Library Session Supplement: WRTG 100,101,106

 Keywords are important words and concepts that stem from your research question. Having a strong list of keywords is necessary when searching library database. Unlike in Google where you can type in a sentence and receive thousands of relevant results, typing a sentence into a library database will likely result in very few related results. Keywords are necessary for a focused and time efficient research session. 

Strong keywords are a central part of a successful search process. It is important to go beyond just pulling words out of your research question, your search terms can be related phrases, concepts, and themes as well.

Example

My research question: “What does climate justice and activism look like in the DMV area?”

• To start
  • I might want to do a quick google search to gain some context and learn more about what’s going on in these areas.
  • Then I can start thinking about related themes, groups of people, specific locations, general language used, etc. 
    • Example: government officials, civilian activist groups, government legislation, social movements, DC, Maryland, Virginia 
• Now I can start to generate my list of keywords and key concepts 
  • • climate justice
    • environmental activism
    • climate change
    • sea levels
    • VA Environmental Justice Act
    • fossil fuels
    • environmental policy
    • The Nature Conservancy (a non profit group based in DC/MD area)

This sample research question is broad and so this list of keywords and search terms serve as a starting point for research and can be refined as the topic gets narrowed down.