ENGL 01A Flatt: Searching in Databases

The database will look for the exact words you include in the search box in the descriptions of the items it contains. Your results are based on these matches. Not all authors use the same language to describe similar topics, so you will need to try a variety of different searches in a few databases.

• Create a list of possible words that could appear in a book or article related to your topic.
• Come up with synonyms or related terms.
• Stick to using 2-4 terms when searching.

• “college basketball”
• “higher education”
• "United States"

The asterisk * is the most common truncation symbol.

• news* = news, newspaper, newspapers, etc.
• child* = child, children, childhood, etc.

You do have to be careful with truncation. Sometimes you might get unexpected results.

• minor*= minor, minors, minority, minorities, etc.