PHIL/REL 3800

These are some great tips and tricks when searching databases using keywords!

Quote marks can make searches more specific, especially if you're looking for a specific phrase. They instruct the database search to hold all the words together in a specific order, rather than allowing them to be found scattered throughout the item record. 

Examples:

• "mathematics instruction" 
• "colony collapse disorder" 
• "analysis of variance"

Another use for quotation marks is to search for titles of articles. "In-hive patterns of temporal polyethism in strains of honey bees (Apis mellifera) with distinct genetic backgrounds."

Note--not everything needs quotation marks.It is helpful to attempt searches with and without quotation marks to compare results. 

Truncation expands the search to locate all words beginning with the same root word. Most databases use an asterisk * to truncate.

Example:

• a search for teen* will get search results that include the words teen, teens, teenage, teenager, etc. in the item record

Boolean Operators

• Allow a database search to be narrowed, broadened or made more precise.
• There are three Boolean operators:  AND, OR, and NOT.
• AND, OR, NOT are inserted between each search term.

AND

• Used for narrowing or focusing a search topic. 
• Specifies that both search terms must be present in the results. 

Example: Teenagers AND Violence

OR

NOT

• Used to eliminate false hits, or get rid of that one term that you don't want in your results list. 
• Specifies that the first term but not the second can be present in the results.