Searching for documents
The six-step method, the search tools, query operators, noise and silence, the bibliographic reference and plagiarism: finding the right documents without drowning, and saying where they come from.
- 32 cards
- 4 topics
- Free
The outline, topic by topic
Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
- Concepts
- Questions
- Sort and link
- Scenarios
A few cards from the deck
Keyword: what is it?
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A term chosen to stand for an idea of the subject in a query, after thinking about synonyms and the language of the publications.
A good keyword is a precise noun, not a sentence. In computing, adding an English equivalent opens up most of what gets published.
You want pages about the jaguar, the animal, and not the car. Which query fits?
jaguar NOT carjaguar AND carjaguar OR car"jaguar car"
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jaguar NOT carNOT drops the documents that contain the second term. AND and OR would bring them back, and the quotation marks would look only for the exact phrase “jaguar car”.
The method has six steps: define the subject, turn it into …, choose the …, query, sort, cite.
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The method has six steps: define the subject, turn it into keywords, choose the tool, query, sort, cite.
Choosing the tool before querying avoids asking a general search engine for everything: official documentation for a function, a catalogue for a book, an open archive for a paper.
Boolean operator: what is it?
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A word that combines the terms of a query: AND keeps documents that contain both, OR those that contain at least one, NOT drops those that contain the second.
AND and NOT narrow the search, OR widens it. Mainstream search engines often write exclusion with a dash:
jaguar -car.A student types “python error” and gets millions of results unrelated to his problem. What should you advise?
- Paste the exact message in quotation marks and add the library's name
- Add OR and several synonyms of “error” to widen the search
- Keep only the first ten results, the best ones
- Switch search engine and run the same query again
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Paste the exact message in quotation marks and add the library's name
The flaw is noise: the terms are too general. It is fixed by narrowing, with the exact error text in quotation marks and the library's name. Widening would make it worse.