This page addresses assignment-centric search strategies for electronic database (EBSCOhost) and the internet (Google). The strategies are specific applications of general techniques. They are transferable; with minor modifications the processes may be used for other topics and with other databases.
Because of their user-friendly interface, EBSCOhost databases probably are the best place to begin. Use Academic Search Premier (Advanced Search -- three search boxes stacked). If search results are insufficient, expand your search by using Select all from the Choose Databases hyperlink on the ASP interface.
The search results you get should mostly come from non-scholarly sources: newspapers and general-interest magazines (not literature-centric). You can filter by content type by using the left pane of the initial search screen. To locate these materials, you will be using search terms in various combinations.
Basically, the approach taken in these searches is to begin with the most precise, tightly-focused search available and then, if search results are inadequate, to fall back gradually to more general searches until satisfactory results are obtained. Language -- using the right, "best" words whose meanings closely reflect what you are looking for -- is paramount.
Search Strategies
top box = author's name
middle box = title of story
NOTE: Short stories usually are published in books as part of a collection. If the story title produces a null set, re-do the search using the name of the collection. You will have to see how applicable the comments regarding the collection are to your particular story, but this sort of general-to-specific reasoning is a legitimate research technique.
Online (web-based) searches like Google Basic usually harvest results from sources not considered "published" in the traditional sense: blogs, crowdsourced reader's advisories like GoodReads, author webpages, fan club webpages. The content is more "impressionistic" based on reader response than scholarly.
Your search terms will be the same as those used for the general database searches, tried in the same combinations. Unlike with databases, in Google multi-word search terms like the author name or story title should be enclosed in quotation marks in order to create a more precise search. Also, there is an invisible but still functioning Boolean AND that will separate terms in the search box, which means that every term you put in the box will be searched. Another reason to search interviews and reviews separately.
Search Strategies
The search strategies and protocols basically are the same as for the general database searches; the principal difference lies in the type of information sources being searched. To perform a Google search in a more database-like interface, use Google Advanced Search.