Searching
The first time you search you may encounter too many results, and you will need to learn how to narrow your topic. In the rare case where you have too few results, you need to broaden your topic.
Search engines don't respond to sentences; they require a few keywords joined together in specific ways to find what you need. Explore below to find the tips that will help you get the best results out of whatever search engine you use.
You can always meet with a research librarian to help you define terms and discover the best databases to search for your topic.
Boolean Searching
Boolean searching is used in any database that you can search, including library databases or web-based search engines. It's using three little words that we say all the time that work in very specific ways.
The yellow highlighting shows how using those words can narrow or broaden your search. These words can be used in web-based search engines using symbols instead of the words.
| AND | + must be adjacent to each term that is required, i.e., +aircraft +engine |
| OR | Search engines default to this type of search. It's why you get soooooo many results |
| NOT | - must be adjacent to the term you wish to get rid of, i.e., aircraft -military |
Stemming
Sometimes a search term could be singular or plural. How do you search them both at the same time? By stemming.
Add an asterisk/star (*) at the end of a word to indicate you wish to search multiple word endings, like this:
pilot*
That will find:
- pilot
- pilots
- piloting
at the same time.
Phrase Searching
There are times when you may need to search a phrase, that is two or more words that you wish to stay together in the order that you put them. The way to tell search engines that these have to stay together is by using quotation marks ""
Quotation marks will tie the words together and keep them in that exact order, like this
"pilot training"
Now, you won't find pilot in the title and training somewhere much later in the document.
Research Librarian
Laura Pope Robbins
Subjects: Audiobooks, Aviation and Aeronautics, Business, Citing Sources, Computer Science, Databases, Dictionaries, Handbooks, & Encyclopedias, eBooks, Education, Engineering, Ergonomics & Human Factors, General & Multi-Subject, Health / Life Sciences / Medical, Humanities, Jobs and Careers, Magazines & News, Research Help