Searching as Strategic Exploration

• Introduction
• Inquiry
• Discovery
• Serendipity

We also provide the following:

• Searching as Strategic Exploration [Refresher]
• Exercises
• More Resources

Introduction

Searching as Strategic Exploration is a cornerstone of the ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy: “Searching for information is often nonlinear and iterative, requiring the evaluation of a range of information sources and the mental flexibility to pursue alternate avenues as new understanding develops.” Further, “The act of searching often begins with a question that directs the act of finding needed information. Encompassing inquiry, discovery, and serendipity, searching identifies… relevant sources as well as the means to access those sources.”

Inquiry^[1]

We introduced the importance of inquiry in the previous section where we linked it to curiosity and the art of asking good questions. Now let’s dig deeper into this idea to emphasize the role inquiry plays in establishing a successful search strategy. For example, before you begin your search, take some time to answer the following questions:

• What is the scope of your project and your information needs?
• What types of information might you need and how will you access that information? Your options might include scholarly books, journal articles, film/media, art, statistics, demographics, and primary sources;
• Do you know the core journals and subject databases in your field? If not, how can you learn about these? Spoiler alert: Meet with a librarian!
• Who is your target audience?
• Have you identified someone in your field you can talk to or email for recommendations or advice?

Answering these questions early will do a lot of work for you because the answers will help you to create a strategy that will shape and give direction to your research.

Once you begin searching journals, databases, and other resources, refine your strategy based on the quality and relevance of your results. An important point is to approach this process with an open mind and base your conclusions on the evidence you find. Generally speaking, you want your research to generate discussion, but the nature of that discussion will depend on how open or closed the questions you’re asking are. Is there a wealth of evidence supporting a particular claim or is there room for interpretation and counter evidence?

For a more detailed overview of this approach, let’s watch Jada discussing the early stages of her research about the James Baldwin short story, “Sonny’s Blues”:

Literature Research Strategies – Part 1 [6 min 26 sec]

Note how Jada began her study by conducting basic background research online. She specifically sought out interviews and videos with Baldwin so she could hear him discuss his motivations and influences in his own words. While this type of information is not considered scholarly per se, it adds context to the story, which helped Jada be more strategic as she transitioned from online searching to the literature databases available through the UCF Libraries.

Discovery

Once you have a list of questions you’d like to explore in our journals and databases, the next step will be to break those questions into strategic keywords. Unlike popular search engines, databases don’t respond well to long queries or phrases. They are designed around subject terms and keywords. Also note that the results you find in our databases will include a list or lists of keywords and subject terms within the article records. Those are there to guide your search and help you learn the language of the field. What types of terminology or jargon do literature scholars use? Even a slight variation can make a significant difference in the quality of your results

As Jada began searching key literature databases such as MLA and JSTOR, she broke her broad search into strategic keywords that yielded high-quality scholarly articles. Before searching the databases, you should take a few minutes to break your topic into keywords.

A brainstorming activity based on James Baldwin and “Sonny’s Blues” might look something like this:

This is just a preliminary list that will grow once we start searching, but it provides a sense of how to break Jada’s broad topic into strategic keywords, each of which opens new possibilities. While creating your list, avoid using overly generic terms such as “short story” or “novel.” You will get far too many results and the vast majority of them will not be helpful to you.

For more information about refining your search with subject terms, search limiters, and strategic keywords, please watch the following videos from the Libraries’ Research tips Thursdays webinar series.

Subject Terms: Use Them To Your Advantage [1 min 38 sec]

Using Search Limiters [1 min 16 sec]

Keywords Pack-A-Punch [1 min 58 sec]

Creating a successful search strategy involves some trial and error. Explore a variety of databases and alter your keywords. Eventually, you’ll find the combination that yields the best results.

For more effective search strategies, see Chapter 7 where we discuss database searching more in-depth.

Serendipity

Researchers rarely go to the library for one book and come back with one book; they come back with an armful of books, and the serendipitous discoveries they make while browsing are often the most valuable.

Serendipity is an important part of the discovery process. While it’s good to be strategic, it’s also wise to be open to unexpected discoveries that may impact the scope of your research. Jada used the river and tributary analogy to account for the serendipity of her research process. The river is the main stream of books and articles in the library catalog and subject databases. The tributaries, however, are the unexpected discoveries and diversions you make that can have a profound impact on your research.

The unexpected discovery in Jada’s case was an article entitled, “The Sociology of the Ghetto in James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues.’” She discovered this article by expanding her research beyond the key literature databases to bring a more interdisciplinary perspective into her paper. In doing so, she discovered that sociologists were interested in the same issues that influenced Baldwin’s work, which in turn shed new light on her background and experiences with race and class.

While it’s difficult to plan for a serendipitous discovery, you can enhance your chances by doing as Jada did: expanding the scope of your research to multiple perspectives and being open to unexpected discoveries.

Take this quiz to check your comprehension of this section.
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Exercises

1. See the rubric below, which provides assessment for your search plan. You are proposing a possible research project, one that you can change later if you’d like. The goal is to state a problem relevant to a field of literary scholars. You can build on previous assignments in this class. What is the literary work (or works) you are studying? Do you have a coherent plan for beginning your research into a literary work (or works)? What questions do you want to answer? What are your key search terms? Do you have a list of journals or databases to search? What parts of the plan need to be more clearly defined?
2. If there are any elements of your assignment that need clarification, please list them.
3. What was the most important lesson you learned from this page? What point was confusing or difficult to understand.

More Resources

Click the following link for an Annotated List of Open Access Resources from WritingCommons.org.

Keep these concepts in mind as we move into entering the scholarly conversation, arguing for relevance, and establishing criteria.