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Architecture Resources

-- Key resources to support architecture research at Arizona State University

Conceptual and Action Steps

Library searching is different than searching an web search engine like Google or Bing. Although the goal is the same--retrieving information--library search engines deploy tools that effectively search exactly what you need to find and target content that is authoritative and quality controlled, which is not necessarily the type of results you get from a typical web search engine.

Following are some excellent web sites created by librarians to fully explore library searching:

Database Search Tips: Boolean operators 

Database Search Tips: Fields 

Some additional tips:  While some ways to search are straightforward, such as searching by author or title, other possible ways to search can be more complex. This is the case with word searching and subject searching.

Subject Searching:
Every item in a database is assigned at least one subject heading or descriptor. These subject headings come from a predetermined list of possible terms and reflect the content of the item. This means that someone actually reviewed an item to determine its contents, and then selected one or more subject headings/descriptors to describe it. Additionally, a subject search is a very specific kind of search, looking in only one field of each record -- the subject/descriptor field.

If you know the subject heading which matches your topic, try a subject search. You'll be guaranteed to find a list of items whose content matches your topic.  If you don't know the specific subject heading/descriptor, searching by subject becomes trickier. In these cases, trying a word search is a better strategy.

Word Searching:
Word searching, sometimes called full-text searching or keyword searching, looks for your search term or terms in many parts of an item record. A word search often looks at words in an item's title, abstract or notes, and subject field. (This is much different from a subject search which looks at only one field -- the subject/descriptor field.)

Word searching is a mixed blessing. On one hand, it is extremely helpful if the subject/descriptor is unknown. Using your own search terms, you can retrieve lists of materials on a topic without having to know that specific subject/descriptor heading. On the other hand, it often brings back many useless materials, which are sometimes called "false hits." Since the word search looks for your terms in so many fields, it can pick up the term in the title, abstract, notes, or other fields. An examination of the subject heading may reveal that an item is not useful for your research

Research Hint:
Often, a successful search strategy uses both word searching and subject searching:

  1. Do a word search to find materials on your topic.
  2. Examine the list of materials to locate one whose content seems to match your topic.
  3. Once you have this one item on the computer screen, look at the subject/descriptor field to determine which subject/descriptor heading best matches your topic.
  4. Do a new search for material on your topic. This time, try a subject search for the subject/descriptor heading that looked promising.

 

 

The ASU Library acknowledges the twenty-three Native Nations that have inhabited this land for centuries. Arizona State University's four campuses are located in the Salt River Valley on ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today. ASU Library acknowledges the sovereignty of these nations and seeks to foster an environment of success and possibility for Native American students and patrons. We are advocates for the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge systems and research methodologies within contemporary library practice. ASU Library welcomes members of the Akimel O’odham and Pee Posh, and all Native nations to the Library.