Keyword Search
A keyword search looks for words anywhere in the record (title, author, subject, abstract, etc).
Keyword searches often yield too many or too few results, or too many irrelevant results.
To create a precise search strategy
|
AND |
Narrow your search |
Apples AND Oranges |
|
OR |
Expand your search |
Apples OR Oranges |
|
NOT |
Remove results |
Fruit NOT Apples |
|
" ... " |
Search a phrase |
"Political Science" |
|
* |
Truncate a word |
Politic* - Politic, Politics, Political, Politician, Politicians |
Subject Search
In library catalogs and databases, items are assigned subject headings (or descriptors) to describe the content of the item. Using subject search ensures that all items about the same topic can all be accessed with one search term. Search results are usually very relevant to the topic.
However, subject headings are a set of pre-defined terms or phrases, known as controlled vocabulary. You must know the exact controlled vocabulary term or phrase.
Find the subject heading:
The words you use to search for a topic can have a big effect on your Search Results
Example 1: quotation marks
If you search without quotes. You will find information about the director, but you will also see articles by scientists in the field of biology.
If you search with quotes, you will notice the biology related materials disappear, and you get entirely new resources for your research.
Example 2: Synonyms
In doing a search for Made in Hong Kong, it's helpful to add another keyword like movie. As the phrase "Made in Hong Kong" can refer to many different things. Compare these three results:
Each search will produce similar but different results, exposing new possible sources.
Example 3:
Combining Examples One and Two, you can create more variation in your search results:
