Digital Investigator Training

Searchbox Strategy

Search Strategy | Queries | Deep Web

Strategic Searching Example: Locating Author Resources

A strategy allows you to make effective choices. A search strategy provides guidelines for efficient (time-saving) searching so you don't get distracted along the way. Powerful search strategies help you develop a search plan and stay focused as you search the Web.

Imagine you are assigned a short research paper about a particular author's contribution to literature (e.g., Judy Blume or Gary Paulsen)

One of the essential tasks is to locate resources about the author. Using the Web, a good plan is to locate three to four articles or posts that provide information about that author's contribution to literature. This is done by understanding (defining) the assignment: what does it mean, 'contribution to literature'? This involves defining keywords.

Are these good keywords as-is: Judy Blume contribution to literature? If you know what the words mean, these are as good a place to start as any.

Referring to the poster, the second searchbox strategy step is to query a search engine. If you enter the query as-is, the results (snippets) include the words distinguished contribution, impact, American (literature), young adult (literature). The snippets provide two things: 1) evidence that you are on the right track and 2) other keywords that could be important in refining the search (revision decision). For example, Judy Blume impact literature retrieves different articles that look promising: "Judy Blume has an influence all her own," "A Judy Blume author study completed for Hunter College Literacy Program", "Celebrating Judy Blume—Her Work and Impact" to name just three.

Practice

1 - Challenge	2 - Study this Strategy MicroModule	3 - Check your understanding
Search Challenge Try this challenge using searchbox strategies: define keywords, search, scan snippets, revise the search, find an answer. Name two winners of the Lego Master Builder contest in 2003 who no longer work at Legoland. Need Help? Use the help tutorial that is part of the challenge.	MicroModule Each time you use Search Box Strategy you cycle through a process trying to improve your query with better keywords. An effective query is the shortest effective combination of keywords (and sometimes operators as well) that retrieves exactly the information you seek.	Quiz This 9 point quiz covers searchbox strategies to make you a better searcher. Requires a membership subscription.