Searching in library databases is often a very different experience than searching Google or other search engines. Use these tips to make the most of your searching.
Multiple Key Words or Phrases: Place in separate boxes or separate by Boolean operators. Don’t string them together all on one line as you would in Google.
Phrase Search: Use quotation marks to indicate a phrase search.
It is often helpful to try a phrase search as a regular search as well, to see which returns better results (neural networks vs. “neural networks”)
For example: "invasive species" "climate change"
Truncation: Add an asterisk * to the end of a term to retrieve results with multiple endings
For example: bio* will find biology, biological, biologically, bioethical, biochemistry, etc.
Boolean Operators can help you expand or narrow your search
AND: ("climate change" AND biodiversity) Narrows your search so that only records containing both search terms come back to you.
OR: (deforestation OR "forest degradation") Broadens your search so that all records containing either term come back to you.
NOT: (“clean energy" NOT solar) Narrows your search so that only records that contain the first term and not the second term come back to you.
You can combine as many of these techniques as you want in the same search!
Successful searching in Google and other search engines requires a slightly different approach to successful searching in library databases. Use these tips to make the most of your searching time.
The more terms you enter, the more focused and specific your results will be. (You don't need to use AND to connect your search terms, like you would in a library database)
climate change
climate change weather patterns
climate change weather patterns flooding
Most search engines don't support truncation (*), but they do support OR and parentheses:
(biodiverse OR biodiversity)
Use quotation marks around a phrase to find those exact words, in that exact order.
"climate change" "weather patterns" "biodiversity loss"
Use AROUND and numbers in parentheses to find words or phrases within a certain number of words of each other on a page:
"climate change" AROUND(6) flooding
Use the minus sign to exclude terms (instead of using NOT, as you would in a library database)
"climate change" effects -"global warming"
Use site: to search a single web site or top-level domain:
"climate change" site:gov
"climate change" site:data.un.org
Different authors and sources may use different language to talk about the same thing. As you are doing your searching, make a note of what keywords worked well and where. For example, more scholarly terms might work best when searching scholarly literature and common, non-technical terms might work best when doing general internet searching.
To identify keywords for your topic, look to a reference source like an encyclopedia or even Wikipedia and make lists of terms used in the articles. Also be sure you're paying attention to the keywords listed in the databases and articles you're using.