As an independent learner you will be expected to find good quality information to use in your assignments. It is not enough to search for information on Google - you will need to acquire skills to search across the University's resources in an efficient and systematic way.
Search Strategy
It is daunting to know where to start when looking for books, journals and other resources, so it's recommended that you plan a search strategy. Spending time working out what you want and how you will go about finding it will save you a lot of time and help you retrieve good quality results.
- Begin your search strategy by defining what you are looking for - it could be a question or a statement
- Identify the key words in your search question - these are what you will use to search the Library's resources
- Think of alternatives/synonyms for the keywords - you will need to add these into your search so that you don't miss any valuable results.
- Decide where you are going to search. Discovery is the best place to start. It searches across the Library's catalogue and many of our academic databases simultaneously
- For more focussed/specialist searching check out your Subject LibGuide to find the most appropriate online databases in your subject area.
If you want to know more about finding information check out our guide Finding resources
