I have seven search guidelines
A few years ago, when I first made a book guide for the search for beginners, I had to calm down, what is the easiest and most important thing I can teach them? What is our professional searcher know, and these students don't understand? What courses are caused by finding and finding the cause of the difference and what they need to learn? I have gradually emerged in my mind, I wrote them on a piece of paper in the office: I have four search guidelines. In the past few years, I have added some content on this basis. However, I still understand and practice them and in my opinion, this is the difference between our professional searcher and ordinary users.
I have no invented these guidelines, I just make them physically and serialize. Conditioning English - Another thing to do when professional searchers receive people's problems.
Guidelines 1: Going to the place where you: go where it is is
Ordinary people may think that people who are good at our search are because they know some cheats using search engines. In fact, we really know, it is precisely: For many problems, it is impossible to solve the search engine because there is no information on the Internet. Perhaps the answer hidden in 1935 (Harper's ", or a" New York Times "published in 1865, or hidden in a comparison of different European national medical insurance management policies In the middle, or hidden in a non-published papers, or in a property-owned market survey made by a Baojie (P & G), or hidden in a Senate hearing record in 1965.
When anyone comes to us a question, whether it is familiar with this area, the first thing we do is, it is the information geographical map of our minds. When we say "Let's try the online medical literature analysis and retrieval system (Medline), we have assessed the needs of users (on special therapies in a medical environment) and knowledge level (medical professor or students), And determine where it is most likely to find information that meets their needs (articles in medical literature).
Regardless of the problem, we will experience the same information geographical search and confirmation process: when you are asked and artistic copy, we will go to search for the art encyclopedia or the Internet; if you are asked, what can I buy in 1966? We will go to search for "Historical Statistics" or "Statistical Abstracts" or 1966 local newspaper advertisements. Different tools can retrieve different information, and the skills of the librarians are understanding which tool can be best to complete which task.
When a librarian asks the original information of Delaware Watershed, my first reaction is:
· ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS. US Fish and Wildlife Service (US Fish and Wildlife Service). Environmental Protection Agency. State of delaware).
I have made this theme, I have made a search in Searchgov.com, and it has found a lot of related documents from these departments and other departments from the federal government. However, people who associate most concerns are scientists, I also used sciseek.com to search for the scientific website on the Internet, so I found a lot of other information related to this basin, chemistry, engineering. Then, I searched for multiple full-text databases through EBSCoHost, which made me find related articles from the Journal of Science Magazines, Travel Magazines and Sports.
Librarians also understand that the style of different information sources is not replaced with each other. Magazines and newspapers will explain complex obstruction themes with readers, and academic and professional magazines publish the original research article ("research" in ordinary user issues may automatically send us to a magazine full-text inspection cable library. ). But because "research" is inevitably restricted in a very small, controlled area, it is like a puzzle. When we want to see this small piece of style, or when we want to know a broad background of a topic, we will go to book, and the book will summarize and let you understand a first study. Government documents will provide statistics, laws, financial information, and even "who we are?", "What do we have?", "Which step is there?" And other public information.
We understand the strengths and shortcomings of each information source style. The Internet is longer than the picture and demonstration, for government documents, for FAQ documents, for discussion groups, for transmission full-text databases; but we also know that the Internet is almost useless for the 1995 magazine and government documents. For these information, we still need to use our old index and journal backup. We also know more than just trusting Internet authority and accuracy, you may find a group of certificates on the Internet - even a few versions of it - but don't expect to find its correct origin. Our attitude towards Internet information is a cold-war suspicion: trust it, but only after confirming.
We know who is most likely to create different categories. For most serious statistics, we will start from the "US Statistics Summary", but for living standard statistics, we will go to search for the professional market research reports that need to promote the products of advertisers. When I was asked, I found a full-text business journal database to find a market research report that would be published in magazines such as "American Demograph". (By the way, the answer to the question, the answer has violated our intuition: more than one-third boy, take at least twice a day.)
We know, sometimes the best information is a normal person, as an individual or as one of the group, a warm person in a certain topic. When our users need to reliably, authoritative information about diabetes, we will take them to the American Diabetes Association website; when our users want to exchange people with the same disease experience, I want to understand diabetic patients. When you live, we will take them to the relevant support group.
When we want to know if a new technology or policy is valid, we will go to the internet related discussion group. And when a topic is very remote, we will go directly, because the Internet is the best place to share their enthusiasm for people who have quirky preferences (such as slog, medieval map, inferior graffiti).
Our professional searcher can be described in the information of the World Traveler's wizard: We can help our travelers quickly arrive at the destination, because we know where the destination is, because we know the best route is What, because we know that you should take a plane, train, or a car. Guideline 2: What answer you get, depending on how you ask questions (Rule Two: The answer you get debreads on the quintions you ask) Introduction: Question Decide the answer, if you don't like the answer, then change the problem.
Ordinary people may think that librarians must know all the answers. In fact, we really know, how to ask questions. We know how to move from slip-to-adjust search ranges between broad and special, until we find the most critical influencing factors of the task.
