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Subject guides

Physiotherapy: Help With Searching

This is a subject guide to give students of Physiotherapy an overview of the different resources available at the University of Huddersfield.

Library Search

Library Search is a good starting point for most research - it is a one stop shop encompassing books, e-books, newspaper and journal articles, conference proceedings and dissertations. We have made some videos to help you get the most out of Library Search

Advanced searching in Library Search

Getting started with Library Search

Identify your keywords

To begin your research, identify the major keywords that will help you find relevant information. Then, think of alternative search terms or synonyms e.g. falls management may also be referred to as falls prevention and elderly may also be referred to as aged. If you cannot think of any other terms, read a few articles on Library Search, or read items on your reading list. You can also use a thesaurus to help you identify other search terms.

Be creative and think around your topic.

Synonyms

Help with specific databases

If you need help using CINAHL, they have a lot of tutorials here. Also see below for the library helpsheet.

Getting material outside of our library's collection

An inter-library loan is an essential book or article which you need that is not held by the University of Huddersfield Library.

We request items on your behalf from the British Library and other libraries in the UK or overseas. It is often delivered as a digital copy via email, and sometimes as a print copy via the library help desk.

All registered students and staff at the University of Huddersfield can use the service to support their university work or study.

This video demonstrates how to request an Inter-Library loan using Library Search:

If the title you require doesn't appear on Library Search (due to it being too old or too new) then there is a manual form you can complete for your inter-library loan request.

Tips for searching

Use the Boolean operators AND and OR to modify your search.  Make sure you put these terms in capital letters so that the software recognises them as Boolean operators - most search engines are programmed to ignore common words like these (and also things like the, of, in, etc.) so if they're not in capitals, they won't be used in the search.

AND narrows down the results by making sure the terms connected with it are guaranteed to be in the results e.g.:

infection AND prevention AND cannula

Using OR broadens the search out, by looking for terms that mean the same or similar things.  Don't forget to use brackets to join any terms with OR e.g.:

(apnoea OR apnea) AND sleep

Putting an asterisk at the end of a word will search for various different endings e.g. anaesthe* will simultaneously search for anaesthetic and anaesthesia.  However, do be aware that other words you don't want may be included, so be careful where you put the asterisk!

You can also use speech marks to search for phrases e.g. "respiratory tract infection" will find these words in this exact order and spelling, rather than finding the words individually (so you won't get information on infections in general).

Searching using AND OR NOT

This Youtube video is great as a refresher on Boolean searching techniques.

Planning your searches

When searching for information for your assignments, it is worth doing some planning to help you control the number of results you get and how relevant they are.