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Info Search
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Searching Databases
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Using Keywords and Boolean Operators
You will need to convert your research question into keywords. You could
discover that you need to think of alternate words, or synonyms. It may be
necessary to combine keywords with either an and or an or
Boolean operator. Use and when you want each concept to be present
in the documents you wish to retrieve. Use or when you want either
concept to be present, or when using synonyms. If more than one operator is
used, brackets should be used to “nest” terms, or group them
together. For example, a keyword search using the concepts of
home care and elderly could look like this:
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home care and (elderly or aged or seniors)
This will find publications dealing with home care of the elderly, even if
the document uses the word aged or seniors instead of
elderly. In the diagram on the right, each circle represents a concept,
and the black area where the circles overlap represents the search results,
or “hits.” While and and or are the two most common
operators, many databases allow others, such as not, which will
exclude concepts.
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Subject Headings/Descriptors
In addition to searching by keywords, you should consider using each
database’s preferred subject terms, sometimes called subject headings
or descriptors. For example, the sociology indexing database, Sociological
Abstracts, prefers the term elderly, while Quest prefers aged.
Using the proper subject terms will help to ensure you get all the relevant
publications in the database, and will also prevent you from getting irrelevant
hits. Some databases have an online thesaurus which contains the subject terms,
while others allow you to browse subject lists.
Truncation
Truncation is the process of abbreviating or shortening a keyword to its
stem in order to retrieve all possible word variations. Most databases will let
you find variations of a word using a wildcard symbol, usually an asterisk
(although Quest requires the $ symbol). For example, typing gerontolog*
would retrieve gerontology, gerontological, etc. But be careful not
to truncate a word too far. Typing ger*, would also get you information on
geraniums, germs, and Germans.
Phrase Searching
It has been assumed in the above examples that a database will search
home care as a phrase, and not as two separate keywords. However, some
databases would automatically put an invisible and between the words, and
require quotation marks around phrases (e.g., “home care”).
Field Searching/Limiting
Field searching is used to specify the type of keyword you are entering. It may
allow you to precisely limit the results of your search. For example, a person
may be searched as a subject, rather than as an author, by clicking or selecting
“subject.” Similarly, keywords may be searched as words in a title,
journal name, etc.
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Other
Info Search Methods...
SUBJECT GUIDES
Check to see if a librarian has created an
introductory Subject
Guide that covers your topic.
These guides list librarian-recommended examples of both print and
electronic information sources. They are available from the UNB
Libraries’ web site, and paper copies of selected guides are also
available at the Harriet Irving Library.
BIBLIOGRAPHY SURFING
Why search for a list of publications on your
topic if somebody else has already done it? Topical bibliographies,
which are subject-specific lists of publications, may be found at
the end of articles, book chapters, as whole books, or on the internet.
Just surf from one publication to another.
BROWSING
Books: Books in libraries are
generally shelved by subject, often using the
Library of Congress
classification system. If you find a good book on your topic, chances
are there are more nearby. But keep in mind that the most appropriate
books may be shelved with another subject in an entirely different area
of the library. Consult the “library classification system”
bookmark available at the library, or ask a staff member for directions.
Articles: While an indexing
database is normally the best place to do a topical search, if you
only need one or two articles you can go to an individual e-journal
or group of e-journals and search or browse tables of contents.
Similarly, if you know the titles of a few print periodicals in
your subject area, you can head straight for the library shelves,
and browse tables of contents. Note that the newest periodicals
are usually kept separate from the older bound periodicals.
FINDING OTHER PUBLICATION TYPES
Dissertations and Theses:
PhD dissertations and Masters theses from universities around the world
can be found by searching the
Dissertations & Theses database,
which allows downloading of the full digital copy of recent dissertations
and theses, and provides abstracts of older titles. (Select “Article & Research Databases” on UNB Libraries’
web site, and then select "Dissertations & Theses" from the list.) Recent
Canadian theses and dissertations are also available at the
Theses Canada Portal.
(Again select “Article & Research Databases” on UNB Libraries’
web site.) In addition, Quest
lists the libraries’ print and microfilm copies of UNB
dissertations and theses, as well as the occasional title from
another university.
Conference Proceedings: Published
conference proceedings can be found like other books, using Quest
or WorldCat as explained in Step 3a. Search by either the conference name
or the name of the organization which hosted or sponsored the conference,
or include the subject word “congresses” in order to discover
proceedings by topic. Individual conference papers, which are sometimes
listed in indexing databases, are rarely provided in full text. Often
they can only be found by e-mailing the author, or occasionally by using
a search tool like Google.
Government Documents, Statistics, and Data:
There are special strategies and indexes designed for locating
publications or statistics issued by governments, social science data
files, and cartographic resources and spatial data. From the UNB
Libraries’ web site, click on “...find government documents,
data and maps” for more information.
If you are looking for some other type of
publication or information, contact the librarian for your subject area
or the HIL Research Help Desk or another library.
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