17:610:530 Principles of Searching

Tefko Saracevic

EXERCISE 5

First user search

Exercise 5 deals with your user. It is a preliminary search for the user, in preparation for your progress report.

1. User modeling: Briefly state who is your user, what are some of user's pertinent characteristcs, what is the user problem or task in general (as related to question).
   
   
2. Question: What is the specific question or questions? List it/them.
   
   
3. Selection: What is your preliminary selection of sources? Use Dialog, LexisNexis, or any other sources. List them.
   
   
4. Question analysis (query expansion): what terms did you select initially for searching in a given source? List them - you can use a grid as in Exercise 3.
   
   
5. Search: Do a search in selected sources. Revise the search as warranted. List the strategy for each source. [Consider this a preliminary search - your first searching foray for the question(s) at hand, thus you do not have to be exhaustive].
   
   
6. Results: Look at a few results. Evaluate them for potential relevance. Print a few that you consider most relevant. You do not have to be exhaustive at this time.
   
   
7. Changes: note changes, if any, that you made as a result of the search. Any sources added, abandoned? Any terms or tactics changed? What worked? What did not? Briefly describe.

Note: you do not have to consult the user about the results, but if the user is willing to look at them and provide you with some preliminary evaluations, that would be useful. If you did this, include in the description.

You can use the data gathered in this exercise for the Progress Report in class, as scheduled.