Library tutorial for science
Section 3: Getting a topic overview

You may be given an essay topic but no suggested books or articles to read. Sections 4 and 5 tell you how to search for books and articles on a topic.

Often it saves time to get a general idea of a topic before you start extensive searching. For example, if you can discover quickly what terms are used in discussions of the topic, you can search for those terms and get better results. To find such background information in the Library or on the Web, try browsing the Library's Resource guides or use Web search engines.

Resource guides (subject guides)

From the Library Web Home page, choose the Resource guides tab then the subject(s) of interest to you. Browse the subject's web pages for sources such as:

• science encyclopaedias, dictionaries, handbooks etc (print or on the Web)
• Web news items for recent developments
• Web pages: introductory tutorials, fact sheets, etc.

Web search engines

The Web's search engines such as Google often give large and irrelevant results so try to refine your search method.

• Try a variety of search engines.
• Look at their help.
• Use Advanced or Power search options rather than simple keyword searches.
• Check what search functions are available, either through commands or through forms:
  • Boolean AND, OR, NOT or NEAR operators similar to those used in the Library catalogue
  • + before a term (e.g. +wetlands) to indicate that a term must be present
  • phrases e.g. "mad cow disease"
  • searching for proper names by capitalization e.g. "South Australia"
  • Truncation (e.g. wetland*) to find plurals etc or automatic truncation.
• Can you search for a term in the title of a web page rather than the whole page? This increases the page's relevancy but you may miss some useful pages.
• Can you search for certain kinds of Web site (government, educational)?
• You may need to try more than one search engine since they differ in content and depth and produce different results.

Assessing information

• How do the main concepts of the topic relate to each other?
• What terms recur? What synonyms, plurals and other variations of terms are used?
• Are there important themes or applications?
• Are there intrinsic limits e.g. geographically to Australia? or to particular organism groups (plants, mammals, humans...)?
• When did the first key developments occur? What are the dates of books and articles cited in encyclopaedias? Do you need more recent/earlier information? Is the topic well developed with a large literature?

Learn not to take Internet material at face value. It can be useful and reliable. It can be trivial, inaccurate or misleading. To assess quality, ask:

• What are the author's credentials? For instance, is the author associated with a university or government body? Are the author's qualifications, experience or reasons for interest in the subject clear? Is a means of contacting the author given?
• Is a journal peer reviewed? Can results be verified in other literature? Does an article list supporting references to other literature?
• Are results presented systematically and arguments well reasoned? Is a document trying to sell a particular point of view (e.g. commercial, political or religious)? How up to date are the content and cited references?