Social Work: Search Strategies

Boolean logic - see the Grumpy Cat visual for an example: use AND, OR, NOT (sometimes AND NOT) to connect two or more search terms:

• AND finds all records with all of your search terms and narrows your search
• OR finds all records with one or more of your search terms and broadens your search
• NOT or AND NOT is used to exclude the following term and can help to focus a search where one term has different meanings or uses (e.g., Mexico NOT "New Mexico")

Phrases in Quotes - most databases and web search engines allow you to search for exact phrases by placing them in quotes:

• "carbon footprint"

Truncation - the library catalog and most databases use special characters to make searching easier in certain situations. Check the help screens in the catalog or database you are using to see what the special characters are for that resource.

• the asterisk * is often used to stand for mutliple endings on a word (singular, plural, etc.): vot* finds vote, voter, voters
• wildcards are similar, but replace another character in a word: wom?n in the library catalog finds both woman and women

Nesting - use parentheses to sort out the elements of a more complex Boolean search phrase, especially when you may want to search for more than one related term for one element of your phrase:

• (carbon OR ecological) AND footprint
• ("hip hop" OR rap) AND culture