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Research: Identify

Quick Tips

  • Identify the most relevant types of resources for your task - books, encyclopedia, websites, journals (databases) etc.
  •  Use the catalogue to find resources and your search results to identify more terms and items.

Identifying resources using the catalogue

A good way to begin your research is to find background information in reference sources, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias.

You can also use Wikipedia for background, but be aware that it is not an appropriate source to cite in your research. 

Finding more resources about the same subject

  • Look at your initial search results and reflect on the value of the results that you have retrieved. You can then use this information to refine your search strategy, eg. trying to locate what is missing.

Credits

The information on this guide has been modified from  Melbourne University Beginning Research libguides.

Use your search results to identify more keywords

Once you have done a search, you can use the catalogue records of listed subjects to identify more keywords, and more, related items.

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