Tips
Leave lots of time to do your search for information. Searching is a process.
- It may take some time to navigate through the different resources and produce useful search results. If you get stuck, contact jrich@uw.edu.
- Often what you find informs your understanding which may direct you in a different direction and a new search quest.
Articulate your search in a single, concise statement.
- Usually the nouns help you focus on the search terms to use.
- For each term, develop a list of synonyms or other ways of phrasing the same concept.
Determine what kinds of information you are looking for.
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History
Current environment
Statistics
Legal information
Policy information
Research
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Article databases
Newspapers
Government websites
Foundation/Institutional reports
Websites
Dissertations
Books
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Try to reverse engineer the information you wish to find. Imagine what the information you are looking for would be like. If you were going to publish/provide that information how and where would you make it available?
If unsure of how to search a specific database or website, try the following
- Search using the terms you’ve identified
- then Filter/Refine.
Many search engines offer some Advanced searching. See the Help section for tips specific to that resource.
Sample Resources
http://guides.lib.uw.edu/hsl/socw522
Full Handout [pdf]
