As a Teacher Librarian, you need to be able to conduct expert searches to locate relevant and high quality resources for teachers, and you also need to be able to model and teach others in the school community how to conduct their own expert searches.

Effective searching requires that you are aware of the different approaches and strategies needed across a range of platforms and databases. This post explains just some of the most useful strategies that you should be aware of and able to apply.

Search strategies

University libraries often have fantastic search strategy pages.

One of the best is this one from the University of Kansas.

Here is the search strategies page from the CSU library.

Here is a search strategies page from the University of Queensland
with lots of tips and techniques.

What are Boolean Operators?

Boolean Operators were invented by mathematician George Boole. Boolean Operators are a type of algebra, where the words AND, OR, and NOT are used to create a mathematical equation. These equations are used in search strings to give commands to the search tool or database. That means when you type a string of words into a search field you are actually creating an equation and engaging in computational thinking. Who knew! Many students are now learning Boolean logic as part of learning to code. Here’s a great simple explanation of Boolean logic as it appears in the kid’s programming tool Scratch.

This is a fun video from University of Sydney explaining Boolean searching:

And a slideshow you might find useful:

Google search tips:

This is one of the best search tips pages ever!

And something most people have forgotten: Google has an Advanced Search.

Here are some pages from Google on search tips:

• This page explains search operators
• This page gives you general information
• This page explains wildcard searching in Google
• This page explains quotation marks, forced inclusion, stop words (words that Google ignores) and the OR operator 
• This page is a great summary of a range of advanced techniques

Note that the NOT operator (exclusion of a word) is rendered as a minus sign that is butted up to the word you want to exclude. Do not use the word NOT, even as capitals, as Goggle treats it as a stop word (i.e. a word it ignores). The NOT operator is very handy if you are searching for inquiry learning but want to exclude science e.g.: “inquiry learning” -science is treated as “inquiry learning” NOT science.

Learn more from the video below:

Google Scholar search tips:

Google Scholar searches a database of scholarly information such as journal articles, books and conference papers. It is a citation database, that means that it also shows you who cites the sources in their reference list. This is very handy to track the evolution of ideas and it allows you to browse other relevant sources. More information on searching Google Scholar is here.

Searching library databases

The CSU library subscribes to a wide array of databases and these are essential for your own research. If you work in a secondary school library, it is likely that you will also provide access to some databases via subscriptions. In other cases, you may need to direct students to databases available through public or State libraries.

The CSU library offers extensive guides explaining how to access and search databases effectively. Expert searching of databases can require you to apply a variety of strategies including:

• Boolean operators(sensible) Boolean operators (fun)
• double quotes and brackets
• truncation
• wildcard
• proximity operators

In closing…

Expert searching is a useful and time saving skill. Although search strategies and approaches may change, having an understanding of the underlying concepts will ensure your skills remain transferable across platforms and over time.