English 031 (Omeiza)

A. Boolean Operators

OR is mORe (joins similar terms)  e.g. photo-essay OR photojournalism

AND is less (joins dissimilar terms) e.g. philosophy AND "hip hop"

Sample Search Using both AND and OR

"Black Arts Movement"

AND

"Nikki Giovanni" OR poetry

B. Quotation Marks

Use quotation marks to search for a phrase

• "African Diaspora"
• "A Lesson Before Dying"
• "literary criticism"
• "Toni Morrison"

C. Truncation

Use a symbol to look for variant endings of a word. The asterisk * is the most commonly used symbol.

• femini* will search for feminist, feminine, feminists ... etc.

D. Limiters

Take advantage of limiters (filters) in the databases.

Examples:

• Date
• Source Type / Content Type / Document Type

E. Use Get it at UC links

These are intended to make your life easier!  Use the Get it at UC link to locate the article/book OR to Request it through Interlibrary Loan.

Also we aware of whether your are looking at a book, book chapter, or article.  This will make a difference when you decide whether or not to check UC Library Search via the Get it at UC link.

F. Bibliographies / Cited By

Make use of bibliographies in books and articles and/or use Cited By functionality.  Search for a known item in UC Library Search (e.g. book) or Google Scholar (e.g. article).