THEA 210W Reading for Performance (Brankin)

In Library Search, the Emory Libraries Catalog, there are different methods you can use to search for books and other items. Save time and get more control over your search results by knowing the different options available to you.

You can apply these basic principles to other search engines and databases, include the Emory Library's vast collection of research databases, A-Z Databases.

You can limit your search up front to TITLE, AUTHOR / CREATOR, or SUBJECTS -- or you can stick with general keywords.

The default is KEYWORD. It searches the entire catalog record: title, author, subject, content summary, etc.

• Searching with regular keywords may retrieve a large number of results, not all of which will contain every search term you used.
• Connecting the keywords with AND (such as Salem AND Witch AND Trials) requires ALL of the terms to be present in your search results. Boolean search operators such as AND, OR, and NOT are a great way to achieve precise search results.
• Putting the keywords in quotes turns them into a specific search phrase such as "Salem Witch Trials."
• Putting an asterisk (*) at the end of a word stem makes it a "wildcard" that searches every word containing that stem. "Witch*" searches simultaneously for "Witch," "Witches," "Witchcraft," etc.
• EXAMPLE: Try searching "Witch* AND Salem" in the KEYWORD or SUBJECT field in Library Search. What results do you get?

How many results do you get in Library Search for each of these three methods?

• Depending on what you are looking for, you might get better results by searching by TITLE, AUTHOR / CREATOR, or SUBJECT.
• SUBJECT searches for official Library of Congress subject terms. See examples in the "Researching the Crucible" page.

For more detailed instructions, see the Library Search User Guide, also available under "Help" on the Library Search interface.

The  LEFT NAVIGATION BAR  in Library Search enables you to limit your results by format (such as books or videos), online versus physical materials, year of publication, etc.

SORT your results in the way that works best for you. Relevance ranking is not always the most effective option!

If you retrieve a large number of results in Library Search, you can also change it to display up to 100 results per page, which allows for faster browsing.