Learning search strategies and evaluation tools takes time and practice. You will have seen search and evaluation tips (in green) on each page of this guide. You can also find advice on search strategies for using the Boroondara library catalogue here. There are instructions on searching by title, author, subject, quick or advanced search.
You can find answers to many frequently asked questions here.
Here is some more information to support you.
Searching
Having a ‘search strategy‘ means you have a plan for what you’re searching for and how you’re going to do it. This can mean:
- Deciding what topic or issue you want to research. For example, “birds native to Victoria” or “endangered birds in Victoria”.
- Having key words will help you find useful information.
- Thinking about what format you need to have the information in is important. So, do you just need a book or can you also have information as a magazine article or video?
- Filtering your search, depending on where you are searching, can help to find reliable and relevant resources. This means that the search results can be trusted and are a close match to what you’re looking for. Filters can include date and format, amongst others.
Evaluating
Online search engines (like Google) are great because they pull in lots of information from all over the world and they’re pretty easy to use. We have to be aware, though, that not all information on the internet is safe or trustworthy. This relates to websites and everything published on them, for example articles and videos.
This means we need some evaluation tools to check what we’ve found when we’re researching. This might be most relevant when you’re researching facts or for a project topic. You can practice asking yourself:
- Currency: Is the website current? Check when it was last updated. Do I need current information for my research?
- Reliability: Does the website look professional? Are there any spelling mistakes or is it well written? Can you find who published it and seek help on checking if they are reliable?
- Authority: Can you find out who the author is and seek help to check if they are credible or an expert?
- Purpose: Who do I think they have published this for? Who is their audience? Can I tell if it is based on fact or opinion? Looking out for references to support ideas is a good indicator here.
(Source: CSU, 2022)