strategies for online research

Strategies for Online Research

Marsha G. Collins [email protected]

All rights reserved © 2014, 2015 Marsha G. Collins

http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=3693

mailto:[email protected]

A note about the search examples

Throughout this presentation, the sample search strings are in italics to distinguish them from narrative text


Objectives

Define research parameters Caveats and limits of online searching General guidelines Company searches Searching for individuals Reading URLs Search techniques Related terms Site restrictors Removing search criteria Resources Questions


Define search criteria

• Which industry, company, topic, or individual are you researching?

• What are some likely sources of information?

– What associations, conferences, publications are likely to have produced content around your topic?

– Is what you are looking for proprietary? Be realistic.


The limits of online searching

• Bandwidth, like paper, will hold anything – Triangulate what you find with

at least one or two additional, independent resources

• Approximately 30% of all websites make their content available for search

• Websites’ search functions tend to be less robust than site restrictor searching

• Proprietary content is much less likely to show up online


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f8/Internet_dog.jpg

General guidelines

• No need to use and, or, not

• When searching a phrase, put it in quotes

EXAMPLE:

• “emerald ash borer” trees Minnesota

• Capitalization is not required


Company Information

• The company’s website, LinkedIn profile, Twitter and Facebook pages

• SEC filings (if publicly traded, or if private with publicly traded debt)

• Guidestar’s Form 990 for foundation or not-for-profit associated with organization

• Better Business Bureau • Secretary of State—search to determine if company is “in

good standing” (MN: http://mblsportal.sos.state.mn.us/ )


http://mblsportal.sos.state.mn.us/

http://mblsportal.sos.state.mn.us/

Searching for people

• LinkedIn

• Search using iterations of the name

EXAMPLE “William J. Clinton” “William Clinton” “Bill Clinton” “Bill and Hillary Clinton” “Hillary and Bill Clinton” “Mr. and Mrs. William J. Clinton” “President Clinton”


Taking apart URLs

• Domain names vary within organizations

EXAMPLE:

• Mayo Clinic’s home page:

• Mayo Clinic Health System

Domain name = mayoclinic Top level domain name = .org

Domain = mayoclinichealthsystem Top level domain name = .org

• Common U.S. domains include: .edu, .gov, .mil, .com, and .net


Search Techniques

• For best results, use a variety of search strings Try using more than one search engine

– Google

– Exalead (a French search engine with great filter features)

– Bing (Microsoft’s search interface)

– Yahoo (https://search.yahoo.com/

– Dog Pile (an aggregator of multiple search engines


https://search.yahoo.com/

https://search.yahoo.com/

Related terms

• The tilde symbol ~ allows Google to return related terms

– May be located on your keyboard to the left of the numerical “1” key

EXAMPLE:

"American Medical Writers Association" ~symposium

This results set could include conference, event, forum, and other synonyms


Searching with restrictors

• Site restrictors allow you to leverage Google’s (or your favorite search engine) strengths

• Benefits include: – More precise results

– Synonyms in results set

– Typically more comprehensive than individual website’s search interface

EXAMPLE “food allergies” site: airedalehealthfoundation.org


Search using file type restrictors

• Considering the type of file which is frequently used to share information can be helpful

• Try these restrictors – Numerical data: filetype:xlsx

– Corporate, industry, philanthropic/non-profit and individual data: filetype:pdf

EXAMPLE “Garrison Keillor” “Minnesota Public Radio” “40th anniversary” filetype:pdf site:org

Note: no space between filetype, colon and suffix


Site restrictors

• Not-for-profits (site:org) and government (site:gov) can be good resources for independent points of view on a companies, people, topics, and organizations

EXAMPLE:

– “Roger Federer” site:org 2014 ~award


Removing search criteria

• To eliminate select words and phrases from your search string, use the hyphen immediately before the word or phrase EXAMPLE:

training “animal behaviorist” dogs –cats –felines

Results set should not have any reference to “cats” or “felines”

Tip: place the hyphen immediately before your search

term(s)


Resources

• Wikipedia – when you need to get smart about something in a hurry

• WorldCat – a global catalog of materials available from libraries; results are filterable by location, date, filetype, and more

• Guidestar – Companies are required to provide the IRS with Form 990; details foundation or philanthropic organizations financial picture and can illuminate the culture of the company – http://www.guidestar.org/ – Register for free access to more information


http://www.guidestar.org/

http://www.guidestar.org/

Resources, continued (2)

• SEC Filings –private companies have to disclose certain financials to the SEC if they have publicly traded debt

– http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml#.U_Yje2M1CSk

• Open Access journals

– Peer reviewed academic content available through free aggregators

• http://doaj.org/faq

• http://www.oajse.com/


http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.U_Yje2M1CSk

http://doaj.org/faq

http://www.oajse.com/


• James J. Hill business library in St. Paul

• Twin Cities Business Journal (sign up for free AM/PM updates)

• Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, Minnesota Public Radio, MinnPost

• National press: The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg’s Business Week, The New York Times

• Diversity, Inc. http://www.diversityinc.com/ for corporate programs of inclusiveness


http://www.diversityinc.com/

http://www.diversityinc.com/


• Minnesota\ Department of Commerce (http://www.commerce.state.mn.us/LicenseLookupMain.html)



• For governments ranging from municipal to State Government, a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) must be published.

EXAMPLE

“City of Minneapolis” CAFR


QUESTIONS


Feedback

• What can we do to build this into a better presentation?

• What was particularly relevant?

• Other suggestions?

Thank you.


Contact details

Marsha G. Collins

[email protected]

http://www.linkedin.com/in/marshagcollins/


mailto:[email protected]



strategies for online research

Documents

search websites

search examples

collins http

search criteria resources

french search engine

people linkedin search

sample search strings

variety of search strings