Advanced Searching

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Techniques for
Advanced Searching
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Todays Session

• Is about 50 minutes in length
• Includes 20-30 minutes of hands-on exercises
• Allows 20 minutes for individual searching

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When you leave today, you will know

• Techniques for improving search strategy
• Techniques for widening/narrowing searches
• Some advanced search options in ProQuest
• Where to find a list of resources for this unit,
  including books and databases

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Improving a search with Subject Terms
Topic What are some of the issues regarding
Internet auction scams?
of Articles
auction and scam
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We increased our results from 41 to 71 with
subject terms.
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Using Boolean Operators

• Use OR between similar terms or synonyms
• (job openings or employment outlook)
• (teens or adolescents or youth)

Use parentheses to ensure this operation is
performed first
Records containing any of the terms will be
retrieved
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Using Boolean Operators

• Use AND between different concepts
• advertising and children
• video games and violence

Only records containing all of the terms are
retrieved
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Expanding a Search with Truncation
Topic What does the current literature say about
myths concerning the stepfamily in society?

• myths and stepfamily
• myth and stepfamil

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Expanding a Search by Nesting similar terms
of Articles
myth and (stepfamil or stepmo or stepchild)
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Expanding a Search with Full text search
Im looking for some articles about green burial.
of Articles
Basic Search
green burial
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At the bottom of your results list
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Citation and document text
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Expanding a Search with Full text search
green burial
of Articles

• Basic search of citations and abstracts
• Basic search of citations and full text

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Use the relevancy ranking when appropriate
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What other options are available on the Advanced
search screen?
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Lets look for articles detailing Bonos
fundraising efforts for AIDS relief for Africa.
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Narrowing a Search with Field Limits
bono
aids
africa
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What other tools are available to refine our
search?
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There is a More Search Options tab on the
Advanced Search screen also.
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A Quick Review of Strategies Covered

• Subject Terms
• Truncation
• Full text searching
• Sort results by most relevant first
• ProQuests Advanced Search screen
• Field searching (Person)
• Document type

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Resources for Your Assignment

• Click on home
• Choose Research Starting Points
• Choose English 1 2 -- The Signpost
• Choose Engl 2, Unit 2 from right-hand bar

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Some books are in the Reference Collection (1st
floor, Raynor Library)
Some books are on reserve at the Reserve Desk
(Lower Level, Raynor)
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Databases that may help Vietnam
Psychological aspects PsycINFO Societal
issues Sociological Abstracts Historical info
America History and Life

• Click on button.
• Scroll down to Psychology section.
• Choose PsycINFO.

Online
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Databases that may help Cinderella
Folklore themes Motif Index of Folk
Literature Societal issues Sociological
Abstracts Gender issues GenderWatch
Online

• Click on button.
• Scroll down to Psychology section.
• Choose PsycINFO.

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Databases that may help Race Relations
Psychological issues PsycINFO Societal issues
Sociological Abstracts Historical aspects
America History and Life

• Click on button
• Scroll down to Psychology section
• Choose PsycINFO

Online