The reference interview: A scenario

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The scenario

An OT student comes to the desk and says she can't find enough relevant articles on her topic.  She's searched several databases already.  She shows me her search terms: "sensory modulation" AND anxiety.

Ideas on how to respond

  1. What does sensory modulation mean?  Google it to get a quick understanding or ask the student.  Ask the student if they have used any other synonyms in their search.
  2. Go to Ebsco Health Databases (covers CINAHL and MEDLINE).
  3. Do the student's search "sensory modulation" AND anxiety or just "sensory modulation."
  4. Have a look for key terms in the results for synonyms like "sensation disorders," "affective disorders," "sensory over-responsivity."
  5. Re-run the search adding in the synonyms you've found, e.g. "sensory disorders" OR "sensory modulation" AND anxiety. This gives 339 results, far more than the original search.
P.S. You could leave out "modulation." I did a search in Google Scholar <sensory anxiety> and this brought up other synonyms like "sensory processing sensitivity," "sensory stimuli." So you can add these terms to your search. I think this is what students forget - that there are other terms used for whatever they're searching for and so they miss finding articles.

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