Module 3:
SD Library Network
How to Access SDLN
How to Search SDLN
Examples and Practice :
1. SDLN Screen
2. Activity 1
3. Search Techniques
4. Activity 2
5. Activity 3
6. Activity 4
7. Activity 5
8. Activity 6
9. Activity 7
10. Advanced Features

Contents:
Introduction
Module 1: How to Solve an Information Problem
Module 2: Search Techniques
Module 4: Proquest
Module 5: Infotrac
Module 6: Lexis-Nexis
Module 7: OCLC Firstsearch
Module 8: 
Module 9: 
Module 10: 
Module 11: Internet Searching
Module 12: Evaluating Internet sources
Module 13: Scholarly vs. Popular
Module 14: Citing sources
Module 15: How to Get Material Not Available Online

Module 3: SDLN Examples and Practice: Activity 4

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Important!
Use only one type of Boolean operator in a command line.

If you want to search for information on the "people, customs, and economy of Russia," the following search is incorrect and will produce bizarre results:

russia and people or customs or economy

The system would first find material about Russia AND people. Then it would OR "customs" (that is, include every item about customs -- not just Russia's) and would OR "economy" (that is, include every item about economy -- not just Russia's).

The final results set would not be about the people, customs, and economy of Russia. The items retrieved would be about the people of Russia, or about customs anywhere, or about economy anywhere.

In Activity 4,
you will be learning one solution for the problem described above.

You will need to switch back and forth between SDLN (to do the activity) and this manual (for instructions). Or you might find it more convenient to print this web page so that you can remain in SDLN as you read and follow the instructions for the activity.

Solve the problem by performing each of the following steps in the South Dakota Library Network Library Catalog.

1. In SDLN, return to the screen that says "Please select Library and Resource from the options below." That is:

• click on the "Change Library or Database" button.

2. To see the problem firsthand,

• Do the incorrect search described above (russia and people or customs or economy) in the Library Catalog of Dakota State University.

Note the number of items found.

3. Now do the search correctly by splitting the search into two parts in which the OR'ed terms are connected first, and then combined with the AND'ed term. To do this, try the following procedure in the Library Catalog of Dakota State.

• First, do a keyword search and type:

people or customs or economy

• After clicking on "Go," use the "Limit Search" button to go to the "Limiting Your Search Results" screen. In the "contain these word(s)" box in the "By Additional Words" section, type:

russia

• and then click on the "Go" button.

You should have retrieved many fewer items in this search which has correctly combined the concept of "russia" with the concepts of "people," "customs," or "economy."

4. How would you do a search for "bones" or "skeletons" that are not "human?" (Don't forget to use truncation where appropriate) ...... Answer

5. Here's the tricky question. What if you want to find information about the people and customs of both Russia and the Ukraine? To do this search you would need to AND together the two concepts of "people OR customs" and "russia OR ukraine."

However, if you used the method you learned above, you would effectively be doing the search:

people OR customs AND russia OR ukraine

This would produce incorrect results because the concept of "people or customs" would be ANDed to russia. Then the OR before ukraine would cause every item about the ukraine to also be retrieved (whether it had to do with "people or customs" or not).

There are two solutions:

1. Rather than doing a single search, break it into 2 separate searches. Do one search on the "people or customs of Russia" and examine the results to find material on that topic. Then do search on "people or customs of the Ukraine" to find material on that topic.

2. Search with sets (an advanced search technique described later in this module)

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