One way we use to slide to adjust the search range is the language. If we don't find enough information with a special keyword, we will turn to a broader level of the concept; if we discover too much information, we will try more special keywords.
For example, when we are asked to find research information in this area: obese people do the same job as the body standard, is it possible to earn less money? Some keywords we will try may be "obese" or "Obesity or Weight", "Salary" or "Sala" or "Discrimination" or "Difference" ( Discrimination or differential. We also use a broader statement: Obesity and Employment Discrrimination, which may retrieve various research materials on discrimination: interview, salary, evaluation, improvement, and so on. No matter which keyword combination we use, we all know that we will get different search results, so we will certainly use all the reasonable keywords you want. Moreover, when we click on a valuable new discovery, we will also use any new keywords found in the web page encountered from the continuous search.
In addition, we also use other methods to slide adjust the search range. When we decide to search the topic title, we will start from the most special keywords to ensure that the files and themes we have retrieved are fully related. When we find what related content is almost hoped, - when we need DAMN FOOL Luck, we will start searching from the broadest keyword. Once we find out what information, we will use it as soon as you use it, and you can find more information.
When we start searching from concept, we will use the "or" organization keyword, just like a trawler to capture every fish within a quarter mile inner radius; and use the "AND" organization key Words, use this method to slide to adjust to the narrow search range, just like throwing unqualified fish.
When we want to search for a small piece of universe in the universe, - a card catalog, or "online medical literature analysis and retrieval system", or a special search engine such as Searchgov.com - We are also searching a unity Narrow concept field.
The risk of narrow search is: Some relevant information does not contain the keywords we use, or there are no indexes of some related information in our special search engine or database, so we may miss these related information. And when we start searching from the broadest concept, just find the risk of invalid results, such as when I tap the search engine looking for a singer information called "E.". By sliding adjustment between broad and narrow concepts; combination of different keywords, different search methods, different search resources; always think about what else can you find; we have greatly improved this possibility: not I found an answer for the customer, but to discover a best answer for the customer.
Guidelines 3: The answer must be catering to the demand (Rule Three: the answer shop match the information new
The librarians need to understand, not only the problem, but also need to understand: which answer will satisfy the customer. If we give them the answer they want, can we answer them? Some people want an encyclopedic book article, you give him a book, although there is an answer in that stack? Someone wants a specific question of verbal answer, you give him a website, although there is an answer in the site? There is a patient to understand the information he just diagnosed with a disease. You give him a hypotheld article on the professional medical academic magazine. Although there is an answer in that article? Someone just wants to print a few articles, take it home, do you give him a text?
Accept this hypothesis: Librarians are a group of good scholars who lost their chestouts. We can always trace the clues, we can always find more information compared to those who have demand or interested in a certain aspect. Unless we gave a scholar to study, the problem we face is usually not found, but it should be stopped. - Give a polite suggestion, of course, there is a way to use other users, they should require more.
Guidelines 4: Search is a multi-step process (Rule Four: Research is a multi-stage process)
Sometimes, the hunting process can only be twisted. In order to find the information of the singer "E.", I need to start with a rock encyclopedia or rock website. I went to the "UBL.com" (UBL.COM), where I found "E.", one Music Record Category, his current band The Eels of the Eels, their official website, and tour performance information.
If someone really wants to find a message of all the latest endorships in a topic, this will activate our sensitive instinctive instinct, which triggered every silk skills we have. First, we will go to each place we think that there may be information, search more than one database, but every seemingly possible database. We will search for journal databases, publish abstract, OCLC online joint catalog (WorldCAT), conference papers index, and so on. We will hurry through the entire Internet, both using a normal search engine, also using special search engines, professional websites, and invisible databases.
Whenever we find anything, we will observe more clues from it. Follow each message in the book, search for more works of these authors, find those authors' E-mail, and collect your search, find who is herein. Whenever we find a useful new keyword, we will return to our searched place and search again using the new keyword. When we find some of our customers who want information in our customers, we will use any feature provided by the database or search engine - you click on the topic or a "more like this" function - find more Similar entries. Guidelines 5: The information itself is meaningless, only valuable after Question (Rule Five: Information is Meaningless UnsiL Queried by Human Intelligence)
Data: Sweden is the largest cooking sauce user. Data: 51% of the Shengluo residents said they have never been to the St. Lu Shi Arch. Data: According to NEC Research, 1.5% website is a porn website.
Now you know this data, are you smarter or more? In fact, what reasons do you have to care? Without context, these data is only data, not information. They only become valuable information when we ask questions like this:
· If I plan to sell Shasha sauces in Sweden, what kind of competition will it face? · Does the Shenglu Li Shi should do a travel propaganda advertisement for local residents? · How serious is the pornographic problem on the Internet? (Note: Answer this question requires far more than the above data)
This world is full of endless content: arrows, pottery fragments, molluscular fossils, ancient texts and diarys, cubs, barriers, bargows, and Barbie.
