Search Techniques

1. Using And/Or commands to get fewer or more results

2. Using quotations marks for phrases

3. Using truncation symbols for variant endings

4. Using parenthese for combining And/Or commands

5. Putting it all together (a.k.a. Power Searching)

1. Oftentimes when you search you will get either too many or too few results. The best way to get better results it to use AND/OR commands. 

If you have too may results, try adding another concept and combine the two terms using AND. AND will decrease the number of results by telling the computer you want both terms together.

For example:

memory = 83,178 results

memory and recognition = 3,619 results 

 

If you have too few results, try adding some synonyms and combine the terms using OR. OR will increase the number of results by telling the computer you want either term, it doesn't matter which one. 

For example:

mind = 45,116 results

mind or brain = 158,413 results

2.          If you are searching for a phrase enclose it in quotations marks.  This tells the computer that you want the terms right next to each other in that exact order. 

For example:  “United States” or

“sensory perception”

3.          Often when searching you will want either the singular or the plural of the term, or the present and past tense, or the word with a suffix.  How do you get all that across without having to think up all the possibilities and type them all in?

It is called Truncation and you cut the word off at its trunk or root and put a truncation symbol after the last character.  The truncation symbol stands in for an subsequent character.  Truncation symbols are usually either the question mark or the asterisk.  ? *

            For example: psych* = psychology,

psychological, psychologist,

psychiatry, psychiatric, psychiatrist

            memor* = memory, memorization,

memorize, memorized

4.          You can combine AND/OR statements using parentheses. This is called nesting.  Why would you do this?  The computer has to be able to determine what order in which to run the search.  If you separate the Or statement for the And statement with parentheses the computer knows how to interpret the search.  Remember in math class when you had several functions to perform and you separated them with parentheses?  E.g. (2+3) x (4+6).  You would add what was in the parentheses first and then multiply the sums.  It works the same way with the And/Or statements. 

For example: (vision or sight) and (perception or sense)

5.          Putting it all together.  You can combine all of these techniques in one search statement. 

For example: (“sens* perception” or “visual perception”) and memor*

If you have questions please contact me or any librarian for help.  We are always happy to answer your questions!

Molly Beestrum

708-524-6886

mbeestrum@dom.edu

Reference Desk – Crown Library Dominican University

708-524-6875

reference@dom.edu