Guidance

• A good search strategy saves time and effort and leads to a quicker find of relevant sources.
• The extent of the information retrieval should be in proportion to the size of the assignment.
• Think creatively, be inventive in your choice of key words. Do not focus on one single key word.
• Create an overview of the subject in question, map important concepts.
• What different kinds of information sources will be required?
• Use different kinds of search strategies and benefit from the many search possibilities of the databases.
• Be critical, observant and question your sources. Be open to new ideas and perspectives.
• Ask yourself: Is this up-to-date, relevant, objective and reliable? What is the purpose?

Sometimes finding right among all the results is a challenge. How to make your search more effective and get relevant results more quickly? Below some brief advices, maybe these will help you proceed? It is also good to think about these questions before the tutorial.

Subject terms – which keywords give relevant results?

• Reflect on the keywords, check the terminology
• Identify words and concepts, do not search with whole sentences

Search Strategies – which methods can I take advantage of?

• Combine keywords, use phrase search, truncate
• Check what search possibilities the respective database allows.
• Take advantage of the database's possibilities for limitation, for example by: material type, year, language, peer reviewed

Where to search – Finna, LibGuides and different databases > learn more in the Libguide Information searching.

In most databases, you can limit the search to only full-text material. Note however that this applies to the database you are searching in, the full text of the article can usually be found through some other database or ordered as an interlibrary loan. If you directly limit to full text only, you can exclude many relevant and newly published articles from your search result.

If the fulltext, or the link to the full text can’t be found directly:

• The article can be freely available (open access), for example in a publication archive, try searching in a search engine.
• The e-resources of the University of Vaasa, VAMK University of Applied Sciences, and Novia University of Applied Sciences can be accessed at the computers for information retrieval at Tritonia (Vaasa).
• The Åbo Akademi Library offers the opportunity to use the e-resources of Åbo Akademi when visiting the library. 
• Most articles can be ordered as interlibrary loan, a copy of the article will then be sent to the library and can be collected at the service desk.

Vaasa and Jakobstad: all resources can be found in Tritonia Finna | Novia.

Turku: all resources can be found in Alma-Finna | Novia.

Raseborg: the printed collections can be found in Helle and the electronic resources in Alma-Finna | Novia.

In our Library Guides you’ll find information resources within your field as well as crucial information about effective search strategies, source criticism, e-books, e-articles, copyright, reference management and responsible research.