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Introduction to Library Research: Search Strategies

An Introductory Guide to Student Research in the Library

Truncation and Wildcards

Stop Words Truncation Wildcards

The following common words are ignored when searching:

  • a, an, and, are, as, at
  • be, but, by
  • for
  • if, in, into, is, it
  • no, not
  • of, on, or
  • such
  • that, the, their, then, there, these, they, this, to
  • was, will, with

Use the Truncation symbol (*) to retrieve variations of a word stem.

For example:

nurse* will retrieve nurse, nurses, nursed.

Substitute ? for one or more letters to find variant forms or when you’re unsure of the spelling.

For example: 

ne?t will retrieve neat, nest or next.

Keyword vs. Subject Heading

Keyword Subject
natural language words describing your topic - good to start with pre-defined "controlled vocabulary" words used to describe the content of each item (book, journal article) in a database
more flexible to search by - can combine together in many ways less flexible to search by - need to know the exact controlled vocabulary term
database looks for keywords anywhere in the record - not necessarily connected together database looks for subjects only in the subject heading or descriptor field, where the most relevant words appear
may yield too many or too few results if too many results - also uses subheadings to focus on one aspect of the broader subject
may yield many irrelevant results results usually very relevant to the topic

How to do a Gale Power Search

Choose Cross Search for a *federated search:

*Search all databases simultaneously.

 

Boolean Operators

Use Boolean Operators to narrow or expand a search, and exclude irrelevant results.

For example: media AND violence, teens OR adolescents, psychology NOT clinical