‘Pearl growing’
Pearl growing is a very useful search strategy in the exploratory phase if you do not yet know the right search terms.
Start a search and check the results, websites or documents to see whether these contain other, perhaps better, search terms.
For example, when searching the HvA catalogue by all fields (see Search entries) you could check which of subject headings listed among the search results cover your subject (see Thinking up search terms).
Example from the HvA catalogue:
You enter the word hangjongeren (problem youths) under 'all words'. Looking at the description of a DVD, you will see the HvA subject heading randgroepjongeren (marginalised youths). You can then search further using this term.
You could also look at which author occurs the most in your initial search results. This will probably be a major author in this field. Use the author’s name in the Author field to search for more publications.
