Agenda

• Introduction to Librarian 
• Survey Review
• PSYC 137 Course Guide
• How Do You Search?
• Databases 
  • Subject Databases
    • PsycINFO
      • Tips
      • Thesaurus
      • Combined Search Search
      • Alerts
    • Web of Science 
• Active Searching
• Final Questions

Who I am

• Christina Bush (she/her/hers)
  • Research + Instruction Librarian, Liaison to Black Studies, Educational Studies, Psychology 
  • email me: cbush1@swarthmore.edu
  • Make an appointment with me here

SURVEY RESULTS

SURVEY RESULTS

SURVEY RESULTS

PSYC 137 Research GUIDE

what informs where/how you search?

PSYCINFO

ADVANCED search strategies in psycinfo

ADVANCED search strategies in psycinfo

• TIPS
• THESAURUS/CONTROLLED VOCABULY
• SAVING SEARCHES/COMBINED SEARCHES
• ALERTS

tips

APA THESAURUS

KEYWORDS

VS.

cONTROLLED VOCABULARLY

keywords

A significant word or phrase in the title, subject headings (descriptors), contents note, abstract, or text of a record in an online catalog or bibliographic database that can be used as a search term in a free-text search to retrieve  records containing it also referred to as natural language

Controlled Vocabulary

predefined, authorized terms that have been indexed by the designer of the vocabulary -- typically LOC or a database

Let's search iN  PsycINFO

• ADVANCED SEARCH

• Thesarus 

A nOTE ON "eXPLODE"

Remember, the thesaurus is not just an alphabetic list of terms. Instead, the terms are organized hierarchically with major subject areas, progressively branching off into more specific terms.

When you "explode" a term in a database that uses a thesaurus, you direct the system to search on a given term PLUS all the more specific terms that are nested beneath the original term.

SAVING SEARCHES/COMBINED SEARCHES

SETTING ALERTS

Search Activity

• Using your own topic (or idea for a topic)

• Diagram keywords and synonyms

• Look in the PsycINFO thesaurus for terms and note what they are

• Use your terms to search in PsycINFO

I'll ask a few of you to report what you found

Evaluate What You Found​

• Evaluate the results

  • Do the result seem relevant?

  • Take a closer look by actually clicking in them

  • Did you notice anything interesting in terms of the outlined  "major subjects"

  • Did you notice/use any of the additional features like filtering, major subjects, citation generators?

  • Were you able to access the text (i.e. full text pdf)

  • Anything else of note?

Keeping Track and Getting Help

Questions?

Christina Bush

cbush1@swarthmore.edu