Search Mastery Interest Group

The Search Mastery program promotes informed decision making and problem solving by increasing opportunities for individuals to develop the knowledge and skills they need to efficiently and effectively find information. Search engine proficiency enables users to understand and harness basic and advanced features of the tools. After completing Search Mastery training, users understand how search engines work, how to use their many built-in (but often hidden) features, how to optimize searches, how to navigate through and select among the results returned, and finally assess the credibility of online content.

Search Mastery can give you evaluation skills, decision-making criteria, and info-management powers to find and act on information rather than being limited by the content search engines and other mediating technologies present.

There are many resources available to develop your search capabilities and to promote the concepts included in the Search Mastery program. To take the Search Mastery Modules or to learn about including them in a course or a program you are working on, contact the Search Mastery program at searchbetter@umd.edu!

• This document contains search mastery resources that may be helpful for multiple purposes.
• Learn more about Search literacy and search practice-related topics from the great Speaker Series speakers on our YouTube channel.

Information Foraging Theory

The central tenet of information foraging theory is that what is scarce is no longer information itself, but our attention – each of us must decide how to allocate our limited attention across various sources and types of information. How people allocate their attention is influenced by considerations of information overload, selective exposure, selective attention, and serendipity. Democracy is threatened when people have to wade through vast quantities of information to find the minority of information that is relevant, credible, and actionable; when they tend to only be exposed to information they already know and agree with; when they only pay attention to information that confirms their existing beliefs; and when serendipity is most likely to result in only more of the same for them.

One potential project entails a preliminary investigation into the information-seeking habits of college students as they aim to catch up on current events. How do they search for political news? What keywords do they use in their searches? Do their keywords reflect their preexisting beliefs and influence the search results they obtain? How do they select from among the various search results? Are there specific sources that they tend to turn to? What do they do when they encounter information that contradicts their preexisting beliefs? The results of this preliminary investigation will then be used to develop an online tutorial that will enable young adults to become more conscious of their searching processes and the ways in which their preexisting beliefs and their searches are simply reinforcing their views and potentially limiting what they can find out. They will also learn about a wider array of credible political news sources and learn searching skills that will enable them to improve the quality and comprehensiveness of their search results.

Search Skills Research

There is limited research available on the search skills of all but the smallest and most specialized of populations. Even those do not seem to focus specifically on knowledge of search engine operators and features. There is opportunity to work with the populations served by the Search Mastery program—students, faculty, public librarians, possibly expanding to alumni for example—to conduct research that might aid in understanding how to better educate the public on better search techniques.

Open Source Intelligence

Advanced search knowledge is fundamental to Open Source Intelligence research practices. What is the most effective way to teach advanced search skills and how to apply them? How much practice does it take to internalize these skills?

Curriculum enhancements developed by the Search Mastery Interest Group are designed to improve students’ understanding of search and search engines. These materials are currently deployed across the INFO College in undergraduate and graduate programs and in the College of Journalism. All faculty are encouraged to explore how improved search skills might benefit students in their programs. Our goal is to make search mastery education available throughout the University system.

While there are many opportunities for the general public to use search engines, there are few opportunities available to develop basic knowledge and skills to use these critical tools effectively. The Public Library Outreach initiative is working with public librarians to develop a Search Better! offering to help librarians transfer search knowledge to adult library patrons. Search Better! means finding the information you need instead of what the search engine returns to you. Goals include helping patrons understand what to do when they:

• Find too many results
• Want specific sources of content
• Want specific structure of the content (image, PDF, HTML)
• Want to control a date range
• Want more relevant results
• Want to validate the information

Search platforms are central to almost every aspect of home, school, work, and leisure,  making searching better a critical aspect of daily life and civic engagement.

Working collaboratively with the University Libraries, College of Information, College of Journalism, and College of Education, the Interest Group has centralized the ownership of search education modules in the Libraries effective Spring 2025. Educational videos demonstrating use of search operators to enhance job searches were developed in late 2023. Search Mastery training has been incorporated into INST600, Foundations for Librarians and Information Professionals, a required class for the MLIS degree. Group members are developing educational materials on approaches and practices for using AI-assisted search tools for information retrieval.

Search Ambassador graduate and undergraduate student workers are available to lead search education workshops, mini-lessons, and classroom discussions.

• “Definitely making my search for my research project easier.”
• “It would be good to have these assigned earlier in the semester.”
• “I wish I had learned these skills sooner (like in high school) than in my MASTERS program.”
• “It was one of the more enjoyable parts of this program thus far for me.”
• “I am glad to have taken the classes on lateral reading and search operators.”
• “I also appreciated seeing some of the various tools that you can use in Google to limit searches – Such as by date. Those were mostly new to me.” 
• “Another beneficial skill I learned is to be more patient with the results and show click restraint.”
• “Adding quotations, the minus sign, and “site:” and “filetype:” to my search skills has made searching better. It even feels different to search, like I have more confidence.”