Techniques for Entering / Running Your Search
Phrase search | Use quotation marks around your phrase |
Truncation (sometimes called "wild card")
|
Use an asterisk (*) with a word stub |
Choose a field to search
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Drop-down menus |
Resource category limiters
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Drop-down menus or check boxes |
Boolean operators --see examples below
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Drop-down menus |
Techniques for Narrowing / Broadening Your Results
Resource category limiters– [to narrow your results]
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In right or left column on the Results Page |
Subject heading hyperlinks– [to broaden your results]
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Links in the FULL record |
Using Boolean Operators: AND, OR & NOT
Look for AND, OR & NOT drop-down menus
Operator |
Example search |
The search will find... |
Venn diagram |
AND narrows a search, resulting in fewer hits. |
north carolina AND prohibition | items containing "North Carolina" and "prohibition." | |
OR broadens a search, resulting in more hits. |
zimbabwe OR rhodesia | items containing either "Zimbabwe" or "Rhodesia" or both. | |
NOT eliminates some unwanted results. |
mexico NOT new mexico | items containing "Mexico" but not "New Mexico." |
Adapted from Duke University Libraries' "Advanced Searching Techniques" (no longer available online).
Creative Commons License
Searcher's Glossary
Abstract -- a brief summary of an academic article, conference presentation, dissertation, etc.; this is a searchable Field in a Database record
Boolean logic -- a system for narrowing / broadening search results using the operators AND, OR and NOT; the user chooses the operator as he/she enters the search terms and before clicking "Search"
Database record -- information about a source (e.g., title, author, subject, format, source, etc.)
Field -- a piece of information from a Database record (e.g., title)
Full-text -- all of the actual words in the actual article, e-book, or other source
Keyword or phrase -- a word or phrase that you will type into a search interface; the search engine will crawl the Database records in the database (and/or the Full-text of the database contents) looking for these words/phrases
Limiters -- categories of information commonly used to limit a search either before or after you click "Search"; database systems usually provide check boxes or other means of selecting limiters
Results -- a listing of the Database records that were found by the database search engine
Subject heading -- a word or words that describe the subject of the article, book, etc.: this is a searchable Field in a Database record