Research typically involves using a variety of sources including:
The materials in the SFCC Library are organized by the Library of Congress (LC) Classification System. This puts items on similar subjects together on the shelf. Books and DVDs on the same subject will have the same call number. Each item is given a subject heading that corresponds to a call number which identifies the location of the item on a shelf. Call numbers consist of letters and numbers, and are arranged on the shelves in alphabetical AND numerical order.
This is where that "keywords" list you came up with earlier will come in handy! Think of it like a shopping list: When you're ready to do your 'shopping' on Google or in a library database, you'll have plenty of search terms to choose from. The additional tabs on this page will get you started with making the most of those keywords.
Boolean searching is the traditional way to search for information in most online databases and on the Internet. Boolean operators or connector words, such as AND, OR, and NOT, are used to create phrases and concepts based on specific rules of search logic.
| Operator | Examples | Results |
| AND |
|
Retrieves records that contain ALL of the search terms. |
| OR |
|
Retrieves records that contain ANY of the search terms, but does not necessarily include all of them. |
| NOT |
|
Excludes records containing the second search term. |
If your initial search query does not produce the desired results, try these search strategies.
| Search Strategies | Examples |
| Queries are not case sensitive. |
Albert Einstein and albert einstein will retrieve the same results.
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Results will typically include each word or punctuation mark included in the search query. Some stop words or exceptions apply. |
The search |
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Keep search queries simple and descriptive and use as few terms as possible. Avoid natural language queries as they can limit your results. |
Use social media mental health impacts instead of what are the negative impacts of social media on our mental health |
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Use quotations marks ("") to search terms as a phrase and narrow your results. Google will only retrieve results that have those exact terms in the exact order typed. |
A query on Samuel Langhorne Clemens will retrieve only those sites that refer to him by his real name. Sites that refer to him as simply 'Mark Twain' may be overlooked. |
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Use Google's site: operator to limit your results to a specific website or web domain. |
The query site:cdc.gov vaccines will only retrieve articles about vaccines from the CDC's website. However, the query site:gov vaccines will retrieve results from any/all government (.gov) domain/websites. Works for .org and .edu as well, among others! |
| To allow for either of several words to appear in your results, use the OR operator. The operator must be in all caps. |
A query on money OR currency OR banknote will retrieve any or all of those terms. |
Truncation or a wildcard symbol is typically a symbol character added on to the end of a base word. This can broaden your search and allow you to look for variations of words. For example, searching on sport* would bring up variations such as sport, sports, sporting, sporty, etc.
Note: Most often, the truncation symbol used is the asterisk * but can vary depending on the database you are searching. For more information, consult the database’s “help” or “search tips” pages.