2. How to Start a Search
Focus/narrow
Project
Do
your topic
on the Vikings?
a subject search in the library catalog
to get a list of subtopics for “Vikings”
3.
4. You may discover you’d
like to research Viking
folklore, or the Viking
period in Ireland.
If you like, you can click
on the topic to see the
books we have.
5. Here’s the catalog
record for the book.
It’s a good idea to start
with a book, especially a
reference book, to get
some background info
and terms for your topic.
6. Choosing Search Terms
Topic: collapse of Viking settlements in
Greenland
Pick out most important words
Viking and Greenland
Find synonyms for these words
Example: ????
Collapse
Failure
abandonment
7. Search Tips
AND
Narrows your search results by adding more
requirements
Vikings
and Greenland
OR
Expands
your search
Collapse or abandonment or failure
NOT
Narrows
your search
Vikings not Dublin
8. Search Tips
Quotes
Use for phrases
Brings back only occurences of the exact
phrase:
“ecological collapse”
Truncation
Use * to find variants of a word root
Ecolog* brings back ecological, ecology,
ecologist
9. Combine Search Operators
Use
parentheses () to organize similar
terms:
Viking* and Greenland and (collapse or
failure or abandon*) not Iceland