Constructing a Search

Advantages of Searching an Electronic Database over a Print Index:

• Covers many years at once

• Not limited to searching one subject heading at a time

• Ability to combine terms using Boolean operators

• Ability to search words and phrases in several different fields

• Ability to search different forms of a word using truncation (wildcard) symbols

• Ability to limit searches by date, type of publication, language, etc.

• Covers several years at once

Step 1: Pick out key concepts to search. Here are examples:

• What effect does nutrition have on learning?

• I need articles on various methods of mentoring in business.

• I'm looking for statistics on child abuse.

• I need critical articles on the influence of Emily Bronte's family on her writing.

• I need articles on the Titanic, the ship, not the movie.

Step 2: Construct a search

• Use AND to combine differing concepts.    Nutrition AND Learning

• Use OR to combine similar concepts.   Mentoring OR Business

• Use NOT to exclude certain concepts.   Titanic NOT Movie

• For advanced searching, use wildcards and truncation. Most electronic databases allow for a symbol to be used at the end of a word to retrieve variant endings of that word. This is known as truncation. Each database gives instructions on using advanced searching.

  wildcard examples - bio*  retrieves biology, biosphere, BIOS, etc.

  child$ retrieves child, children, childhood

Step 3: Choose between keyword and thesaurus searching

• Keyword (searches through several fields including titles, subject headings, and abstracts) Useful if you need a few references on a topic and need them fast. Use synonyms and wildcard (truncation) symbols to broaden your search.

• Thesaurus (searches only the subject heading field) Searches tend to be more precise. Use the thesaurus for that database to identify subject headings.

Step 4: Decide which database(s) to search (here's a helpful link)

• Some are general covering a wide variety of subject areas; whereas, others are limited to specific subjects.

• Some cover popular magazines; others cover scholarly journals, and some cover both.

• Some provide indexing only; others provide full-text of the articles.