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Definitions | Search Methods |
Search Tips | Sites for Beginners
Search tools (such as Yahoo!) are specialized programs that look through the world's web
pages for the occurrence of a specified word or subject. Most search tools offer users
more than one way to locate needed information. Depending on your topic and what you need
to know, you may end up using a variety of these search methods.
The basics of performing a database search
are the same, whether you are using a stand-alone CD-ROM database or the Internet. If you
know how to perform a basic computerized search and how to use HELP files, you'll do fine.
As you gain experience with different search tools and databases, you will figure out
which ones are best for which topics, and develop your own favorites.
 | Browsing through sites listed in the
subject categories of a database or search tool is helpful if you have a general topic,
such as "Health" or "Psychology." Some search tools also have
links to specialized services such as "RoadMaps" or
"Stocks/Companies."
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| Perform a word or phrase search if
you have a more specific topic, such as "AIDS treatment."
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| Enter the site's URL (if you know
it) to go directly to a site when you want information from that site.
Example: The National Institutes of Health
http://www.nih.gov
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| Be as specific as possible.
Example: Lamborghini (instead of sports car)
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| Check your spelling.
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| If you don't get sufficiently useful results,
refine your search.
 | Use the Options or Advanced Search functions.
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| Broaden or narrow your search terms, using
Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
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| Look at the contents of a document that is
close to what you want to get ideas for more appropriate search terms.
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| Use a different search tool. Some sites
perform full-text searches while others search for keywords in the name, URL and
description only.
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All search tools have a
section that provides directions on how to use that tool (it
may be called Help, Tips, Search Help, etc.).
It is a good idea to read the directions -- it could save you time and effort! If you want more help and/or
orientation, there are many sites on the Internet. Here are a couple of
them:
Exploring the World Wide Web
URL:
http://www.gactr.uga.edu/exploring/index.html
Web 101
URL:
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/guides/
- Boolean search:
- Uses Boolean operators (and, or , not) to specify
desired results. AND narrows, OR broadens, NOT excludes. Some search tools use plus
(+) and minus (-) marks instead of AND & NOT.
- Keyword search:
- Looks for the occurrence of one word or a
combination of words in title or other indexed fields.
- Nesting:
- Technique of grouping search terms in a particular
order using specific punctuation and/or abbreviations.
Example: accidents AND (car or automobile)
- Phrase search:
- Allows searcher to place an entire phrase in
quotation marks for retrieval of citations which contain the phrase exactly as entered.
Example: "space shuttle"
- Scoring (ranking):
- Results in most search engines are listed in
hierarchical order by relevance to the search terms, usually with the most relevant at the
top.
- Truncation:
- Allows the use of a wildcard symbol in order to
retrieve different forms or spelling variations of a word. Common ones are *, #, and ?
Example: econ* to get economic, economics, economy, economist, etc.
- URL:
- Uniform Resource Locator, a site's address on the
Internet.
Example: http://www.contracosta.edu
Last updated
27 November 2007
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