History 100 (Fall 2023, Quinn)

1. Utilize appropriate limiters and specific fields.

• date limiter, articles only, title field etc.

2. Use terminology related to your topic.

• from preliminary readings or reference material e.g. books from class, Credo, Oxford Reference
• by skimming through initial search results
• in considering the terminology of the time period

3. Join different terms with AND.  Join similar terms with OR.

• gender AND propaganda
• community OR society

4. Use truncation (often *) to look for variations of a term.

• communit* to search for community OR communities

5. Search for a phrase using quotation marks.

• "labor dispute"
• "Pullman strike"
• "social movement"
• "San Joaquin Valley"

6. If you do not retrieve any results,

• broaden your search. e.g. from Advertising to -->> Advertising OR "Mass media"
• narrow your search e.g. "navy technology" to ---> a specific type of navy technology e.g. submarine
• examine your terminology. Am I using appropriate search terms?
• consider if the database is suitable. Does this database include the content I need?

Sometimes databases or search tool use controlled vocabulary to describe the resources available.  Subject Headings in UC Library Search are an example.  Try *new* searches using hyperlinked subject headings. 

A search for race AND homicide AND California in UC Library Search leads to a book titled Race and homicide in nineteenth-century California.  It is tagged with the following subject including California -- Race relations -- History -- 19th century.