This week's session was a deep dive into the library's resources, moving beyond just the physical catalogue and into the digital tools we're meant to use for our dissertations. The main focus was on how to search smart, not just hard.

How to Find Sources

The university buys access to over 300 databases, which are basically huge online indexes of journal articles and other expert sources. For my course, the most relevant ones are Art and Design and Abstract Technology and Engineering. These articles are written by experts and are exactly what we need for our research.

The starting point for all of this is Usearch. The key takeaway was to be strategic with keywords:

• Break it down: Don't search for a whole sentence. Break your topic into main concepts (e.g., "design," "gamification").
• Use "quotation marks": If you're looking for an exact phrase, like "serious games", quotes will search for those words together.
• Use truncate (): You can use an asterisk to find variations of a word (e.g., design* would find "design," "designer," "designing").

What to Do After You Search

Getting results is easy; getting good results is harder. The next step is to evaluate and record.

I need to constantly ask myself: "Are these results actually what I was looking for? Do they answer my question?" If not, I need to adapt my search and try new keywords.

It's also crucial to keep a record of what works. I should be noting down which keywords and databases gave me the best material. And most importantly, I must grab the full reference for any source I think I might use.

Some of the sample searches they showed really helped clarify what a good research topic looks like:

• Usability of smartphone interface design for elderly users
• Impact of Artificial Intelligence on teaching strategies
• ChatGPT and academic integrity in higher education

Managing All Your Sources (RefWorks)

This was the most practical part. RefWorks is citation management software that the university supports.