Research Steps Step 1—select a topic Step 2—brainstorming for keywords Step 3—develop a thesis statement Step 4—develop a search strategy Step 5—search for resources

Library Catalog The library catalog requires the use of specific searching techniques. The following slides will help you with these searching techniques.

Keywords Flexible terminology Easier to do searches Less accurate

Keyword Phrases Single concept, multiple words Some electronic resources require keyword phrases be enclosed with punctuation –Quotation marks –Parenthesis

Keyword Phrases Basic phrase Proper names Hyphenated words Slogans, advertisements Famous quotes Movie titles, song titles, etc. (computer disk) “Native American” (x-ray) “kills bugs dead” (to be or not to be) “Lord of the Rings”

Subjects Predetermined terminology –Library of Congress More difficult to use in searches Very precise

Keywords vs. Subjects Native AmericanIndians of North America

Boolean Operators Boolean Operators connect keywords only Must be placed between keywords AND –Narrows your search OR –Expands your search with synonymous terms NOT –Excludes words from your search –If used too much, it can work against you!

Boolean Operators AND –queen and England –trends and teaching and “united states”

Boolean Operators OR –queen or royalty –teaching or education or schooling AND & OR together –queen or royalty and England –trends and teaching or education or schooling and “united states”

Boolean Operators NOT –queen not hearts –school not fish AND, OR & NOT together –England and royalty or queen not hearts

Truncation (Wildcards) Non-universal symbols used in searching Common symbols: * ? Used with a root word Used to replace a vowel or single character

Truncation (Wildcards) Root Word- looks for multiple endings of a word, in this case it takes the place of ‘OR’ –jump? –jump, jumps, jumper, jumpers, jumping –athlete and jump or jumps or jumping –athlete and jump?

Truncation (Wildcards) Singular/Plural- replaces a vowel or single character in a word, in this case it takes the place of ‘OR’ –wom*n –woman, women –history and woman or women –history and wom*n