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Seeking the right information: Find information

Module 2: How do I search?

Where to begin?

To know whether you have enough information sources about your topic, you need to choose the most appropriate search tool depending on the nature of information need.
 
Below are examples of search tools and their descriptions.
You can access these search tools anywhere, anytime. 

 
 Online catalog  
An online catalog consisting of a collection of bibliographic records. It is use to find resources within the DLSU Libraries.
 
 Subscription databases 
Specialized databases subscribed by the Libraries containing vast amount of information (in full-text) not available on Google® or other common search engines. Access to these databases is made available in and off-campus 24/7.

 Discovery service  
A resource discovery tool that aggregates almost all of DLSU library resources.  It is accessible in and off campus.
 
 EBSCO Integrated Search (EHIS) 
A federated-search engine that allows users to simultaneously search subscription databases.
 
 Subject directories 
Allow browsing Internet resources by different subject categories, e.g. INFOMINE , Yahoo! Directory, Encyclopedia Britannica. Subject directories may return results that are high quality and high relevance. They do not store databases of websites, but merely point to them.
 
 Search engines 
Like Google & Yahoo! offer keyword searching to large databases of web documents. Some  smarter  search engines use technologies to offer “link  relevance,” or PageRank, group results into subject hierarchies or concept clusters or “autocategorize,” & use a thesaurus to “disambiguate” terms with multiple meanings.

You may use search engines, when you
  • Have a narrow  topic or several keywords.
  • Want to do a comprehensive search.
  • Want to retrieve a large number of documents on your topic.
  • Want to search for  particular types of documents, file.
 Invisible or deep web 
Publicly accessible information available via the World Wide Web but not retrievable using search engines that rely on crawlers or spiders.
 
Examples of invisible web


Source: Valenza, J. 2003. Power Research Tools: Learning Activities & Posters 

 How to search for an item using the classic catalog?

1. Go to http://lib1000.dlsu.edu.ph

2. The basic search page will appear on your screen.

3. Choose field delimiter (title, author, call number, and type/location of material).

4. Enter search string in the search box.

5. Click the “Submit” button or hit the enter key.

 

Explore the image below -- mouseover the targets to discover more about the classic catalog.

 
  
 
Finding print books and articles using the classic catalog
 
How to search for an article in print periodicals?

1. Go to http://lib1000.dlsu.edu.ph

2. On the right side of the classic catalog, click the “Article Index” link.

3. Type the keyword(s) in the search box and click the “Submit” button.
 

How to view your search results?
 
1. A list of titles containing your keyword(s) search will be displayed.
 
2. Click on any of the results to view the full record display.
 
3. An option to sort the results by relevance, date, and title is available at the upper portion of the page.
 
Explore the image below -- mouseover the targets to discover more information about the bibliographic citations.
 

 

Licensing

Creative Commons License

This contents of the Online IamInfoSMART may be reused with attribution. Please copy the following into new works based on the IamInfoSMART. The Online IamInfoSMART by the DLSU Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at guides.library.uwm.edu, Pot of Gold Information Literacy Tutorial, Tutorial for Info Power