Topic 8    Choosing resources

The next step will be to match your search statement against relevant, appropriate resources in your subject area. If your search statement was:

I want to find out about the consequences, harm, risk or side effects – of eating, consuming or the consumption of – GM or genetically modified food or foods.

you might be looking for:

• ideas and opinions – expert opinion, opinions of pressure groups, public opinion, opinion of companies involved in trials, opinion of governments and other organisations;
• research results – medical experiments, scientific information;
• history – where the debate began and why.

You will need to have a clear idea of what it is about your topic that you want to know. Then you should be able to look closely at the individual resources, such as databases, on offer in your subject area, to see what information they contain. It is very likely that you will have to apply your search statement to different sources to get the range of information you need. Keeping the particular aspects of your topic in mind, you should then try to see how the resources measure up against your topic and decide which ones are going to provide you with the information you are looking for.