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Critical Race & Ethnic Studies 101 (Alamri): Search Strategies

Race and the Media

Setting Up a Successful Search

The words you type into the search box affect your search results. Not all authors use the same language to describe similar topics, so you will need to try a variety of searches.

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

Example

How are LGBTQ+ families represented in children's books?
Keywords Alternatives
LGBTQ+ gay, lesbian, LGBT, queer
children's books children's literature, picture books

I might also want to use the word representation when conducting searches on this topic.

Video

Learn how to choose keywords (McMaster Libraries, 2:42).

There are a number of ways you can combine your keywords. You can also search for phrases by enclosing them in quotation marks. Expand your search by looking for different forms of words using truncation.

Boolean Operators

Join together search terms in a logical manner.

AND narrows searches and is used to join dissimilar terms.
OR broadens searches and is used to join similar terms

"children's books" AND representation

"children's books" OR "children's literature"

("children's books" OR "children's literature") AND representation AND (LGBT OR queer)
Phrase Searching

To search for specific phrases, enclose them in quotation marks. The database will search for those words together in that order.

"people of color"

"social media"

"Arab Spring" 
Truncation

Truncate a word in order to search for different forms of the same word. Many databases use the asterisk * as the truncation symbol.

wom*n = women, woman, womxn, etc. 

Latin* = Latin, Latinidad, Latina, Latinas, Latino, Latinos, Latinx, etc. 

film* = film, films, filming, filmmaker, filmmakers, filmmaking, etc. 

Video

Learn how to use Boolean operators, phrase searching, and truncation when searching in library databases (Sarah Clark, 3:04).

Think of subject terms and headings as hashtags that can point you to more sources with the same tags. Rather than searching by specific words, you can browse by pre-established categories.

When you find a useful book in UC Library Search, look at the record's Library of Congress Subject Headings, which are hyperlinked in blue. Click on one to discover other similarly tagged items or use the headings to give you ideas for terms you can try in a keyword search.

Example

Here are the subject headings for the book Pushout: The Criminalzation of Black Girls in Schools.

Most databases also have tools to help you discover subject terms.

Examples

 

 

Sometimes, rather than searching for information on a topic, you might be interested in looking for a specific article. There are a few ways you can find items based on a citation.

Article Level Strategies Journal Level Strategies
  • Look for the article title in Google Scholar. For full-text, try clicking on the article title or look under >> for UC-eLinks/ Get it at UC.
  • Look for the article title in UC Library Search Look for the green Available Online link or request form. 
  • Look in regular Google. You may be able to find on the web IF someone has posted it.
 Look for the journal title in the Journal finder. Search for the journal title in the Journals tab on the library home page search box. See if the journal is available. Is the date you need available? If so, drill down to the correct volume and issue number.