|
AND |
Use
to search different concepts together. Produces fewer results. |
children
AND evangelism |
| OR |
Use
to link similar terms; group with parenthesis; produces more results |
(children
OR child) AND (evangelism
OR evangelize) |
| NOT |
Use
to specify a term you do not want in the
search results. |
(children OR child) AND (evangelism
OR evangelize)
NOT school
Excludes results with
school.
|
| Truncation
(*) |
Searches
the ROOT of a word ended with * |
child*
AND evangel*NOT
school
Searches: child,
children AND evangel,
evangelism, evangelical,
evangelized, etc.
|
| Use
fewer concepts |
Increases
number of results |
child* AND evangel* |
| Use
more concepts |
Decreases
number of results |
child* AND (outreach OR evangel*) AND inner AND city |
Phrase
Search |
Use
quotation marks; Refines search |
child* AND (outreach
OR evangel*) AND “inner
city” AND “New
York” |
Proximity
Search:
N |
NEAR: Finds
words that occur "near" a specified
range of each other. Use when only word
RANGE is important. |
inner city N5
new york
Searches: inner-city in New York
or New York's inner city |
Proximity
Search:
W |
WITH: Finds
words that occur near a specified range
of each other. Use when word ORDER and RANGE
are important. |
inner city W5 new york
Searches: inner-city in New York
but not New York's inner city |
Subject Field
Indexes
Thesaurus |
Some database may include any or all three. Subject fields, indexes and thesauri are specific and unique to a database
and its content. Respectively, they are used to divide information in related subjects, categorize and group database content, and offer collections of "controlled
vocabulary"
that includes synonyms, related terms, and narrower and broader terms. |
Limit/Expand
Functions |
Look
for limiting options on the database search
screen.
Examples: Full text • peer reviewed •
date • related
terms • language |