What is Literature Search?
In libraries, we often find ourselves overwhelmed with information, and tons of it too, especially when we are looking for something in particular. That is when a librarian comes to our aid and finds exactly what we are looking for in no time, even with an incomplete description. This is known as Literature Search.
Literature search simply means searching the literature related to a particular topic. The literature may be available in multiple forms such as Journal articles, books, patents, standards, thesis, etc.; some of them often inaccessible to readers without the help of a librarian.
Source: https://www.scholarcy.com
What are the Search Techniques of Literature Search?
To efficiently conduct a thorough Literature search, Librarians must follow a pre-defined search technique. The librarian may follow any of the two approaches, i.e. (i)The Subject Approach and (ii)The Author Approach.
(i) The Subject Approach
This method helps identify relevant information based on the topic or subject matter. It involves the use of keywords, controlled vocabularies and subject headings to identify materials that correspond to and can fully answer the search query. This approach offers precision and efficiency in conducting literature search and also helps uncover unexpected connections and insights. The steps to be followed for conducting literature search through the subject approach are:
Step 1: Request for Literature Search
Patrons may request for literature search either personally, or in writing through a letter, email, SMS or a phone call (often done by researchers). Upon receiving the query, librarians must ascertain the scope and purpose of the query, so that according research process can be conducted.
The scope of the query covers the clarity of the topic; the period for when the search is to be conducted; the geographical area mentioned by researcher, languages in which the query is to be searched (including foreign languages) and the forms of documents (i.e. journals, online articles, books, etc.) Librarians usually conduct a thorough personal interview with the patron to correctly understand the search query's scope.
Step 2: Compile a Bibliography
Next, the librarian consults published bibliographies on the topic, such as the Bibliographic Index: A Cumulative Bibliography of Bibliographies. In the rare case that a bibliography isn't already available, or the scope of the topic is not covered by any bibliography, the librarian will consult secondary sources such as reviewing periodicals, secondary periodicals, abstracting services, etc.
Step 3: Search for the Latest Literature
In this step, the search will revolve around primary sources such as primary periodicals, festschrift volumes, thesis, patents, standards, research monograms, encyclopedias, conference proceedings, etc. Since all these sources are scattered in libraries all over the world, librarians must take the help of the Internet.
After going through all the primary and secondary sources, the librarian compiles a bibliographic list of all the relevant literature, and shares it with the researcher.
(ii) Author Approach
Although not very popular, the author approach is also quite effective search technique for literature search. This is especially true if a specific author is a leading expert on the topic to be researched, or the researcher is particularly interested in an author's unique perspective or methodology. The steps to be followed while conducting literature search using author approach are:
Step 1. Find out the author's name who contributes papers on the subject of the topic.
Step 2: Find the latest paper contributed by the author on the topic and get its copy.
Step 3: Check the references and bibliography given in the paper. There's a high possibility that almost all articles cited will pertain to your topic.
Step 4: Prepare entries for all items in 5''x3'' cards, as per the cataloguing rules.
Step 5: In most entries, there will be names of new authors who pertain to the same field in which your topic belongs. The next step is to find out all papers by these authors and sort out the ones that exactly pertain to your topic.
Step 6: Prepare similar entries (in 5"x3" cards) of all the relevant papers and merge them with the earlier prepared entries. You must remember to remove any duplicate entries.
Step 7: Upon going through the stack, you will find the names of some new authors being added to the list. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 until no new author is found.
Step 8: The bibliography is now complete, and you can hand it over to the researcher/patron who had raised the search query. The bibliography thus compiled is highly relevant and covers most of the necessary items to aid in research work.
Final Note
Nowadays, to effectively and efficiently conduct a thorough Literature Search, Librarians and LIS professionals use both online and offline sources. While there are multiple offline sources such as books, journal articles, conference proceedings, theses, etc. the online search is typically conducted through renowned and established platforms that explicitly serve this purpose. these include SCOPUS, ISI Web of Knowledge and Google Scholar/Google Scholar Advanced.
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