Robbins Library Notes

Polonius: [Aside.] Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t…

– Shakespeare, Hamlet, II, ii, 206

Does searching electronic resources feel frustrating at times? Do you wonder if there might be guidelines and strategies to help you search more effectively? Well, there are! What follows are guidelines that I have developed and learned over my near decade of working as a research librarian. They are by no means infallible, and some are more applicable to beginners and those new to philosophy. Nevertheless, used over time, they can help you better your searching skills.

Define the Question.

This seems obvious; yet, defining exactly what you are looking for right from the beginning will help you to start laying out your search strategy and where you will look for the materials that you need.

For instance: are you looking for bibliographic information, or a list of potential sources on a topic or person? If so, then you’ll want to look at citation databases such as Philosopher’s Index or Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Are you looking for an article from the 1950s in Philosophical Review? Then JSTOR will be your choice. Are you looking for an article from the 2006 issues of Philosophy? Then you’ll want to look to the Wiley Blackwell database for your article.

In short, rather than jumping to JSTOR automatically for each and every search, take a few minutes to articulate to yourself exactly what you’re looking for; doing so may spare you a good deal of frustration going forward, and save you time as well.

We’ll look at examples of defining the question in the next section.

Setting Up Searches.

There are several things to keep in mind when setting up searches:

1. “How” is often more important than “where” — My reference professor used to say something to this effect in just about every session. He said that learning the various reference sources was easy; memorizing the list of common sources required very little effort. Thus, determining where to look is not that big of a deal. The real trick, in his view, was how you set up your search. Even if you’re in the right place, if you don’t set up the search correctly, you may never find what you’re looking for.

And, if you’re panicking because you have no idea how to set up a search — don’t. How to set up searches and knowing how the various databases’ search capabilities function is relatively easy to learn, and can be quickly developed with a little practice.

Let’s look at an example:

You are interested in learning more about Aristotle and his treatment of friendship, and want to see what secondary journal literature exists on the topic. One way (but not necessarily the only way) to run the search would be to go to Philosopher’s Index, and choose the “Advanced Search” screen. From there, enter in “Aristotle” in one search box and “friendship” in the second box, but leave both searches to search “Terms Anywhere.” Hit the search button and see what results come up. Consider changing “friendship” to “friend” or “friends,” and run the search again, to see if different results come up.

Notice how I set up the search: I chose the advanced search screen, which I do out of habit, as one usually has greater control over the search with this option. I used two search terms in my search, since using a Boolean operator such as “AND” will generally limit search results to a manageable level. I initially ran the search with both terms set to search the “descriptor” field only, but that turned up no results, as neither term is used as a descriptor in Philosopher’s Index. Thus, I reset the search to look for both terms in any field, which turned up nearly 200 articles on the topic. (This nicely illustrates why the search set-up can be more important than where you search.)

We’ll talk more about this strategy of using related phrases and words in the “Synonym Game” section, below.

2. Apply Ockham’s Razor — In other words, based on your question definition, look in the obvious source of the information first, before branching out.  As a corollary, I’ve found it a better practice in general, though not always, to start with a narrow, focused search, then broaden out into a broader search, and not vice versa.

Here is an example:

You come across a reference to M.W. Barnes’ article, “Vulgarity,” in a book, and are interested in reading it, but are not given any information as to in which journal the article appears. Thinking about your question, you know that you will need to get bibliographic information, which means that your likely first choices will be either Philosopher’s Index or Arts & Humanities Citation Index. You decide to try the former database first. Going to the Advanced Search screen, you enter in “Barnes” in the first box, and set it to search the “Author” field, and “vulgarity” in the second box, and set it to search the “Title” field. Run the search, and you should turn up the entry for the article, showing that it was published in the journal, Ethics 91(1), October 1980, 72-83. By clicking on the “Find it @ Harvard” button, you can link to the article via JSTOR.

