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HIST 3100 - Pirates of the Caribbean - Landers

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Building a Search String

Building a Search String

To effectively use the library search, we will have to turn your research question into a search string. Most library, archive, and database searches do not work like a normal search engine -- typing out your research question as a full sentence will not work! On this page we will go through how you can use keywords, boolean operators, and filters to craft the best possible search.

Keyword Searching → Subject Searching

  • Take your research question and convert the most important topics and ideas into keywords and phrases.
    • Notice that phrases are in quotations. Make sure to consider alternate spellings (ex. color vs. colour).
Research Question
 
Potential Keywords
How is the gender pay gap affected by the birth rate amongst working adults?
  • "gender pay gap" "pay gap" "income inequality"
  • childlessness, children, "birth rate"
  • women, mothers,  "gender inequality" "gender gap"

Boolean Operators

AND
 
OR
 
NOT

Generates results that contain both of your search terms. 

ex. gender AND "income gap"

Results will only show materials that contain gender and "income gap". This can be used to specify terms that are critical to your research topic, such as limiting your search to a certain geographical region or discipline area.

AND is used to narrow your search & generates fewer, more specific results.

Generates results that contain one, or both, of your search terms.

ex. income OR wealth

Results will show materials that contain either income or wealth. This can be used for geographical locations or topics that may not have a standardized name, such as "United States" OR u.s. OR America OR "United States of America"

OR is used to broaden your search & generates greater, less specific results.

Generates results that do not contain one of your search terms.

ex. gender NOT income

Results will show materials that contain gender but do not mention income. This can be used to exclude materials that may pertain to your subject, but are related to a region, discipline, or topic that you are not trying to study.

NOT is used to narrow your search & generates less results. BE CAREFUL. Sometimes NOT can exclude relevant results.

Crafting your Search

  • After figuring out your search terms, you can combine them with boolean operators to create an initial search string.
    • ("gender pay gap" OR "income inequality") AND (childlessness OR children OR "birth rate") AND (women OR mothers)

Convert to Subject Searching

  • Use one of the item records from your keyword search to find the subject headings.
    • Replace your key words with the applicable subject headings. Or, you can click on the link and all materials with that subject heading will appear.

Image of highlighted subject headings

Additional Pro Tips

  • You may notice that some database searches will try to autofill your keywords based off of their subject/topic tags. Try out their suggestions. The terms they give you may result in different search results -- sometimes they work better than the search terms you developed on your own.
  • You can put an asterisk to include any number of characters after a root word. ex. educat* will include educate, education, educator, etc. as part of the search. However, keep in mind the * will include any phrase afterwards, so it may include things that are not related to your topic.

Identifying Scholarly vs Popular Periodicals