Janelle Goodrich

LIS525 Portfolio

Standard 3: Information and Knowledge

During one of my favorite classes at the University at Buffalo, LIS 518 Reference and

Information Services, we were instructed on how to effectively and efficiently conduct research

for patrons of the library. The class was very interesting and unique because I felt like I was

learning “tips” and “tricks” to find relevant sources one needed to conduct a research paper. I

wish I would of taken this class earlier in my coursework because the “tips” and “tricks” I

learned helped me conduct my own research later on during other courses.

One of the assignments was that we were given a patron, they had to think of a subject

they possibly wanted to research and ask the librarian (for the assignment, it was myself) to

search for articles that were relevant and accurate of what the patron was asking help to

research. The patron I was given was asking on help researching the use of instructional tools

to explain how to use reference sources to middle and high school students. I found this

challenging because I felt like the patron was asking more for instructional tools rather than the

research around those instructional tools. I started the search by using the query search

methods.

Using a college library such as University at Buffalo’s online library makes searching for

articles easier because they subscribe to a very wide variety of databases. This allows the

search process to be refined to one place rather than specifically searching a variety of

databases one at a time. However, during this search I did keep the user group and category of
the search in mind because that would allow me to narrow down the database if I needed to.

For example, since the instructional strategies were specific to education, I could narrow down

the databases to educational. I did not need to search through medical databases or other

categories that were not specific to education.

The first step I took was to make a list of keywords to help my search. I found that some

keywords I was using was very vague. Once I used a keyword and did not find the articles I

needed I would cross it off my list. After reading through articles that were on the right track of

what I was searching for, I used keywords I found within those articles in hopes my search

would be more successful. I also went back through my chat with the patron and searched for

keywords or terms the patron used in the chat to steer my search. I found great success in

changing my keywords to be more specific.

I used another model to steer my search. I used the “Berrypicking” model. This was

extremely helpful and I found that most of the articles through using the Berrypicking model.

The Berrypicking model is when you find an article that you will use in your research, to use the

reference articles from the original article. Once I found an article that was relevant and what I

was looking for, I used that articles references. Some of these references would be relevant to

my search and I would add them to my list and some of the articles were relevant, but lead me

to keywords or key terms that I might not have thought of.

Overall I found this project to be fun, yet challenging. The strategies I learned have

helped me to become a better researcher. I use these strategies when searching for my own

articles as well as helping others. When conducting my own research I like to gather as many
keywords as I can before beginning my search. This makes the process smoother. This project

taught me to be innovative, creative, and patient.