Improve Your Search - Activity

Introduction | Prep | Activity

Search your library’s catalog (10 minutes)

Find your institution’s library catalog or discovery system (Harvard’s is HOLLIS).

Use the basic search to look for books on your topic. Start with whatever search terms feel natural to you.

As you explore:

  • Try to notice contextual clues in your results list that you don’t usually pay attention to.

    This could be dates, publishers, or something else.

    • What about your search seems to be working well and what improvements can you make?
  • Notice subject terms.
    • Try to find the subject terms in some of the most useful results. (These might be called topic, keywords, subjects, terms, etc.) Are there terms you haven’t thought about using before? Add them to your search.
  • Explore beyond the search box.
    • Find the filter menu and explore the options there. Are there any filters that could help make your results more relevant? Give them a try!
    • Check your top-level search options. Is there a way to scope your search only to books or catalog? What happens if you try the same terms in a more or less inclusive search scope?
  • What did you learn?
    • Take a moment to consider the different transformations you tried. How do they relate to each other? Is there a combination that could improve your search?

Search a database (10 minutes)

Select a database in your field to practice searching.

Using the basic search box on the main page, repeat the same search you did above in your library’s catalog.

  • Notice contextual clues in your results.
    • Do you notice anything different from your catalog search? Do these results have any different documents or information? 
  • Notice subject terms.
    • Are there any new terms that you did not find in your catalog search? Do the database and catalog seem to be using the same set of terms, or are you finding slightly different terms here?
  • Explore beyond the search box.
    • Find the filter options. How do they compare to what you found in the library catalog? What options might help make your results more relevant?
    • If the database has no filters, does it offer other options for modifying your search results? Does it have an advanced search page where you can make your search more specific in similar ways?
  • Reflect on how these materials and search options compare to the library catalog.
    • Can you think of a research task where this database would work better than the library catalog?

You have completed Improve Your Search. Explore more modules.

Introduction | Prep | Activity