Guide to Library Research  Tags: topic call number video tutorial evaluate find cite research tips hours bibliography background  

Watch some short videos about doing research to get a jump start!

Getting started with your research

Insider's guide to research

Research tips:

• Work from the general to the specific. Find background information first, then use more specific and recent sources.
• Record what you found and where you found it. Write out a complete citation for each source you find; you may need it again later.
• Translate your topic into the subject language of the indexes and catalogs you use. Check your topic words against a thesaurus or subject heading list.

Need help clarifying your topic? Need ideas about where to look next? Want to be sure you're using a reference source effectively? Ask a Librarian!

Putting Concepts Together - Boolean AND, OR and NOT

Use AND and OR to combine keywords or phrases.

• AND narrows a search - results must contain both terms.
  Use AND to combine separate concepts.
• OR broadens a search - results can contain either term, or both.
  Use OR to combine synonyms.
• NOT narrows a search - results can contain one term, not the other.
  Use NOT to exclude terms

Truncation and Wildcards

A symbol at the end of a word stem provides for all variants on the word stem. The most commonly used symbol is the asterisk (*), but this varies among databases.

For example, a search for

librar*

will retrieve:

library, libraries, librarian, etc.

Be careful not to truncate too far, or you will retrieve unrelated words!

Internal Truncation

A symbol within a word provides for all possible variants inside a word or word stem. The most commonly used symbol for internal truncation is #. For example, a search for

wom#n

will retrieve:

woman, women

Look at online help for each database to determine the truncation symbols.

Phrase Searching

Some databases require a phrase to be in quotes.  Ex:"higher education"