Tips for Better Searches
Tips Examples
As always, stop by the Library if you would like assistance.
Be specific
  • Use nouns and unique words
  • Put the most important words first
  • Use multiple terms when possible
 If you were interested in “bias in newspapers,” you could search for newspapers, bias, slant, censorship, journalism
Use quotes around phrases
so the search engine will search for the words as a phrase, not as separate words 		To look for a term, rather than search the individual words in a term, use quotes around it
“world health organization”
Use a plus sign + in front of a word or a phrase to require its search A word or a phrase preceded by a + must be present in all pages returned
+ “absentee voting” +“assisted suicide”
Use a minus sign - in front of a word to exclude its search If you wanted pages on fusion but not cold fusion, you can prevent “cold” from being searched:
- cold fusion
Use lower case letters to find words that are either lower or upper case japanese internment
“world war ii”
Use parentheses around terms that are alike.
Enter connectors in capital letters.		 (adolescents OR teenagers)
television AND children