Search Tools and Tips:
or How to Search Using Search Tools
- Read Help to know search options for each search
engine.
- Put the most important search words first.
- Use AND when searching to combine words. And
narrows a search and tells the search tool that both terms must be
present. And may also be represented by the plus sign
+
- example: dogs and cats will return records that
have both dogs and cats in the same document.
- Use OR to broaden a search. Searching with or
means that either or both words can be present.
- example: dogs or cats will return all documents
on dogs and all documents on cats
- Use NOT to narrow a search. Searching with not
means that the search term may not be present. Not
may be represented by the word not or by the minus
sign -.
- example: dogs not cats will return only records
about dogs, no cats allowed anywhere in the document.
- Quotation marks " " cause the search
tool to search the words as a single unit. This is particularly useful when
searching names or phrases.
- example: "red cloud" will return documents about
Red Cloud while using the two words individually will return many documents
about the color red and other documents about clouds.
- Commas can be used to separate names and titles in a search.
- example: rollerblading, in-line, skating will
return documents including any of these search terms.
- The asterik "*" is a truncation tool.
"*" allows the searcher to cut a word short to allow for
a variety of endings.
- example: "hous*" will search for house,
housing, houses, etc.
- Parentheses "( )" are used to group
words in a search to make a search more specific.
- example: lincoln NOT (auto* OR car*) will return
documents about Lincoln that do not include any references to autos, automobiles,
car, or cars.
- Use lower case letters.
- Use specific or unique words to search. Consider consulting a thesaurus
for word ideas.
- Check spelling.
- Avoid articles like " a ", " the ", and " of ".
These are called stop words and computers will not search for them.
- Consider using more than one search engine. Sometimes one engine works
better than another!
Return
to LaFayette
Jr/Sr High Llibrary