1. Define the scope of your search
- what are you looking for? a book, some papers, multimedia or data, etc.
- are you focusing on a particular location, time period, person, group or events, etc.
- Is your topic very narrow and specific, is it theory, technology, standards/codes oriented
- what do you know already about the topic and what else do you need to investigate
2. Start by writing down a list of keywords
- Background knowledge reading may help you for more ideas and words
- Check E-book Reference database such as Knovel
3. Choose the database you want to search
- check the topic coverage of the database
- check the time range covered by the database
- Is it a local, national or international database
- study the searching features provided by the database
4. Conduct your search and evaluate your results
- Try OMNI search for a list of books, ebooks, or other materials
- Try related database for published research paper
5. Modify your search by using extra keywords and/or filter/limiting features from the databa
