This session was presented to the Social Work Masters class to assist them with their literature review, specifically the practical searching aspects.

1. Practical Literature
Searching
Elizabeth Moll-Willard
elizabeth.moll-willard@uct.ac.za

2. What we will cover
1. The library website
i. Accessing resources from home (off-campus login)
2. Searching effectively
i. Boolean logic
ii. Using search engines
iii. Finding books and journal articles in Primo
iv. Finding resources in online databases

3. The library website:
www.lib.uct.ac.za

4. Search for
books and
articles using
the Primo
search
engine
Useful
administrative
tools
Different
library
sections

10. Using off-campus
login

12. Insert your student number
Insert your UCT password

13. This is the licencing agreement to using the databases

15. The “.ezproxy.uct.ac.za” indicates that you are signed
on

16. Research Steps
Identify Possible Keywords
Construct Search Strategy
Identify Databases
Perform Your Search

17. Boolean Logic:
constructing your search strategy

18. Identifying Keywords
• Broader v narrow terms
• Synonyms
• Drug abuse vs narcotic abuse vs substance abuse
• British v US terminology and spelling
• Labor v Labour
Planning
Social
Development
Planning
Community
Development

19. Constructing Search Strategy
• Search Language
• Natural Language
• Terms and Connectors (Boolean Operators)
• Constructing search phrases
• Keywords
• Terms and Connectors
• Boolean Operators
• Phrases
• Brackets
• Truncation / Stemming
• Proximity searches

20. Using Boolean Operators
• Boolean Operators are used to connect and define
the relationship between your search terms.
• When searching electronic databases, you can use
the Boolean operators to either narrow or broaden
your record sets.
• The three Boolean operators are AND, OR and
NOT.

21. The Boolean Operator “AND” (narrows
search)
= Hit Using the Boolean
Operator ‘AND’ for the
topic “Abuse of cocaine”
Cocaine
Abuse

22. The Boolean Operator ‘OR’ (synonyms,
alternatives, broadens search)
= Hit
Strategies success
Using the Boolean
Operator ‘OR’ for
the topic
“Strategies for
success”

23. The Boolean Operator ‘NOT’ (exclude
certain words from your search)
= Hit
Community
organisations
collaboration
Using the Boolean
Operator ‘NOT’ to
exclude
collaboration from
the topic
“Community
organisations”

24. Phrases
• More than one word contained in “ ” to search for a
specific phrase
• “substance abuse”
• Certain databases use ( ) to signify phrases instead

25. Brackets
• Useful to combine search phrases into one using
brackets
• Using the topic “Successful strategies for community
organisations” the searches can be
• Strategies AND “community organisations”
• Success AND “community organisations”
• Using brackets:
• (strategies OR success) AND “community organisations”

26. Brackets
• Brackets avoid ambiguity:
• Strategies OR success AND “community organisations”
• It will not include arrest in the search
= Hit
success
Community
organisations
strategies

27. Truncation / Stemming
• Truncation involves the shortening of the word (*)
to allow the inclusion of plurals and similar phrases
• Eg. dev* for development BUT
• dev* - development, developmental,
developments, etc
BUT ALSO devotion, devilish, develops, devested
Best truncation would be
development*

28. Proximity Searches
• Good to use for phrases: “substance abuse”
• Abuse of a substance
• Substance that is there for abuse
• Using a proximity search you can search for your
keywords in proximity to each other
• Use the search help to find proximity searches but
in general it is designated by the “/”
• Eg. within same sentence: custom /s bushmen
• Eg. within same paragraph: custom /p bushmen

29. Wildcards
• If you are looking for a word that has a plural in the
word, you can use a wildcard
• Usually designated by “?”
• Eg. searching for articles on woman and women in
general
• You would use wom?n instead and it would bring results
back with both woman and women in it.

30. Exercise
• Using what you know now, take your topic and
create 3 different search strings.

31. Using search engines

32. Using search engines (or Google)
effectively
• Keep in mind that Google is a good starting point, but that it
isn’t able to access most of our resources!
• For example – none of the EBSCOHost journals are available via
Google
• Every database has a search engine like Google – but they
are not always as intuitive as Google
• Keep in mind that Google saves searches and uses specific
algorithms to adapt to your previous searches – this gives the
efficient impression
• When using any search engine – be more specific and keep
in mind how to evaluate information
• The more specific you are, the more relevant results it will give

33. Evaluating Information
The golden rules:
• Authority – who wrote it, are they an expert?
• Credibility – is there bias / which point of view? Are
there other sources supporting it?
• Currency – the timeliness of the information
• Authenticity – is it just copied or does it link back?
Where does the original lie?
• Accuracy - Are sources for any factual information listed
so they can be verified? Can you detect some sort of
quality control? – look at grammar, spelling etc. Are
charts, graphs clearly labelled and easy to read?

34. Finding books and
journal articles in Primo

35. Search for
books and
articles using
the Primo
search
engine

36. You can simply put in your search
terms and click search

37. To see the full results, sign in

39. Put in your UCT student number
and password.

40. Now you can access
the online resources.
Simply click on the
name of the item.

41. You can search in the
journal for articles
using this search box
Or you can go
browse the
journal on
the database

44. Searching databases
on their own

46. Social Services Abstract
This only searches through abstracts, so you have to
still link to the full text to read the article.

52. EBSCOHost
This has a lot of different databases that have great
journals in them

54. Databases to select:
Academic Search Premier
Africa-Wide Information
Humanities International Complete
PsycInfo
SocIndex

55. You can put your search query into
the box.
You can also
limit your
search here

56. You can just put your words into the search box

57. Limit your search results
here as needed
Download the PDF

58. Exercise
• Using your search strings you constructed previously, find
the following items – first trying in Google and then trying in
a database of your choice.
1. A journal article
2. A newspaper item
3. Any online item (eg. Blog)
4. A social media item
5. A book in the library
Email them to me when done:
elizabeth.moll-willard@uct.ac.za

59. Any questions?

60. Research Assistance
• Use the Library’s Virtual Reference Service at:
www.lib.uct.ac.za
• Email me
elizabeth.moll-willard@uct.ac.za
• Call me (021) 650-5944
• Set up an appointment for a consultation
60

61. Thank you!
61