INFORMATION SEARCH STRATEGIES

Searching is the process of discovery that expands ones knowledge and widens their views. It is
one of the creative aspects of research. It is important to know how to focus one’s search to
minimize the results and make it manageable. Search strategy is the overall plan to solve an
information problem. A search for information is always inspired by an information need. The
prerequisite is a clear understanding of the reason why information is being sought.

5.1 Definition of Search strategy

A search strategy is a systematic plan of conducting a search. It is the overall plan to solve an
information problem.

5.2. Planning a Search

Before one starts to search for information, it is essential to think about what they want to
actually find. Taking time to plan the search will improve the accuracy of the search and the
quality of the information found. The primary aim in planning a search is to describe a clear
unambiguous question in order to define the topic. The process of planning a search strategy
helps clarify ones thinking about the topic, and ensure that they are looking for information
appropriate to their task.

5.3 Information search process

The following is a step by step process of conducting a search:

Step 1: Define your information need

First look at the question or project specification chosen/ given and make sure its fully
understood. Before one can find any information for their project or question they must
understand fully what is being asked. Are there any unfamiliar terms? If one is not sure about the
meaning of any word, name, place etc. then that should be looked up beforehand.

Step 2: Identify the main concepts or ideas in your topic

Once sure of the meaning of the question/project specification, one of the most important steps is
to work out which are the main words or phrases, known as keywords or key phrases. Keywords
and key phrases indicate what the project or question is really about. They provide initial search
terms for finding information. It is important to spot them all if one is going to answer questions
correctly.

Step 3: Find alternate words for your main concepts

Identifying the major concepts is an excellent start, but there’s no guarantee that the database
will have indexed using the words identified, even if they are on exactly the topic one is
interested in. Therefore, to ensure one finds all the information about their topic, for each
concept, one needs to identify as many different words and phrases that might be used to
describe it.

Step 4: Create your search statement

1. Use of Truncation

Used when one wants to search for multiple forms of the same root/stem word. * Is used to
indicate many characters

 A search for comput* searches for all forms of the word with comput at the root,
including compute, computable, computer, computers, computing, computation…

2. Use of Wildcards

Used to search for different spellings of words. ? Is used to indicate a single character e.g.:
 A search for organi?ation, would search for both organisation and Organization