1. What was discussed in class today?
In class on Friday, we continued a discussion on exploring databases. It was nice to get a couple more tips on searching for the academic articles that we may need in the near future.
2. What points were particularly important to you and why?
One of the most vital and useful characteristics of databases that I failed to see last week was that there was a variety to choose from. As I searched through the links presented on the page, there were a multitude of them, a wall of hieroglyphic links waiting to be clicked on and discovered.
3. When engaging in the search process, what techniques might you use to ensure that you can continue your exploration without running into a dead end?
When using search engines, I`m partial to using as many keywords as possible. On Google, I`ve found it a good habit to type out a load of words pertaining to my topic in order to find everything that I need. However, when it comes to searching through academic databases, I`ve found that the simpler search, the better it is. Using too many words can extremely narrow the search. Like looking through the opposite end of a scope, sight is narrowed and the picture drawn on the eyes is shrunken and small.
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Your points in item 3 are interesting. This gets to the issue of "fuzzy matching." In a search engine (Google), there is an attempt to give you something, even if it's not exact, so they give you the nearest things that match your query - hence the word "fuzzy." In a database, they give you exact results; there's nothing fuzzy about it. The search terms match or they don't, which is why I advise not using phrases in the same way you use phrases in Google.
Your choice of technique will depend on the rarity of your topic and the number of results you get with your first search strategy. After that, you make adjustments to increase or decrease your results.
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