Robbins Library Notes

In previous posts, I’ve written about using multiple search strategies and adjusting your search strategy as the situation and results (or lack thereof) warrant. It’s very important to keep these concepts in mind as you go about your research, as it will help you to respond better to your varying research needs. For instance, retrieving an article from a journal is a very different sort of search from gathering and evaluating research for a dissertation. If you use the same strategy, pattern, and methods for both searches, then you’re like to wind up only frustrated and without what you need.

Over the course of my tenure here at Robbins, I have heard constantly the refrain, “Well, I couldn’t find it on JSTOR, so that’s why I came to you…” As I’ve written about JSTOR, it is a great database to use, but only in certain instances by itself. You’re better off, in general, searching JSTOR in conjunction with other databases. To pick JSTOR as the only tool to answer every research question you might have is like reaching into a toolbox for a hammer every time you need to fix or build something. A hammer is a very useful tool, but not for every repair or construction task you might have.

The reason that I am revisiting the idea of “thinking differently about searching” stems from a notification that I received last week from the ALA. The note listed a post on ACRLog, the blog of the Association of College & Research Libraries. This post, titled, “Why Students Want Simplicity And Why It Fails Them When It Comes To Research,” outlines how students often come to college with certain research skills that are quick, easy, and deliver simple answers. These skills are well and good for the sort of research done from elementary school through high school, or for many of the general information needs you might have in daily life. Nonetheless, when students arrive at college, they quickly find that Google can’t answer every question, nor will it help them write their papers if it is used in the fashion to which they have grown accustomed to using it.

Why is this situation the case? The problem is that research at the college level and beyond is often far more complex and chaotic than the research which these students have been used to doing. Typing in a search string and getting a list of results is not the same as evaluating, synthesizing, and presenting information in a coherent manner. This is especially so when questions are complex and open-ended, with no clear “right” answer, or means of getting at an answer. As a result, their research methods, while helpful and useful in certain contexts, are not up to the task of answering these complicated questions.

The post concludes with a discussion of the need for adjusting bibliographic instruction and information literacy courses in light of this fact. While this portion of the post is likely to be of less interest to my readers, the notion of having to learn and practice more complex search strategies and skills alongside the simple strategies that they’ve learned previously is one worth considering when doing research.

Moreover, this broadening of researching skills and strategies extends beyond the college years. The writer of ACRLog post cites “A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making,” by David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone, an article from Harvard Business Review 85 (11) November 2007, pp. 68-76.* Snowden and Boone, using the Cynefin Framework, apply the idea of utilizing different responses and methods to different contexts to business leadership. It’s not a far leap to see how the analytical skills developed in researching can be applied to other contexts and situations beyond writing college papers.

Hopefully, I’ve piqued your interest in learning more about how you might think differently about searching. I am more than happy to help you when doing research, whether as a sounding board to bounce ideas and search strategies off of, or in actually doing the research. I’d also love to offer you bibliographic instruction sessions, to individuals, groups, classes, whomever — please contact me and let me know that you’re interested.

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*A Harvard ID and PIN are needed to access this article.