1.2 Create a search strategy to fully satisfy the client's enquiry

Table of Contents

1. Choosing search terms
   1. Examples of search terms
   2. Synonyms
   3. A question about synonyms
   4. Another question about synonyms
   5. Related terms
   6. More about related terms
   7. Ambiguity
2. Structuring an Internet search
3. Using portals
4. Using bibliographic databases
5. Frequently-used websites
6. Website suffixes

Choosing search terms

Searching for information using the most appropriate key words is important in any reference enquiry. But it is arguably even more important in an Internet search than when you are looking through printed indexes. When carrying out a manual search, the human mind can make links and jump from one search term to another. Computers on the other hand stick strictly to the script and will only find information which matches what you have instructed them to look for.

Let's look at how you can derive the search terms for an enquiry.

You must be able to analyse a topic and break it down into its component parts. At its simplest you just extract the significant words, usually the nouns and verbs, and use these as search terms. An example would be a client asking for information about "How would you cook a vegetable like fennel?"

1	Search terms Which word(s) would you choose as search term(s) in this enquiry? "cook" and "fennel" - these two words are the essence of the enquiry. "How would you" is too general and "vegetable" would only be needed if there was some ambiguity over the nature of fennel.

Let's look now at some further examples of search terms...