Web Site: OTA: General Searching

Find Library Resources

Search Strategies:

Start with one word or phrase that expresses a key part of your inquiry. Since you will often be separating articles relevant to your field from research in other medical fields, it often makes sense to start there:
- "occupational therapy"
  - it can be useful to put two word phrases in quotation marks
- occupational therapy vocational guidance

OR start with the therapy, condition, theory, etc. that you are researching.If you are researching therapies or conditions, such as:
- - traumatic brain injury or "traumatic brain injury"
  - learning disabilities

Press enter to proceed to preliminary search results THEN ADD ADDITIONAL TERMS and evaluate your results.
Evaluate:
- Look around the screen to see where your terms are highlighted.
  - Do you get any ideas of other terms to use?
  - Should you add quotation marks or take them away?
- What can you observe from your results that helps you do a better search if one is needed?
  - READ. Even if what you see isn't quite right, you'll get clues to go on if you engage with the material instead of just doing search after search without refining your thoughts.

Types of things you might find:

Physical books that are located in the Parkland Library. These will have a call number, more information about locating them is below.
Ebooks--either whole ones or entries from things like dictionaries and encyclopedias
Streaming video
Articles from Magazines and Journals

TO GET BOOKS IN HAND

Head to the Parkland Learning Commons/Library. If you need help finding the books, ask for help.
Remember you must have your Parkland ID with you to check out library materials.