Furthermore, this example illustrates how defining exactly what you are looking for (in this case, bibliographic information) sets up how you will structure the search (in this case, searching by author and title), as well as where you might look (in this case, Philosopher’s Index.)

Could you have tried JSTOR first? Of course. Nevertheless, locating the article would have been the result more of luck than of thought, and it’s no guarantee you would be so lucky the next time around.

3. The Synonym Game – try variations of the search terms, or related terms, to make sure that you are capturing as many results as possible, e.g. “friendship” -> “friend” -> “friends”

This is a good strategy for broad searches, when you are trying to get a sense for what information exists on a given topic, as in the Aristotle/friendship example that I used above. Obviously, if you have a specific article you’re looking for, or if you have only a particular aspect or term of a topic that you want to focus on, this will not be applicable.

4. Searching is often a matter of trial and error — Often, when searching, if your search is returning too few or no results, or if you’re getting irrelevant results, you may need to adjust your search strategy a few times before you get right.

Notice how, in the Aristotle/friendship example above, that my first search strategy returned no results. I focused too narrowly, and so had to broaden my search by removing the limiter to search only the article descriptors.

A good practice, if you’re unsure, would be consult with a colleague, fellow student, or librarian for advice on how to reformulate the search (see the Ask, Ask, Ask! section, below.) The great thing is that the more searching that you do, the better you get at it, and, over time, you’ll spend less time reformulating searches as your proficiency increases.

Triangulate Your Results

You’re an undergraduate student, and are writing a paper on Descartes for your philosophy class. You’re a bit unsure about what Descartes is saying in the Meditations, and consult an encyclopedia of philosophy to get a better understanding. Having read the entry on Descartes, you feel more confident, and return to your paper to continue writing… or should you?

If you are researching a topic about which you are not particularly familiar, it’s often a good idea to see if you can find other sources that confirm the information you’ve found in your first source. This is especially true in philosophy. One source may be written from a particular perspective such that it slants how the writer presents a topic — e.g., scholars may write on Plato, but view the dialogs through a Straussian or Continental lens that heavily colors their work. Or, in the case of older sources, they may represent perspectives or views that are no longer held. (This is not to say that one should “never” use older sources, but only that they should be used thoughtfully and cautiously.)

So, what should our undergraduate do? She might consider looking in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition, the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, to get a broader view on Descartes, in addition to consulting the one entry she looked at in the beginning.

Ask, Ask, Ask!

It’s a good practice, especially if you’re having trouble with a search, to ask for help or suggestions. Sometimes, a fresh pair of eyes on a search strategy can provide insight as to how to refine a search.

Who can you ask? Colleagues, fellow students, experts about your topic, or… your friendly, neighborhood librarian. We librarians are well-trained in the intricacies of searching, and would be glad to meet with you to discuss your search, and how to improve it.

Take a Break

After an hour or so of searching, get up and take a break, especially if your searching is not bearing much fruit. Go for a walk, play with your dog, eat at Joe’s — do anything, except searching and thinking about your topic. Come back about an hour or so later. You’ll often find that you’ll come back with a different perspective on the search, and may even see a new way to structure your search such that you locate what you’ll need.

Know When to Say When

How do you know when to end your search? Ask yourself:

• Did I find what I was looking for?
• Have I triangulated the information that I found?
• Did I check all possible and obvious sources of information?
• Did I consult with others about my search to make sure that I’ve covered everything?

If you have answered these questions to your satisfaction, then you can be fairly certain that you’ve searched well and found what you need, more or less.

Few Searches are Perfect

In all of this, it’s helpful to remember that few searches are done “perfectly,” and there is no one sure way to answer every question correctly — which is why I have written the above as guidelines, rather than as hard and fast rules. Sometimes, the best one can say is — based on my searching at this time, in x, y, and z databases, using a, b, and c terms, with these limiters, this is the information that I have found.

So, then, these are the guidelines that I’ve found helpful for myself when conducting research and answering reference questions. If you’d like to learn more, please feel free to contact me to set up a tutorial for bibliographic instruction.