ENGL 1102 - Nielsen - Spring 2024: Library and Web Search Tips
Search for Scholarly and Popular Information
Utilize keywords or key phrases to search for sources.
For instance, if your research question is:
Does drone surveillance violate the Fourth Amendment?
Your keywords would be:
Drone Surveillance
Fourth Amendment
To connect them in a library search, you would use the following search string:
"Drone Surveillance" AND "Fourth Amendment"
Utilize Internet/Database Search Techniques
Use quotation marks to enclose phrases:
- "sustainable agriculture"
- "Coastal Georgia"
- Southeast Georgia"
Use truncation (*) or a wildcard (?) to search multiple forms of a word:
- Child* (retrieves child, children, and childhood)
- Wom?n (retrieves women and woman)
- Civili?ation (retrieves civilization and civilisation)
Refining Internet Searches:
- site:.edu - limit to domains ending in .edu
- site.gov - limit to domains ending in .gov (official US government resources)
- "Social Media " and Depression site:nytimes.com
- Searches the NY Times for depression
Boolean Operators: AND, OR, and NOT
