LibGuides: English I and II: Nonprofits Research: Searching

Handouts

Resource Examples Chart
What to use when and for what
Search Engine Chart
Advanced search tips for major search engines
The Needle and The Haystack: Tips for Better Online Searching
How search works, and how to make a bigger needle and a better haystack

Databases and websites you'll find useful

Academic One File Academic OneFile is the premier source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources. With extensive coverage of all academic disciplines, Academic OneFile is authoritative and comprehensive. Millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text with no restrictions, including full-text coverage of the New York Times since 1995. Updated daily.
Academic Search Complete Academic Search Complete offers an enormous collection of the most valuable full-text journals, providing users access to critical information from many sources unique to this database. In addition, this database is the leading source of peer-reviewed, full-text for STM research, as well as for the Social Sciences and Humanities. This scholarly collection offers unmatched coverage of information spanning a broad range of important areas of academic study, including anthropology, engineering, law, sciences and more.
JSTOR JSTOR is a growing digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. You will need to create an account the first time you use JSTOR
But wait...there's more! This link will take you to the library database page, where there are more than 40 subject databases
Charity Navigator
Rates charitable organizations; provides information on mission, financial responsibility, and transparency of operations
Charity Watch
BBB's Give.org
Great Nonprofits

Specialized Search Engines

Clustering Search Engines:
Carrot2
iSeek

News Aggregators:
Rocket News
World News

Social Media Search:
Social Mention
Social Searcher

Similar Site Searching
Similar Site Search
Similar Pages

Multisearch Engines
Fefoo
Goofram
Q want

Other Specialty Engines
Fagan Finder
Science.gov
Zanran

The Filter Bubble--who controls what you see and read online?

Searching for a...

Searching for Needle in the Online Haystack 2018

Don't we already know how to do this?

This collection of articles and videos is intended to provide some context for understanding both the complexity and limitations of searching and the value in teaching a varied approach to finding accurate, reliable information when just "Googling it" doesn't work.

Search Engine Fatigue
The surprising findings of a research report about looking, and not finding, online information
Marketplace Tech Report--Google Becoming Useless?
Listen to this podcast from Wednesday, February 9, 2010, that talks about the difficulty of performing simple searches on Google.
The Beast With a Billion Eyes
Google no longer finds value in providing a directory; but this article shows that one of its biggest resources is becoming a behemoth without them, and the move is afoot to have users move them to "channels"--aka, a subject directory.
Too Much Choice?
In this TED talk, Dr. Sheena Iyengar talks about the value in limiting choice. A concept easily applicable to internet searching, and shrinking the haystack...

Keeping current in search

These sites can be useful in keeping up with what's new in the field of search:

The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handook
Links referenced in the 4th edition of this book by Ran Hock
Search Engine Land-Top News
Search Engine Land is a web site with lots of information for everyone from the interested to the professional. The site has lots of useful information; start with this link to the newest in news on search engine development
Search Engine Watch
Phil Bradley: Making the internet, search and social media easy
Current resources on how and where to search

A little practice for you...

If you've chosen a nonprofit, make a list of keywords, phrases, names, dates, etc. you can use in the practice below; if you haven't chosen one, here is a list of new and upcoming non profits you can try for today

In Google, Bing, Yahoo, or other large search engine, practice searches using the following strategies and compare them to searches without the strategy:

Phrase search (enclose a name, place or phrase in quotation marks)
Site search (limit to both a particular site and a domain)
An OR search (search for related words associated with your charity)
A NOT search (eliminate words, sites or domains)
A file type search (limit results to a particular file type)
Bookmark at leat three sites in a folder on your browser

Try different combinations of these searches and report which gave you the best/worst results

Try searching on your topic in three different library databases; limit your searches by

Date
Publication
Full-text
Peer reviewed or academic journals
Save at least three articles in a folder on the database, or email them to yourself