BIS 306: Marine Diversity and Conservation (Maxwell): Search Strategies

Boolean searching uses three operators:

AND

• Finds sources containing two or more ideas
• The database will only retrieve items containing both words
• AND narrows your search
• You can use AND many times in one search
• Example: electronic AND voting

OR

• Use OR when searching for synonyms
• OR will retrieve items containing either word
• OR broadens your search to include synonyms and related words
• You can use OR many times in one search
• Example: electronic OR internet OR web

NOT

• Use NOT when you wish to exclude records from your search results
• Be careful when using NOT: the term you want may be present in an important way in results that also contain the word you wish to avoid   
• Example: pets NOT dogs

Nesting search terms using: parenthesis ( )

• Make a complex search using both AND and OR by placing parentheses around synonyms so you don't have to repeat searches
• Nesting saves you time by allowing you to search multiple synonyms at once
• Example: (electronic OR internet OR web) AND (vote OR voting) - this cuts down on having to do multiple searches for the combinations of keywords

Truncation: *

• The * is a common symbol used to replace any number of letters at the ends of words
• Helps find singulars, plurals, and variant endings of words
• Check each database's help pages to see which truncation symbol is used in that particular database
• Example: adapt* finds adapted, adaptation, adaptations, etc.

Phrase searching: " "

• Enclose phrases in quotation marks when searching the Web or most databases
• Phrase searching in individual databases may vary. Check the help pages in each database for additional information.
• Example: "great depression"

Other limiting/filtering tools: 

• Most databases let you limit search results. Some limits include:
  • Language  
  • Publication type, 
  • Date of Publication, etc.

Not sure what we mean when we say "article" or tell you to go to the "stacks?" Find translations and definitions of common library terms below!