List words to describe your topic – global warming, climate change, etc.
Think of narrower, more specific terms – greenhouse effect, fossil fuels, drought, etc.
If you are not finding enough results, think of broader, more general terms – climatology, weather, environmental change
Use quotation marks and wildcards
Force a search for a unique phrase by using quotation marks – "attention deficit disorder", "offshore oil drilling", "American Nurses Association"
Use a question mark (?) as a wildcard to replace a single letter – wom?n will find women or woman
Use a pound or hash sign (#) for alternate spellings – harbo#r will find harbor or harbour
Use * when you want variations on a root – child* will find child, childhood, children, etc.
Combine search terms
Use ANDto narrow your search – cars AND trucks returns results that mention both cars and trucks
Use OR to broaden your search – cars OR trucks finds results that contain information about cars or about trucks, but not necessarily both
Use NOT to restrict your search – cars NOT trucks retrieves results that mention cars but will exclude any that refer to trucks
Use subjects and keywords from your search results
Look at the subjects applied to articles you find and use them in further searches.
Look for alternate terms and spellings in the text of the items that you find<./li>
Look for suggestions for other subjects or thesaurus terms supplied by the database you're searching.
Know what kind of search to use
Subject – when you're looking for books or articles about a particular topic or person.
Author – when you are looking for items written by a particular person.
Title – when you know the title of the item you want, you can browse (if you know exactly what words begin the title) or search (if you know some words that appear in the title).
Keyword – when you don't know exactly where your terms might appear, this search field usually checks the author, title, table of contents, summary, and subject terms. In databases, it may check introductory text.
Entire Document or All Text – searches all keyword fields, plus the full text of the item. This option is only available in the databases, as the catalog does not contain the full text of items.
For more information on advanced search features, check the "Help" link in the catalog or database you're using.