorite features, problems discovered, etc.
6. Is this tool appropriate for your research question for this course? Why or why not?
Second Post
Look at what others have written and choose ONE classmate’s post to respond to:
• Make sure you reply to a post about a different search tool than the one you wrote about in your first post.
• Examine this second tool for yourself. Try a search (using your own topic), and see if you have the same analysis of the search tool.
• Your response should consist of a short paragraph (75-100 words), building upon what has already been written — don’t just agree or disagree, but elaborate, give examples, draw comparisons, make connections to your own search, compare the two electronic resources you examined.
Search Tools
Try to choose search tools that you haven’t used before. Remember that you will need to explore different search tools for your first post and second post.
• CINAHL Plus with Full Text (Links to an external site.) (SBCC Luria Library database): Includes sources covering nursing, biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health, etc.
• DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals (Links to an external site.): Contains approximately “12,000 open access journals covering all areas of science, technology, medicine, social science and humanities.”
• DuckDuckGo (Links to an external site.): “A search engine that doesn’t track you.”
• Gigablast (Links to an external site.): “One of a handful of search engines in the United States that maintains its own searchable index of over a billion pages.”
• Google Scholar (Links to an external site.): “Helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research” in a wide range of fields and disciplines. Be sure to use Google Scholar, not the standard Google web search. (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)
• GreenFile (Links to an external site.) (SBCC Luria Library database): Includes sources “covering all aspects of human impact to the environment.”
• HathiTrust Digital Library (Links to an external site.): “A partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.” (Links to an external site.)
• Nexis Uni (Links to an external site.) (SBCC Luria Library database): Includes news, business, and legal sources.
• Open Science Directory (Links to an external site.): A list of over 13,000 open access science journals. (Links to an external site.)
• Project MUSE (Links to an external site.) (SBCC Luria Library database): Includes sources in a wide range of fields and disciplines, especially in the humanities and social sciences.
• RefSeek (Links to an external site.) “A web search engine for students and researchers that aims to make academic information easily accessible to everyone.”
• USA.gov (Links to an external site.): Provides access to United States government websites and information.
• U.S. National Library of Medicine (Links to an external site.): An online biomedical library.
