Introduction to Searching Databases

UW Libraries Catalog  Use to locate items in the library system Books Journal subscriptions Other material Some microfilm Government publications Some newspaper subscriptions Some web pages

Known item searching  Two major ways of searching Author (author of books only; not authors of articles or chapters in books) Last name first name Title (title of books and journals; not titles of journal articles) Omit initial articles (The, A, etc.)

Searching by topic Keywords – broadest type of search; searches across multiple fields of a record (author, title, notes, subjects) Subjects – must use the authorized subject heading Use the printed list of subject headings Use an initial keywords search to identify pertinent subject headings

Database Speak

Database searching generalities  Literal If you type in a phrase it will search for the phrase  Boolean operators/connectors AND - narrows OR - broadens  Truncation/wildcard Allows you to easily search for variant word endings * in the UW Libraries Catalog

Boolean: AND tall AND dark AND handsome

Boolean: OR tall OR dark OR handsome

 Dark  5 ft. 3 inches

Truncation/wildcard  Searches for variant word endings such as plural. slave* finds: slavery slaves slave In other words the truncation symbol acts as an OR slave OR slaves OR slavery

Search statements  Query typed into a database: Keywords/key phrases/key concepts linked by Boolean connectors (women OR female) AND slave* (women OR female) AND slave* AND (virginia or carolina)