Creating a Search Statement: Boolean

Information Overload Finding reliable information Library Databases Researching a topic

Is television to blame for teenagers who behave violently?

Combine concepts television AND violence teenagers AND Is television to blame for teenagers who behave violently? Boolean Operators: And: Combines Concepts

Synonyms/Closely Related Words Hispanics: kids: obesity: Common knowledge Subject Terms/Thesaurus words from abstracts

Synonyms/Closely Related Words Hispanics: Mexican-American, Latinos, Chicanos kids: youth, children, teenagers, toddlers, adolescent obesity: fat, overweight television: violence: teenagers:

Select words to express concept. Is television to blame for teenagers who behave violently? AND television OR TV violence OR anger OR bully AND teenagers OR minors OR youth Boolean Operators: OR: Combines Synonyms

Boolean Searching – Week One Write a clear statement about topic Divide topic statement into concepts Find synonyms for keywords

Boolean Search Statement Is television to blame for teenagers who behave violently television OR media violence OR anger teenagers OR Youth OR minors AND

Expanding your Search Truncation retrieves the various (variant) forms of a word Example: industrial

Truncate: Industr*

To truncate in databases, use [shift] and asterisk *

Truncate the following terms: sexist disability education

sexism: sexis* includes: sexist, sexists, sexism disability: disab* includes: disabled, disability, disabilities education: educat* includes: educating, educated, educator

Example 2 Is there racial inequality in the workplace?

Divide Statement into Concepts Is there racial inequality in the workplace? AND inequality workplace racial

Select words to express each concept AND workplace OR employment OR jobs AND race OR ethnic OR minority Is there racial inequality in the workplace? inequality OR discrimination OR prejudice

Search in Academic Search Elite Default: Select a Field Narrow search to words only found in the: Title Abstract

Article retrieved by searching Title in Academic Search Elite

Article retrieved by searching Abstract in Academic Search Elite

Boolean Searching Write out your topic as a sentence Divide topic into main concepts Select additional words to express each concept Truncate where appropriate

In order to search in Library Databases you must first: Write out your topic in one or two sentences Select your topic main concepts 2 to 4 main concepts Concepts = poverty, Internet, obesity, college When you use: increase, type of, improve, caused = list out how it would be measured

Edit: Select a Field (optional) To narrow  Title  Subject Terms To broaden: must use truncation and synonyms first  Abstract  All Text