Skip to Main Content
QNL Logo

Effectively Conduct a Web Search: 2. Find and Locate

Second Standard

The second Information Literacy standard refers to the ability to find the needed information effectively and efficiently.

A.1 Understand Types of Information Sources

  • Books can be fiction or non-fiction.
  • Books are available in both print and electronic formats. To search for printed books, e-books, and audiobooks, visit QNL Catalog.
  • Book Distribution Map
  • Reference materials can be available in print or electronic formats
  • Reference sources are useful to obtain general information on a particular topic.
  • Examples: dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, biographies, yearbooks, and indexes.
  • For more information, visit A-Z Databases: Reference
  • Academic journals include articles written by specialists and experts in a particular field. (e.g., faculty, researchers, scholars on specific subjects)
  • Articles are often peer reviewed.
  • Articles include cited references at the end of research papers.
  • Examples: Arab Journal for the Humanities, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
  • For more information, visit how to Search for Academic Articles Guide
  • Theses and dissertations are research papers prepared by Master's or PhD candidates from different universities in the world.
  • For more information, visit how to Search for Theses and Dissertations Guide
  • Magazines include articles on various topics of general interest and cover current events.
  • Articles are usually written by journalists or professional writers.
  • Use language that is easily understood by general readers.
  • Examples: Entrepreneur Arabia, National Geographic.
  • For more information, visit how to Access Popular Magazines and Newspapers Guide
  • Provide up-to-date information on events, people, or places at the time of publication.
  • Newspapers are useful for obtaining information about current events.
  • Examples: Gulf Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times.
  • For more information, visit how to Access Popular Magazines and Newspapers Guide
      •  
  • A website is “a set of pages of information on the internet about a particular subject, published by a single person or organization” (Cambridge Dictionary).
  • Websites vary in terms of the quality of the information and the validity of the sources.
  • It is important to check the domain of the website. Educational and government domains (.edu and .gov) tend to be more reliable.
  • Examples: You can visit Government Sources in Qatar Guide
  • Database “is a collection of data, or information, specially organized for rapid search and retrieval by a computer.” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
  • Library database is a searchable electronic index of published and reliable resources.
  • Databases may include academic journals, newspapers, magazines, e-books, books review, and various multimedia.
  • For more information, visit A-Z Databases

A.2 Understand Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources

B. Select Appropriate Search Tools

  • You need to select appropriate search tools and information sources.
  • You can locate information through internet search engines like Google and/or the library Catalog.

C. Perform Effective Search Strategies

You can use the following search techniques :

Search Levels:

  • Basic Search: Use a simple strategy when the question is related to one term and is not linked to other terms. Example: Psychology.
  • Advanced Search: Use the compound strategy when your research includes two topics or more than one aspect. Example: Contribution of psychology to education.

Search by Material Type:

  • You can use the tabs in the Google search engine to get better results.
  • Example: Pyramids Image at Night. Search for "Pyramids", Select "Image" tab and choose "Black" color.

Boolean Search

Use Boolean operators to specify searches such as:

  • AND: To narrow the search results with pages that contain all of the search terms. Example: children AND school AND bullying
  • OR: To expand the search results with pages that contain any of the search terms. Example: United Nations OR UN, "global warming" OR "climate change", color OR colour
  • NOT: To exclude results that contain the second search term.

Phrase Search

  • Use quotations marks (" ") to search terms as a phrase and narrow your results. Retrieved results will contain exact words in the exact order typed.
  • Example: names, concepts, book title, or article titles such as “Spillover of COVID-19: impact on the Global Economy” or “climate change”.

Truncation Search

  • Use the asterisk symbol (*) to search for various endings to root words.
  • Example: comput* to find the words 'computer' or 'computing'.

Wildcard Characters Search

  • Use the question mark symbol (?) to replace any single character of the word.
  • Example: wom?n: results will contain 'woman' or 'women'

Plus (+) and Minus (-) Symbols

  • Use the plus (+) symbol to include all terms in the search results. Example: COVID+Qatar, Organic+Food.
  • Use the minus (-) symbol to exclude the second term in the search results. Example: programming-python.

Two Consecutive Colons

  • Use consecutive dots (..) to show search for results within a specific time period by placing a (..) between two numbers.
  • Example: US Presidents 1700..2000, Medical Patents 2010..2020, Windows 2010..2020.

C. Perform Effective Search Strategies

You can use the following search techniques:

Other Operators and Tips:

  1. Dictionary Operator
  • Use the dictionary operator (Define: ) to find the meaning of a specific word or terminology from the dictionary.
  • Example: define:MOOCs, define:Economics
  1. File Type Operator
  • Use the file type operator (:filetype) to search for a specific file type.
  • Example: filetype:xls Financial Statement, filetype:pdf how to  manage your time.
  1. Search within a specific website: 
  • To search on a specific site, put "Insite:" in front of the site or domain and then the search term.
  • Example: Qatar Insite:youtube.com, Nobel Prize Insite:un.org, World Cup Qatar 2022 Insite:fifa.com
  1. Search within a specific domain:
  • To search for sites within a specific domain or specific countries, such as: .gov, .edu, .org, .net, .com, .qa
  • Example: site:.edu Qatar
  1. Find specific websites and pages
  • Use "inurl" or "allinurl" to search for pages with the specified keywords in URL. Example: allinurl:apple iphone
  • Use "intitle" to search for pages on websites that contain the required term/s in their titles. Example: intitle: Covid Vaccine.
  1. Find relevant websites
  • Use "related:" to search for similar websites such as news, education, libraries, and online stores.
  • Example: related:aljazeera.net, related:nike.com, related:Coursera.com, related:loc.gov, related:hbr.org

 

Useful Resources

For more information, you can visit: