Starting out (step 1)

Summary

Firstly you have to recognise when you have a need for information. For a student this occurs when you get an assignment. In your personal life it occurs when you have a personal need that requires certain information before you can make a good, informed decision. Remember, information literacy is not just an academic issue. It is crucial for every day life (personal needs).
Identify your search question and start thinking about what information you will need.
Read about your topic by starting in the reference section or the periodicals reading room.
Start defining keywords by drawing a mind map, identifying broader and narrower search terms and look at different spellings, etc.
Make use of searching tools, like boolean searching, truncation and phrase searching. These tools will help you to get the best possible results i.e. retrieving all the relevant information but filtering any irrelevant information.
Remember that some information is free and others cost money. Keep this in mind when you start your search. The aim is to explore all the free resources first, before starting to make use of resources that are costly.
If there are aspects discussed so far that you do not understand, feel free to ask a Librarian, they are trained to help you in the searching process.