It is unlikely that you will find all the resources you need on your first search. Searching for resources is a bit like a scavenger hunt, you are probably going to have to go to multiple places, and try multiple searchers to get the best results. Don't get frustrated! Remember, if you run into trouble, or you just need someone to bounce your search strategy off of, librarians are here to help! You can stop by the library or contact us by phone, email or chat.
After deciding on a topic and having a list of research questions, you will need to breakdown your topic into keywords that you can use as search terms. While you can type whole sentences or questions into Google and still retrieve search results, this approach will not work when searching the library databases. Instead, you will need to identify the main concepts in your topic. This video provides one strategy for identifying effective keywords.
Keywords Pack-a-Punch from UCF Libraries on Vimeo.
Once you have your list of keywords, you can combine them into search phrases using Boolean operators to narrow or broaden the scope of your search. There are three common types of Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT. You will see these listed as options on the Advanced Search page of most library databases.
Another strategy is to use quotation marks when you want to search for a particular phrase or concept.
Most databases and search engines will provide options to help refine your search to save you the time of sifting through irrelevant sources. Some of the common search limiters that will be most helpful to you are
If you are performing a basic search in something like Primo or one of the databases, these search limiters will appear on the left hand side of your search results. When using the advanced search feature, the search limiters will appear on the search screen.