Advanced search strategies not only make your research more effective, they also help you stay organized and save time. Whether you are working on a major research project or simply trying to find that one perfect source, these tools will help you take control of your research process.
One of the most powerful tools at your disposal in the research process is understanding and using Boolean operators. They help to limit, expand, or refine your search, making it possible for you to create more complex search strings.
The most common Boolean Operators are AND, OR, and NOT. These words define the relationship between multiple words in a search string.
Boolean modifiers are similar to Boolean operators but use symbols instead of words. The most common ones are: truncation (*), quotations marks (""), and parentheses ().
Having a solid understanding of Boolean operators gives you more control over your search results and provides you with a foundation for using the Advanced Search interface effectively.
Use AND in a search to:
For example, if you wanted to find information on the effects of social media and bullying, you might search for: social media AND bullying AND mental health.
Use OR in a search to:
For example, if you use the same social media example that we used above, you might expand that search by using mental health OR depression. This would search for results that reference social media, bully, and either "mental health," "depression," or both.
Use NOT in a search to:
For example, if you wanted to narrow down the focus of the above search, and wanted to exclude references to Facebook from your results, you might search for social media AND bullying AND mental health NOT facebook.
Truncation, also sometimes called "wildcard," uses the asterisk (*) by attaching it to the stem of a word in order to search for all words that start with that stem.
An effective use of truncation would be searching for "educat*" to tell the search engine to include all results that include:
Using quotation marks ("") allows you to search for an exact word, phrase, or set of words in a specific order.
An effective use of quotation marks would be searching for "artificial intelligence" instead of the term without quotation marks. Using this modifier ensures that your search results only include items that include the concept of "artificial intelligence," and exclude results that include "intelligence" and "artificial" on their own.
Using parentheses () in a search helps to define search order. They are usually used in conjunction with the OR modifier to distinguish a group of search terms.
An example of using parentheses would be: (social media OR facebook OR instagram OR tiktok OR snapchat) AND bullying AND mental health
The parentheses help delineate the terms you are allowing to be switched out or combined in your search.
The Advanced Search feature in Discovery helps you build more complex, precise searches without having to manually write out long Boolean strings. It is especially helpful when your research question includes multiple ideas, terms, or filters.
You can access the Advanced Search page by clicking the "Advanced Search" link directly beneath the Submit button in the Discovery search bar on the library homepage.
When you open the Advanced Search page, you will notice that the search box looks a bit different. Instead of having one entry field, it has three by default (and you can add more by clicking "Add row.") Each field has a dropdown menu where you can choose a search index (like Keyword, Title, Author, Subject, etc.) Between each row, you can choose a Boolean operator (AND, OR, or NOT).
Advanced Search gives you the opportunity to search multiple search indices at the same time.
The list of search indices is vast, and includes over 40 different options. The most commonly used ones are: keyword, subject, subject phrase, author, and editor.