Search Strategies
AND / OR / NOT, known as Boolean Operators, are used to connect and define the relationship between your search terms. Use uppercase letters for Boolean operators within searches.
AND
Narrows the search by telling the database or catalog to search for all records with both keywords. Use AND to connect the main concepts you want represented in your results.
- college AND "social mobility"–will only find records with both words/phrases.
OR
Broadens the search to include records with either keyword/phrase, or both. Use OR to connect synonyms or associated keywords relating to one of your main concepts.
- college OR "higher education"
NOT
*Use only to differentiate between concepts or filter out results if needed.
Narrows your search. Tells database to find results that include the first word and exclude the second word.
- cloning NOT sheep
- Look at your question(s) - what are the keywords you will use to search?
- Now that you have your keywords, write out some possible synonyms of each word or related concepts.
- Take notes of what you are using to search
- Keep track of what databases you have used
For example, if you are searching for information on the Great Depression, you might also want to look for:
- Dust Bowl
- Black Thursday
- Smoot-Hawley Tariff
- Economic Depression
Adjust your searches by narrowing the focus or by combining research terms.
Once you type in your search terms, use the "Refine my results" list on the left-hand side to help narrow down your search by:
- format
- subject
- publication date
- and more!
Databases
Databases
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowAccess a wide variety of journal articles in the humanities and other disciplines.
- Art & Architecture Source This link opens in a new windowIncludes magazine and journal articles, book reviews and conference proceedings, podcasts and more regarding fine arts, decorative and commercial art, as well as architecture and architectural design. Covers sources from 1914 to the present with selected full text.
- International Bibliography of Art (see also BHA) This link opens in a new windowIndexes of journals, monographs, essay collections, conference proceedings, and exhibition catalogues. Focuses on European art from late antiquity to the present, American art from the colonial era to the present, and global art since 1945.
- Online Egyptological Bibliography (OEB) This link opens in a new windowContains references for Egyptological literature. Includes the records and abstracts from the Annual Egyptological Bibliography, and the Bibliographie Altagypten that cover from 1822 to the present.