Strategies for Effective Searching
Learning Outcomes:
- Develop keywords and search terms from a research topic
- Develop iterative search strategies for locating relevant sources
Introduction to Searching at USC Libraries
This tutorial covers how to select a research topic and develop related keywords, and how to do an initial search in the library catalog.
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Getting Started on a Research Paper (Using Divergent Thinking)
This video explains how students can use divergent thinking to interpret an assignment creatively and select a meaningful, authentic topic of interest.
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Brainstorm Your Research Topic
This interactive tutorial covers the concepts of keywords, using keywords to broaden and narrow a search, and using them to discover different perspectives.(Best with Firefox browser.)
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Crafting a Good Research Question
This interactive tutorial allows students to choose one of six research topics to explore the process from thinking of a broad topic to crafting a specific research question, including drawing on one's own existing knowledge, and using reference sources. (Best with Firefox browser.)
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Customize Google Scholar for USC Libraries
This short video describes how to locate USC Libraries-owned materials through the Google Scholar interface.
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Search with Boolean Operators
This short video demonstrates how to search using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to create effective searches.
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