All of this data is meaningless, until someone do something - a problem, put them with other data, thinking about their meaning, until someone merges these debris and discovers a past civilization, or in a broken text The traces of political conspiracy are found, or from these old recipes to learn the canned soup and the bag food when starting to penetrate into our lives.
Unless you know what you have to do, casual data accumulation is meaningless. You must start from a question, or a topic, it is best to have a clear statement not only let you understand what information is what you need, but let you understand what information is useless to you. If you say that you want to find the economic effect of the patent, you can only focus on the winner and the loser.
This means that you can ignore the debate of protecting patents and what may be awarded a patented debate. Your data should be focused on the stock price, asset balance table, and price catalog.
Guideline 6: Asking questions to your answer - information may be true, but still wrong (Rule Six: Question Your Answers - Information May Be True But Still WRONG)
I live in Dawenport in Iowa. In May 2001, we enjoys how many online journalists in the sky, they all take their cameras to us, surrounded by the Mississippi River, baseball hall. Those cameras show our rivers to drive on this country - drown - the team volunteers in the filled sandbag. The little surprised is that every relative that I have called, I will give me a floating bag, but I don't need it.
These reporters have been reporting facts until we leave. They ignored the remaining story, move the camera lens to surrounded, or moved next to it. If they have to do that, then this country will recognize that Dawnport is built on an amazing and tall mountain, and 99% of the urban areas have not received the influence of floods, as long as they don't have a worse case. The day of Hongfeng arrived, the sun was shining, and I was monitoring a team building worker covering a solarium for my house.
This is a story that makes us alert. These reporters are undoubtedly honest, they will not deliberately distort the truth, but some extent they do this. It is necessary to remember that some of the information sources we use, such as any party's politicians talk to the dramatic changes in Florida during the 2000 election, make data to support their version of the truth. We must understand that all our knowledge is incomplete, will change with the emergence of new evidence and theory. Thirty years ago, dinosaurs were also considered to be cold blood animals, but now they are not. Dinosaur has never changed, it is a new evidence and interpretation. So we always tend to not fully affirm our answer to others.
We have enough understanding of how to ask data. When we are confident that a search result that is impossible to zero is zero, we will re-examine our search strategy - whether we don't miss the words or name? Do we find a wrong place? We ask questions to statistics, ask "Who is this?", Ask "How do they know? Quot; ask" What is their way? ", If someone gives us an accurate proportion of the adult American digging the nostrils, we must sure how many people will answer this question. We will not satisfy the first answer. We are constantly trying, try, and then Date.
Guidelines Seven: Question Seating (Rule Seven: Ask A Lbrarian)
We will ..., nonsense, we will certainly ask the librarian.
· Because we are calmly understand our collection.
· Because sometimes people do not find expected answers in the expected location, they will give up. (How many real questions are hidden behind the surface problem: "Where is the reader guide?")
· Because we strive to discover information about people's truly demand, and transform it into our system to understand.
· Because we are more good at the front and after the face, we don't have a book about the Siamese cat, we have a book about cat breeding and feeding; we also have a magazine index and database may help us find About Siamese cat articles; we may even find a suitable book in children's books that are disdainful.
· Because we understand how to order all kinds of databases stand, roll, lick our face. Our users did not find the fact that the answer did not mean that the answer did not exist. (That is true, the fact may be that we can't find the answer.)
· Because, when we don't have to start searching, we are deeply convinced by the Pacific Ocean, and we will convince the answer, and we will find it with the honor of the librarians.
The problem is, why only have us, almost no one knows this?
Is these guidelines really attached to criteria? They should be, because every outstanding librarian I know is practicing them. This can be used to explain, why we can make such a mystery that exceeds our catalogs and computers, find answers that make the outstanding enthusiasm.
I often hinted my students, information is like pizza, and you are more hungry, the more you eat. Your search needs are more complete, the more you need to completely search all available resources. This is my guess, information about what format occupies how much the total information has accumulated in the past 3 centuries. I believe that the document created by the region, the country, and the international government is the largest independent source of independent information in these centuries; then the books and journals; even more than 1 billion web pages, it is increasing with millions of speeds per day, the Internet Before you can compete, there are many places that need to be caught up; the remaining small pieces also include such as papers, conference documents, video, films, pictures, maps, databases, and more. Each small fragment of this information pizza can also be split, even a small fragment such as a magazine or journal, but also detained into different databases of different contents - online medical literature analysis and Retrieval System, Science and Education Resource Information Center (ERIC), Biological Abstracts, American National Agricultural Library Collection Retrieval (Agricola). If you really want to perform a complete search, check each of the broken crusions.
These are the initial information guidelines, and it is beautiful when writing and writing when writing. From that, they have grown:
1. Go where it is. 2. The answer you get depends on the question You ask. 3. Research is a multi-stage process. 4. Ask a librarian.
(My rules of information -2002.1 -marylaine block) Search engine 9238 -2002.7 Translated from http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jan02/block.htm
