Writing 10 (Winek)

How & Where to Search

Finding information requires a lot of skills that you may not be aware that you have or that you are developing. 

• Use this page to learn strategies for HOW to find the most relevant information to meet your needs. 
• Use the sub-pages to learn WHERE to search for research on your topic or question.

Review the information in Step 4 to learn about evaluating what you find. Check out information in Step 5 about Citation Trails to learn how to discover additional citations to relevant works to help you answer your research question.

Searching is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

You can use these basic search techniques with almost any search interface -- from library catalogs, to search engines, to library databases!

1. AND OR, and NOT (Boolean Operators)

Boolean Operators are also sometimes called Logical Operators and they perform specific functions to your search. Not all databases require the use of AND and OR in capital letters, but we recommend that you use them in all caps as a habit. 

AND narrows your search

Use AND in between different concepts to ensure these different concepts appear together in your search results. The Venn diagram to the right represents the idea of the search results occurring ONLY in the narrow place where the two concepts overlap. 

• EXAMPLE:  Students AND Athletes. This search would include results about "student athletes"

OR broadens your search

If you're not sure what is the best keyword to use, you can include multiple keywords connected with OR to search them all. OR means that at least one of these keywords will show up in your search. The graphic to the right implies that any of these concepts (or all of them) can be included in your search results. 

• EXAMPLE: Undergraduates OR "College Students" OR "University Students". A search for these keywords would include results that have AT LEAST ONE of them.

NOT

The NOT operator will exclude something from your search.

• EXAMPLE: Bobcats NOT Tractors. This would exclude results about Bobcat tractor equipment from your search about felines.
• EXAMPLE: California NOT "Baja California". This would exclude results that include information about the state of Baja California in Mexico.

Using AND, OR, and NOT in a Search

Depending on the database, you may have a single search box or you may have an advanced search screen with multiple boxes. You can use the logical operators AND, OR, and NOT in either situation. In a single box, you can use parentheses () to isolate your terms, but if you have multiple boxes, you do not need to use parentheses. 

Here is an example of a search in each scenario using either parentheses or individual boxes to isolate the similar concepts like cow, cattle, and livestock.

Single Search Box

Multiple Search Boxes (called the "Advanced Search" screen in most databases)

These searches using AND and OR regardless of whether you use a single box with () or multiple boxes, should produce the same results in this database. Follow this permalink to see search results in Academic Search Complete for: students AND athletes AND (NCAA OR "college sports" OR "collegiate sports").

2. Phrase Searching

Put quotation marks around a known phrase to search for an exact match. Be careful to only use quotation marks around a known phrase so that you don't accidentally miss relevant results.

• EXAMPLE: "National Collegiate Athletics Association". A search will return results that include this specific phrase.

3. Truncation / Wildcard

Use the wildcard symbol, an asterisk (*) to find variations of the same root word.

• EXAMPLE: Venez* will find Venezuela, Venezuelan, Venezolana, Venezolano, etc.
• EXAMPLE: Comput* will find Computer, Computers, Computation, Computational, etc.

Check out this brief video (4:54) from Yavapai Community College to learn about using AND, OR, and NOT in your database searches.

Pause to Reflect

Did you find the information you needed? Will it help you answer your research question? If not, it might be time to reach out to a Research Librarian for an appointment. 

As researchers, we should approach the evidence we find with an open mind. Research should broaden or inform our perspectives, and not confirm our own biases. If your research is just a collection of cherry-picked quotes, you may need to go back to the library catalog, UC Library Search, or the article databases to gather more information and other perspectives to consider. 

Multi-disciplinary Databases

University Presses

Help from Related Guides

What are LCSH?

Books, videos, and other materials in library catalogs are assigned official subject headings by the Library of Congress (LCSH) by cataloging librarians. These subject headings describe an item's content and what it is about, and are useful for focusing research on broader, narrower, or related topics. Look for subject heading links in the library catalog to find more items on the same topic. Some subject headings are dated or even problematic, and they can be changed through a petition process.

For example, the book Dance and the Hollywood Latina: Race, Sex, and Stardom has LC subject headings to describe it like "Hispanic Americans in motion pictures" and "Race in motion pictures," but (as of 2022), "Latina" is not an official LCSH and "Latinos" is listed as a variant.

Using LCSH in your LibrarySearch searches

If you know the subject headings that are likely to be tagged on the item you want to find, search by Subject. California -- Merced County is an example of a Geographical Subject Heading.

UC Library Search

Subject Headings appear as hyperlinked tags on a book's record in the library catalog.

To search by Subject Heading, start by going to the Advanced Search in UC Library Search, and use the dropdown menu to choose the Subject field.

About Subject Heading Subdivisions

Subdivisions, or subheadings, are words or phrases which may be added to a subject heading to create a more effective search. They are hyperlinked in LibrarySearch so that you can use them to see all records they are connected with. 

Some standard subheadings are:

Cataloging librarians follow specific rules for adding LC Subject Headings to an items record. For questions, please contact library@ucmerced.edu 

• For a deeper dive, see Library of Congress Subject Headings

Watch this short (4:11) video from Carteret Community College Library to learn how databases work and why to use them.