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InfoPower

The research skills tutorial

Photo of a doctor with a stethoscopeThe Info Doctor Is In

Symptoms: 

  • Search on the keyword "environment" retrieves more than 20,000 items in the library catalog.
  • Searcher experiences vertigo, anxiety, sweating when contemplating looking through all those records.

Tip: Use the Boolean operator AND between concepts to narrow your search.

Diagnosis:

  • INFORMATION OVERLOAD 
  • Search strategy is TOO BROAD.

Prescription:
Narrow search by adding:

  • a specific aspect of the topic such as legal, ethical 
  • a time period such as 1990s, last 30 years 
  • a geographic area such as California, Netherlands 
  • a population such as wildlife, manufacturers


Photo source: Microsoft