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INTERNET SEARCH STRATEGIES
10/29/08
Phrase Searching
Use “ “ around two or more words to guarantee they appear in the exact order you type them.
“vitamin A”
Phrase searching is a good strategy for names.
“John Quincy Adams”
Case Sensitivity
Use lowercase letters for most of your searching.
Use uppercase letters only when you need them!
In a case sensitive database:
Baker (retrieves the name and eliminates most references to cake and bread makers)
AIDS (eliminates most references to helpers)
China (eliminates most references to dishes)
Effective Searching
Good searching involves combination of skills.
- Brainstorming and refining search terms
- Understanding search strategies and syntax
- Choosing the right search tools or search tool types (and combining your choices strategically!)
- Staying up to date with changes in search tools
- Remember to use databases and print resources
- The Free Web Is Not Enough!
- Use Subscription Databases!
Student Resource Center Gold, World Book Encyclopedia, Science e-book, etc..
- And remember your library’s own Destiny and the value of books!
Boolean Operators
OR
Use OR to expand your search, to capture synonyms and related words.
cardiac or heart
car or automobile
AND, +
Use AND (or +) to guarantee all words are present.
Vietnam AND protest AND students
+ Mexican +recipes
NOTE: Some search tools, like Google, assume an AND.
NOT, AND NOT
Use NOT (or-) to eliminate problem words.
“Martin Luther” NOT King
+penguins – Pittsburgh
Brainstorming Keywords
- As you search, interact!
- Are your original search terms the very best?
- If you are not getting good results, consider:
- Are there synonyms or related terms you might use?
“wild cats”, leopards, panthers
- Would broader or narrower terms help?
Anime<cartooning
Automobiles>Corvette>1964 Corvette
- Are there names – people or places or organizations –that might help?
- Can you “mine” your results list, in search of useful terms that appear in the best results?
Wildcards/Truncation/Stemming
- Use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to stand in place of any character or string of characters.
- Use wildcards to pick up various forms of words.
teen* (picks up teen, teenager, teenagers)
- Use wildcards when you are unsure of spelling.
hippo* will help you pick up hippopotamus
- Use question marks to substitute for letters within a word. In some search engines and databases:
Wom?n picks up both woman and women
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