Keyword Searching
In order to successfully search for resources in databases, you need to know how to develop keywords.
In databases, every word input in the search bar is searched. So if you put "how to turn trees into paper," every single word is searched as:
"how" "to" "turn" "trees" "into" "paper"
You don't want this. To help with this, you use keyword searching. To develop keywords, take your research question and break it down into sections, and take the most important terms in those sections as your keywords.
It's also important to think about what terms the authors may be using. For example, you may be searching for resources on homophobia. Some authors use a generic term of anti-LGBT.
Another example is time. Twentieth-century vs. 20th century.
These are all things to keep in mind. Take a look below and some examples of searches that can happen.
Boolean Operators
AND, OR, NOT
When you are searching in databases, sometimes things don't go to plan. That's because, as we discussed in the previous lesson, databases search everything you enter into a search bar quite literally.
To help with this, you can use Boolean Operators. The most common are AND, OR, and NOT.
AND and NOT are limiters; they limit the results.
OR is an expander; it expands the results.
For example: Say you are looking for information on social media, but you don't want Facebook involved. You would search:
Social Media NOT Facebook
But hold on; social media is two words. In order for a set of words to be searched together as a phrase, you put quotation marks around it. So the search should be:
"Social Media" NOT Facebook
Watch this video on Boolean Operators and Phrase Searching.
