This document provides tips for researching online, including where to start searches, what types of information and search limits to consider, and how to manage information found online. It discusses using search engines like Google and Google Scholar effectively through search operators and advanced search. It also introduces library databases and recommends refining searches using subject headings, keywords in abstracts, and limiting searches by date, full text availability, and more. Tips are provided for managing search results and alerts as well as bookmarking, bibliographic management, and using social networks for research.

1. Researching Online
Tips to help you discover and manage
information online.

2. Overview
• Where to start?
• Google products
• Library databases
– International
– New Zealand information
• Information management

4. Questions to ask yourself…
• What information do I need to find?
– What are the main questions?
– What are the associated questions?
• What type of information do I need?
– Public opinion, or academic research?
• What limits do I need to consider?
– New Zealand, or international?
– Current only, or is historical acceptable?

6. • Keep your search simple and focused
• Try the Advanced Search for more options
• Check the page for options – search images,
blogs, news, time frames etc
• Commonly used search operators:
– Phrase searching “Florence Nightingale” history
– OR bullying youth OR teenager
– Eliminate synonyms +childhood

7. Other search operators…
• Search a site or domain diabetes site:moh.govt.nz
• Definitions
– Web definitions define:self-determination
– Web search define self-determination
• Conversions 65 F in C
• Calculator 56*84
• Fill in the blank Madame Curie died in *

8. • An introduction for many into the world of
academic research
• Results based on ranking – where published,
author, citation count, date of publication etc
• Same core search operators as Google web:
– Phrase searching “matthew bannister” adorno
– OR john clayton e-learning OR online learning
– Eliminate stop words +de knuth

9. Check out Advanced Search

10. Click Scholar Preferences
Search for Wintec
Tick Wintec – Wintec Article Finder
Click Save Preferences

11. Full text on Google Scholar
Look for the links to the right of
the result list.
If you’ve set-up your Scholar
Preferences, you’ll see the
Wintec Article Finder links,
which will try to find the full-text of
the item in our databases.

12. Managing information with Google
• Enable Google history
– Google will personalise based on your search history
– See what searches you’ve done
• RSS feeds
– Click Latest results and you’ll usually see alert options
at the bottom of the result page
• Use services such as Shareaholic or Web Slices
• Google Reader

13. • Allows you to gather, read and share
interesting blogs and websites
• Requires a Google account
• Use the Note in Reader bookmarklet to share
interesting websites with colleagues and
friends

14. Note in Reader
When on the page you want to
share:
1. Click on Note in Reader to
make the sharing box appear
2. Add a note to highlight why the
page is being shared
3. Click Post item
4. Go to Google Reader
5. Click on Shared items and
see your newly shared
website

15. Shared items
• See what others are sharing with you
• You can then comment, re-share or star those
items – this can be a great way to find new
feeds and websites

16. Folders
1. Subscribe to the feed
2. You’ll be sent to Google Reader
where you can organise the feed
3. Your new feed will appear
in the nominated sort order

17. Star items
• To save items for later, star them
• Another way to manage and keep items
together

18. • http://oaister.worldcat.org/
• Search the largest harvester of Open Archive
Initiative repositories
– Predominantly research carried out at academic
institutions
• Similar search operators to our Library Catalogue:
– Truncation bull? School (find bully, bullies, bullying
etc.)
– OR bull? teenager OR youth

19. Also check out…
• New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC)
– Full-text New Zealand books out of copyright
– Needs an epub reader such as Stanza (mobile) or
Adobe Digital Editions (computer)
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
– Full-text, open access scientific and scholarly journals
• Also, don’t begin and end with any one search
engine, become familiar with at least one other
and use it.

20. • Great multi-disciplinary database
• Select databases based on your topic
• Advanced Search is strongly recommended
• Commonly used search operators:
– Phrase searching “Florence Nightingale” history
– Truncation child* “early childhood education”
– OR bull* (youth OR teenager)

21. Other search operators…
• Wildcard organi?ation
• Near diabetes N5 zealand
– Find the search terms in any order within X
number of words
• Within diabetes W8 zealand
– Find the search terms in the order entered within
X number of words

22. Use the Search Screen options…
Use the Advanced Search
boxes to construct your search
Search modes expand or limit
your search.
- Find all my search terms will
combine terms with AND
- Apply related words will also
search synonyms
- Also search within the full text
can be useful if you don’t get
many results
Limit your results to Full Text, Peer reviewed
and a Published Date, as wanted

23. Use subject headings or the
Thesaurus to modify your search
Hover over the magnifying glass to check for keywords
in the Abstract… Searching is a learning process!

24. In this case, I altered the
search to SU Subject Terms.
Then added some items to my
folder to manage. This is the
easiest and quickest way to
manage your results from a search.
You can send the results to a
reference manager or email them.

