|
Symbol |
Explanation |
|
* ! ? |
Trunction: added to the end of a root word will increase your results. Example: nonviolen*= nonviolence, nonviolent, nonviolently |
|
* # ! |
Wildcard: Insert into a word to find multiple versions of the word. Example: wom*n= women, woman, womyn |
| "" |
Exact Phrase: Use quotation marks to force words to be together in that order. Example: "global warming" "climate change" |
|
w3 w/3 |
Proximity Searching: forces two words to be found within a certain distance of eachother in that order. Example: climate w3 change means means "change" has to be within three words of "climate" |
The above symbols are commonly in the article databases and the Library Catalog to provide shortcuts for searching. They can make your searching more efficient and expand your search results. As you can see in the above chart, some shortcuts have 3 symbols listed, this is because the symbol you use depends on what database you're in. For example, the database Academic Search Complete uses "*" for truncation, but the Library Catalog uses the "?" sign. Check the database's Help section to make sure you're using the correct symbol.
Subject Headings (also sometimes known as descriptors, or subject terms) are created by the Library of Congress to provide uniformity to the way books, articles and other materials are described. This means that all the books on the same topic, regardless of whether they use the same words in their title and description, will be assigned the same Subject Heading. This makes researching easier because once you find the right subject headings for you topic, you'll be automatically routed towards all the materials on that topic regardless of whether your intial search terms appear anywhere in the materials.
Subject Headings exist on every topic imaginable and can be narrower or broad in scope. Keep in mind that if you're using a broad subject heading to find material and you're getting too many results, you may need to find the narrower version of that subject heading. For example, If I was using with the term United States-- Foreign Relations, a narrower term I could try would be United States-- Foreign Relations-- China to narrow my topic. I didn't just make up this narrower term, but I found it through searching the subject headings assigned to books on my topic.
How to Use Subject Headings:
1. When you're in the Library Catalog, searching for books, try doing an advanced search for "Subject" (using the drop-down options on the advanced search page). You'll be searching for books that have your search term in their Subject Headings-- its a good way to keep from getting too many results.
2. Another way you can use Subject Headings is to check the subject headings of the books you find. For example, say you find the perfect book for your research paper, and you want more like it. When you're looking at the book, find the box on the right hand side of the page that says "More like this." The links listed there are the subject headings, and you can click on one of those links to automatically pull of a list of books with that subject heading.
For example, let's say I'm doing research on the relations between the US and China. When I did a search in the library catalog for my topic I found this book: Normalization of U.S. China Relations. This book looks perfect! I want more like it. When I go over to the "More like this" box, I see that one of the subject terms listed is: United States--Foreign Relations--China (see image above). If I click on this subject heading link, the Library Catalog will automatically do a search for me for all the books in Grafton Library that have that subject heading assigned to them.
4. You can also take advantage of subject headings when you are looking for articles in the article databases. Almost all of the articles you find will have a list of associated subject headings. To find them, first, click on the title of the article, then scroll down to see the subject headings. Just like in the Library Catalog, you can click on them to automatically conduct a search for articles with that subject heading.
5. When searching in the article databases, you can also use subject headings to refine your search. When you get search results look for a side bar that says "refine your results" or something similiar. In databases like Academic Search Complete, this is a blue bar on the left-hand side of the page. Scroll down the bar to find the tab that says "Subject." There you'll find the most commonly seen subject headinigs in your search results. Check the boxes to refine your results to only those articles that include the subject headings you've selected.
