About Searching
When you search library databases, you will use keywords related to your research topic. Then use the keywords to combine them using Boolean Operators into search strings (or phrase searching) to improve your search. Boolean Operators are simple words (AND, OR, and NOT) that are used to connect and define the relationship between keywords. You can usually just type these in, but many of our databases also have drop-down menu options.
Boolean words allow you to either reduce the number of results or expand it by either requiring certain keywords, excluding certain keywords, or allowing for alternative words.
Remember that the database can't interpret what you mean, so you have to be clear and specific with your searches in order to control the results.
Boolean Operators in Action: AND
Boolean Operators in Action: OR
Boolean Operators in Action: NOT
Truncation Searching
Truncation is a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings.
- To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end.
- The database will return results that include any ending of that root word.
- Examples:
child* = child, childs, children, childrens, childhood
genetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically - Truncation symbols may vary by database; common symbols include: *, !, ?, or #
Search Operators & Modifiers Cheat Sheet
| Operator | Example | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| AND | policy AND homelessness AND australia | only locates resources containing all three keywords |
| NOT | vikings NOT "tv show" NOT "tv series" | eliminated information you do not want (e.g. locates resources about Vikings, not the TV series) |
| " " | "world health organization" AND "immunization rates" | only locates resources with the exact phrase in "quotation marks" |
| TO | "birth rates" 1970 TO 1980 | locates resources within a specific date, measurement, or range (very useful for historical and statistical data) |
| site: | "food scarcity" AND florida site:edu | locates resources only from URLs ending in .edu |
| OR | sustainability OR conservation | locates resources containing at least one of the keywords |
| ~ | diwali ~desserts | locates resources with synonyms for the search term, e.g. pudding, cake, sweets |
| ? | wom?n AND organi?ation AND defen?e | wildcards (? ! $) substitute a symbol for one letter of a word, locates resources with different spellings (e.g. American vs Australian) |
| * | genetic* AND child* | truncation locates resources containing all words beginning with the root word (e.g. genetics, geneticist, genetically AND childhood, children, child) |
| ( ) | ("population growth" AND taiwan) AND health OR medicine | nesting locates the most relevant information first by putting greater emphasis on the terms in brackets (just like Order of Operations in mathematics) |
| ^ | "game addiction" AND adolescent* AND ("mental health"^5) | weighting puts particular emphasis on one term over another in your search, prioritising the weighted term over the other search terms in the string |
|
N (near) |
tax N5 reform | finds the words if they are within X number of words of one another regardless of the order in which they appear (e.g. tax reform as well as reform of income tax) |
|
W (within) |
tax W8 reform | finds the words if they are within eight words of one another and in the order in which you entered them (e.g. results that would match tax reform but would not match reform of income tax) |
Adopted from the Australian National University.
Wildcard Searching
| Symbol | What it does | Sample search | Instead of typing |
| * | replaces zero or more letters at the end of a word (this is truncation) |
comput* | computer OR computing OR computational OR... |
| # | replaces at most one letter | ne#t | net OR neat OR next OR nest OR... |
| ? | replaces only one letter | b?t | bat OR bet OR bit OR bot OR but OR... |
REMEMBER: Some databases may use these symbols differently or may use different symbols, so check the database's help section if you're having problems with wildcards.
Phrase Searching
You can search for specific phrases by using quotation marks. This works in both Google and our databases. This is very helpful, because otherwise, your keywords could be anywhere in the webpage or article.
