Main Contents Page

Before you start

STEP 1: STARTING OUT

- Recognise your need

- Think about your need

- Read about your topic

- Defining keywords

Draw mind map

Broader & narrower terms

Other spellings

Examples per faculty:

Natural Sciences

     Mind map

Commerce & Management

Social Sciences

Engineering

Cost of information

- Searching tools

- Summary

STEP 2: FINDING

STEP 3: EVALUATE

STEP 4: LEGAL USE

STEP 5: COMMUNICATE

Example

Natural Sciences

Research Problem	Write an assignment about the "Coelacanth".
Key words	coelacanth, fish, fossil, marine life
Larger subjects	marine life fish endangered species latimeria
Narrower subjects	fossils ancient animals african fish
Synonyms	none
Different spellings	Selakant (afrikaans)

See a mind map.

You must identify all the above-mentioned words to help you when you start your search. Using different words may retrieve different information, therefore use all possible options when you search for information.

After searches were done on the Library on-line catalogue on some of the words identified above, the following was found:

Definition: Library on-line catalogue The Library on-line catalogue is a database of titles of all the books, journals and audio- visual resources available in the Library.

It is clear that you get different results from different words used in the searches. That is why it is so important to identify and follow up every possible word related to your topic.