Martha Stephenson Reference & Instruction Librarian

An database is an online index of citations, sometimes containing complete articles or other full text. Examples: Academic Search Complete (EbscoHost) JSTOR LexisNexis

 How have cell phones effected social interaction between teenagers?

cell phones social interaction teenagers cellphonessocial aspectsadolescents cellular telephones young adults mobile phones children BRAINSTORM

 AND  Use to connect different concepts  Both concepts will be in the results  Narrows search (finds fewer, more on target results)  phones Finds=4053  cell AND phones Finds=1775

 OR  Use to connect similar concepts  At least one term will be in the results  Broadens search (finds more results, is more thorough)  Saves time by doing several searches in one  cell Finds=2474  cell OR cellular Finds=3343

 Quotation Marks “ ”  Use when words often or always occur in a specific order  All words inside the quotes will be in the results, in the exact order used  Narrows search (finds fewer, more on target results)  cell AND phones Finds=1775  “cell phones” Finds=1223

 Truncation  Use to find various endings of a word  Place symbol at the end of the root word  Broadens search (finds more results)  Symbol varies among databases  Be careful of placement!  phone* = phone, phoned, phones, & 30 other words  cat* = cat, cats, catatonic, catalytic, catastrophic, & 250 other words

 Nesting in Databases  Use to assure search runs correctly when using both ANDs & ORs  Like in algebraic equations  Place OR/synonym part in parentheses  (“cell phone*” OR cellphone*) AND teen*

any questions?