Search Strategies

Basic Search

• Plan your search.
  Spending a little time before entering your search strategy in a database can make your search more efficient. State your topic in a sentence. Separate out the individual concepts.

  Example: I am looking for information about the effects of carbon dioxide on vegetation and climate change.

  Separate out three concepts: carbon dioxide, climate change, and vegetation.

  1. Variant word endings:
     Use the truncation symbol * (the asterisk) to let the computer know you want the variant endings to a root word. Not all databases will use the asterisk as the wild card symbol. Check your database Quick Guide for the appropriate symbol.

     Example: climat*
     (This gets climate or climatology as well as climatic)

  2. Boolean connectors and Synonyms:
     OR Broadens your search. It searches for records that have very like or relevant (synonymous) terms. In the example above a better search than just typing in vegetation would be:

     Example: vegetation or plants

     This would find articles with the word "vegetation" or "plants".

     AND Generally narrows your search and focuses it.

     Sometimes and can broaden your search. Instead of typing "climate change", type the two words together with the and connector. This will find the two words in any order, as in the sentence: "changes in climate due to vegetation..."

     
     Example: climate and change
     And also narrows your search by making two or more terms be together in a single record.

     Your final search would look something like this. You MUST use parentheses around the words you "OR" together.

     • change and climat* and (vegetation or plants)

Adapted from Search Strategy Tips by Patricia Herrling, Information Services/User Education Coordinator, Steenbock Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison.