{"id":2879,"date":"2020-11-18T10:12:21","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T10:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/?p=2879"},"modified":"2025-06-05T15:23:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T14:23:29","slug":"finding-information-the-key-to-your-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/finding-information-the-key-to-your-search\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Information: The key to your search"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"674\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/files\/2019\/11\/key-271786_1920-1024x674.jpg\" alt=\"Keys hanging on hooks on a piece of wood.\" class=\"wp-image-2880\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/files\/2019\/11\/key-271786_1920-1024x674.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/files\/2019\/11\/key-271786_1920-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/files\/2019\/11\/key-271786_1920-768x505.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/files\/2019\/11\/key-271786_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When it comes to finding academic information, there are a few things you need to think about before you start your search, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/?p=2821\/\">where to actually look for information<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/?p=2826\">types of information<\/a> you want to find in your search.&nbsp; Another thing that is worth taking the time to think carefully about is <strong>keywords<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keywords, sometimes called subject terms, are simple words and phrases that describe information; you can see them in the item record on Library Search and in Subject Databases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"318\" height=\"196\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/files\/2019\/11\/search-terms.png\" alt=\"An example of keywords from an article on Library Search\" class=\"wp-image-2882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/files\/2019\/11\/search-terms.png 318w, https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/files\/2019\/11\/search-terms-300x185.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 318px) 100vw, 318px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An example of keywords from an article on Library Search<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The results that your search returns are based on this information \u2013 if your keywords match an item\u2019s keywords, that item will appear in your results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get the best results, then, you\u2019ll need to develop a\nbalanced list of targeted keywords \u2013 these keywords may come from your essay\ntitle or research question, from your subject knowledge or wider reading \u2013 you can\neven borrow them from the subject terms you find on relevant articles!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As ideas and topics can be expressed in different ways you\u2019ll\nalso need to think about synonyms and terms related to your keywords to make\nsure you can find all of the relevant information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To find out more about keywords, synonyms and searching take\na look at this short video:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"ASK Online Learning Resources 1.3: Finding Information - Performing a search\" width=\"525\" height=\"295\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KqIFJW_ezbk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There are some useful tricks you can use with your keywords to save you time when you search, take a look at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncl.ac.uk\/academic-skills-kit\/information-and-digital-skills\/finding-information\/search-techniques\/\">Academic Skills Kit<\/a> to learn about Boolean, wildcards and truncation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to finding academic information, there are a few things you need to think about before you start your search, such as where to actually look for information and the types of information you want to find in your search.&nbsp; Another thing that is worth taking the time to think carefully about is &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/finding-information-the-key-to-your-search\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Finding Information: The key to your search&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8034,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[43,44,45,25,10,142,46,36,2,47,48,49,18,50,4,27,51,52,28,95,37,53,29,54,55,23,22,56,57,21,11,16,30,135,9,20,62,63,64,65,66,67,38,6,70,100,33,41,71,34,19,35,42,72,24,73,74],"class_list":["post-2879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-tips","tag-agribusiness","tag-agriculture","tag-animal","tag-linguistics","tag-archaeology","tag-architecture-2","tag-biology","tag-biomed","tag-business","tag-chemeng","tag-chemengnuis","tag-chemistry","tag-chinese-and-japanese","tag-civil","tag-classics","tag-combhon","tag-computing","tag-countryside","tag-communication","tag-culture-and-heritage","tag-dentistry","tag-earth","tag-education","tag-eee","tag-electricalnuis","tag-english-language","tag-english-literature","tag-environeng","tag-environsci","tag-film","tag-art","tag-french","tag-geography","tag-geospatial","tag-history","tag-italian","tag-marinesci","tag-marinetech","tag-marinenuis","tag-maths","tag-mecheng","tag-mechnuis","tag-medicine","tag-philosophy","tag-physics","tag-planning-and-landscape","tag-politics","tag-psychology","tag-reneweng","tag-sociology","tag-spanish-and-latin-american","tag-speech","tag-sport","tag-sustainability","tag-translating-and-interpreting","tag-transport","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2879"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7428,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions\/7428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/subject-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}