Super Searcher Tips. Mary Ellen Bates Oct. 15, 2018 BatesInfo.com

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1 Super Searcher Tips Mary Ellen Bates Oct. 15, 2018 BatesInfo.com

2 What about privacy? If it s free, then you re the product being sold. 3

3 Google knows your location Some location data may be saved as part of your activity on other services, like Search and Maps even if Location History is turned off 4

4 Embrace Google s brain Google monitors your searches Feature AND bug Expands search to find related info Filters search to limit the parameters 5

5 and go private DuckDuckgo.com Bing-based StartPage (ixquick.com) Googlebased) Peekier.com Bing, and its own crawl Preview images of the results 6

6 and go private Log out of your browser Use non-chrome browser Use a VPN to leave the country 7

7 Test different words Industry/specialized terms Geographic/linguistic differences Process or outcome 8

8 Use context words Overview How to OR tutorial OR help Database OR data set OR portal Reviews Figure OR chart OR graph 9

9 Model good info behavior Know the pros AND cons of social media platforms Know your clients info habits Offer better info alternatives Put their favorites in context 10

10 Teach info hygiene How many respondents in that survey? Who were they? Is this a Whoa if true story? How established is that social media account? 11

11 Teach info hygiene Always reverse image search Tineye.com Berify.com good for monitoring your images Google Image search, maybe 12

12 CRS Reports Starting to be on LOC.gov crsreports.congress.gov EveryCRSreport.com has ~15,000 reports Good for get-smart requests 13

13 Re-think Wikipedia Wikimedia survey of motivation The topic was mentioned in media The topic interests me; I want to learn more These are eager learners! How can you catch them? 14

14 Clients don t know what to ask for What is your client not asking you for? What other data sets would be helpful? 15

15 Google s Dataset Search Much of it from OA aggregators Searches metadata, not the data directly Quality of metadata varies wildly toolbox.google.com/datasetsearch 16

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18 Use Google s power tools Limit to datasets from universities with site:edu, to govt data with site:gov Limit to dataset title with intitle:term 19

19 More open datasets Dryad (datadryad.org) ICPSR (icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb) FigShare.com 20

20 Google s Snippets expand Sub-snippets to dig deeper Click one sub-snippet and more appear! 21

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22 Test Google s adjacency For terms you want closely related, try all these: word1 word2 word1 word2 word1 word2 word1 * word2 23

23 In first 30 results: millennials sustainability: 5 unique hits millennials sustainability: 3 unique hits millennials sustainability : 17 unique hits millennials * sustainability : 12 unique hits 24

24 Test Google s word variants Roughly same results for desk, desks, and desk OR desks Very different results for zoonoses, zoonosis, zoonotic, and (zoonoses OR zoonosis OR zoonotic) 25

25 How you ask matters 26

26 How you ask matters 27

27 Bing gives you perspectives Uses AI to discern multiple viewpoints Not perfect; useful to ID proponents of a point of view 28

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29 Bing conducts ref interviews! Scroll through SRP to find 3 suggestion boxes Useful to discern aspects, facets 30

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31 Social media improvements Turn video auto-play off Facebook: Settings Video Twitter: Settings & Privacy LinkedIn: Settings & Privacy Site Preferences 32

32 Rethink Facebook search Professional development Use Facebook to find experts Especially hidden experts An informal version of LinkedIn 33

33 Search Facebook by URL When you don t know who you re looking for People who have ever worked at GM 0/employees/ever 34

34 Facebook Graph searches People who are MDs and worked as RNs Pharmacists who speak Dutch UMich students who know blockchain See researchclinic.net/facebook/ for more 35

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36 Search LinkedIn posts Facebook for professionals Search for Content (instead of People, Jobs, Companies, Groups, etc.) 37

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38 Be curious! Move outside your research comfort zone Ask patrons/clients what they wish the library could do for them Change one thing every six months 39

39 Slides at BatesInfo.com Twitter: LinkedIn: maryellenbates Facebook: maryellenbates BatesInfo.com 40

Super Searcher Tips Mary Ellen Bates Apr 17, 2018 BatesInfo.com

Super Searcher Tips Mary Ellen Bates Apr 17, 2018 BatesInfo.com Search tips & tricks 3 Don t get complex Too many terms = lower results Don t use long OR statements Graze, don t just dig deep Trust Learn