WRIT 120F: A Real House of Dragons

Truncation
Strip a search term back to its root and attach an *

• Example: comput* yields computer, computerize, computerization

Phrases
Put quotation marks (") around phrases or words you want to keep together

• Example: "United States"

Boolean Operators
AND: results will reflect ideas on both sides of the AND (results will be restricted)

OR: results will reflect ideas on either side of the OR but necessarily both (results are expanded)

NOT: use to resolve ambiguities (will restrict results somewhat)

Keywords and Subjects

Keywords are the words YOU come up with when performing a search

Subjects are vocabulary that librarians use to classify the records in a catalog or database

How to search

1. Begin with a keyword search using your own vocabulary or words you discovered during perusal of tertiary sources
    
2. Look at the filters to the left side of your search results.  See if there are ways to create a more targeted list
    
3. Open a record that looks promising
    
4. Look at the Subject field in the record.  Is there vocabulary there you can use to perform a more precise search?

• If you don't get results that look helpful, think about searching a different database and/or move from the specific to the general.
   
• No search is a complete failure.  If you don't get results that seem on target, analyze your results and see what you can learn.  For instance, perhaps there is vocabulary you haven't thought of that is present in some of the records.