Library Transcripts

Title: Quick Tips: Homepage search box

Video URL: https://youtu.be/By7a69o8IMs

 

Visual: Library homepage

Narration: Welcome to this Quick Tips video on how to use the Waldon library. A lot of people asked for a Google style search box on the Walden library website, so we gave it to you. The problem is, the library doesn't really work the same as Google so a lot of people get frustrated with it.

Visual: Database search results screen

Narration: Let's look at an example. If I put in my query the way I do in Google, the whole question, how library use increases student success in college, and run my search, I'm going to find that I get no results. A lot of people are talking about this, so I know that can't be right and this is where students oftentimes abandon the library. Don't be one of those students.

Visual: Library homepage

Narration: All you have to do is break down your topic into main concepts and put in the keywords. So in this case, I would put in library use and success and college so that I can get the overlap of my main concepts.

Visual: Database results list

Narration: When I run the search that way, I get almost 800 results. That's much more like it.

Visual: Database limiters

Narration: Over on the left hand side in the shaded blue panel, you can find other ways of refining your results, as well. So for instance, you can limit to peer reviewed by checking this box. You can also limit the dates, if you're looking for something historical or if you want something really recent, for example. You can look at specific publication types and also publications, and look at the subject headings. That'll give you an idea of how it's organized in the database so that you can search more efficiently.

And also, you can look at databases to find out which ones are giving you the best results so that you know where to go in the future if you want to run a more focused search.

So that's just a quick way to put in your search so that you get great results in the library.