25. More result management is
available when you Sign in
From the Alert / Save / Share tab:
• Add search to folder to manage the
search
• E-mail Alert will email new articles
matching your search (you must be signed
in to use this)
• RSS Feed will send the new articles to
your RSS Reader (e.g. Google Reader)
• Use the Persistent link to embed a
search into your Moodle course
• Bookmark the search in one of many
options

26. While signed into My EBSCOhost, you can
print, email, save and export the articles as
usual, or you can share them with others -
create a New folder and go from there...

27. 1. Create the new folder
2. Add the items to the folder
3. Your new folder appears, containing the articles

28. 1. Enter as many email addresses as you want
2. Chose whether you want to restrict use to a
single access
3. Click Invite
4. Each person invited will receive an email with
instructions – they need to be using the email
you used as their My EBSCOhost login

29. • Great multi-disciplinary database
• Some nursing databases need to be searched
separately – scroll down the list
• Advanced Search is strongly recommended
• Commonly used search operators:
– Phrase searching “Florence Nightingale” history
– Truncation child* “early childhood education”
– Wildcard organi?ation
– OR bull* (youth OR teenager)

30. Similarly to EBSCOhost,
construct your search
Add any limits – in this
case, a Date range of
After this date, Full text
and Scholarly journals
To try and eliminate irrelevant results,
Exclude Book Reviews.
Sorting by Most relevant first will help
to determine if the search is on track

31. 1. Click on a relevant title
2. Check for new keywords within the
Subject headings and Abstract –
again, it’s all about learning as you go

32. As with the EBSCOhost search, I changed
the search to bullying as a Subject
Tick any relevant articles to
place them in My Research,
where you can create a
bibliography, email, export
the citations or create a
webpage from them

33. 1. Click on Set Up Alert
2. Nominate a Schedule for the alerts
3. When they’re to Stop
4. What Email address they should go to
5. Enter a descriptive Subject heading
6. Click Save

34. 1. Click Create RSS Feed
2. Either copy and paste the
RSS URL into your Reader,
or click on the RSS icon
3. Choose your RSS Reader
from the drop-down menu
4. Click Subscribe Now – you’ll
be redirected to the Reader to
manage the feed

35. If searching for Business related
content, you might want to check
out the Topic and Browse tabs.
These will help you drill down to
relevant subject headings

36. • Great multi-disciplinary database
• Advanced Search is strongly recommended
• Commonly used search operators:
– Phrase searching “Florence Nightingale” history
– Truncation child* “early childhood education”
– Wildcard organi?ation
– OR bull* (youth OR teenager)

37. 1. Choose Advanced Search
2. Enter your search terms
3. Limit to Subscribed sources

38. What’s interesting, is that the Topics don’t list a word
directly to do with bullying. Indicating we might be
searching the wrong database for this topic. But you
may want to pick-up on words such as Internet and
Abuse instead to search around the topic

39. Email, Export citations and Download
multiple articles from the Results page
The green icons indicate full text availability

40. Login to Save this search or
Save as search alert

41. 1. Click RSS Feed
2. Copy and paste the URL into your
preferred Reader, or click on the icon
provided. Alternatively get a feed of
the latest content for your webpage

42. New Zealand Databases
• Index New Zealand
– Similar search to the Library Catalogue
– Only has the abstracts, check the Library Catalogue or
Search for a journal to see if the full text is available
• FindNZarticles
– Similar to Index New Zealand, but with a wider range of
sources
– Abstracts only
• Newztext Plus
– Full text of daily newspapers, newswires as well as
selected national and international magazines

43. RSS Readers
• Web based
– Google reader
– My Yahoo
• Computer based
– Gruml
• These are just a few of many. Find one that
you feel comfortable with and use it!

44. Bookmarking
• Delicious
– Organise your bookmarks online
– Tagging
– Create tag clouds, RSS feeds and lists based on tags
– e.g. http://www.delicious.com/wintecnursing
• Diigo
– Bookmarking and information management
– Highlight, screenshots, notes etc

45. Bibliographic management
• Zotero
– Great if you have consistent access to FireFox
– Collect, organize, cite and share your research sources
• EndNote
– Limited access at Wintec
– Quite cumbersome to set-up, but excellent once you
get past the learning curve
• See other options here

46. Social Networks
• Twitter
– Through the noise, you can find people sharing
excellent resources through Twitter
• FaceBook
– Why not share resources through a group on
FaceBook?

47. Happy searching…
If you have any questions, please contact your Liaison
Librarian, or
Theresa Ball
Electronic Resources Librarian
Wintec
Private Bag 3036, Waikato Mail Centre, Hamilton 3240
Phone: +64-(0)7-834 8800 ext 8491
Fax: +64-(0)7-838 8257
Email: theresa.ball@wintec.ac.nz
Web: http://www.wintec.ac.nz/