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Ideas for Developing a List of Keywords

Before you do any searching in the catalog or a database, brainstorm a list of keywords that describe your topic.

  • Consider synonyms

    • woman vs. female

  • Consider alternate spellings

    • behavior vs. behaviour

  • Consider broader and narrower terms

    • Marxism vs. Bolshevism

    • Great Britain vs. England

Be aware of problems you may encounter:

  • Homonyms. Remember databases and catalogs match characters, not concepts.

    • For example, the word "China": is it a country or a set of dishes? The computer can't tell!

  • Sometimes there is no universally agreed up term or phrase for a concept.

    • For example motion picture vs. movie vs. film vs. cinema

    • And, is it World War I, the Great War, the First World War? Remember that before WWII, it can't be World War I!

  • Avoid searching for long phrases or sentences. Extract key concepts instead.

    • For example, avoid searching "How to design and implement alcoholism treatment programs"  |  Try instead the keywords: alcoholism and treatment
       
  • Keep in mind that older works may use language that is considered offensive today.
The database (or catalog) you are searching may help you choose keywords, because many of them systematically assign subject headings to all works listed within them. Look for the "subject terms" or "descriptors" in the record of a book or an article. These tell you what the preferred term is in a database/catalog and can sometimes help you choose other words to search.
  • For example, this is a screen shot from Discover Local (the library's catalog). The words in the red circle are the subject terms assigned to this book. If you were actually in Discover Local (the catalog) and looking at this record, clicking on the highlighted subject term, Japanese Americans -- Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945, would help you find more works on the same topic.

screen shot of catalog record

When you're ready to start searching, begin with very specific keywords, and then go broader if you can’t find anything. 
  • For example, start with a person’s name or an event, rather than just the general term Civil War. 
  • If you can’t find anything specific, start adding more specific terms to a general search: Civil War and women, for example.
Also see the "Smooth Operator" tutorial on YouTube.
Script for this tutorial here (PDF).

Tips on Searching

These examples for combining keywords link to Discover Local (the catalog), but you can usually do the following operations in other databases. Other databases may use different symbols - check help screens to be sure.

Phrase search: use quotation marks in Discover Local (and in most other databases). For example:
Truncation / multiple character wildcard symbol: * in Discover Local (and in most other databases). For example:
  • revolution* (Will look for the words revolution, revolutions, revolutionaries, etc.)
Wildcard (single character) symbol: ? in Discover Local (and in most other databases). For example:
  • wom?n (Will look for woman, women, womyn, etc.)
Combining keywords: In Discover Local, and many databases, the easiest option is to use the pull down menu to combine keywords such as in this screenshot:

screen shot of catalog

  • AND - results will contain all words in the search box(es) / narrows your search.
  • OR - results will contain at least one of the keywords typed in the search box / broadens your search.
  • NOT - results will exclude a keyword. Use carefully or you will accidentally eliminate useful information just because it happens to mention the word you have after "NOT" / narrows your search.
  • Also see the "Smooth Operator" tutorial on YouTube. ​Script for this tutorial here (PDF).
  • And this page for detailed help on advanced searching in Discover Local.