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ENG 102- Schneider - 2024 Spring

Other Common Tools

There are a number of various tools to finesse a search, but some of the most commonly used tools are:

  • phrase searching
  • truncation
  • nested searching
  • Subject Headings

To find a specific phrase, with the words next to each other in order, use double quotation marks around the phrase:

  • "flu vaccine" 

To search for different forms of a root word, such as vaccin* to find vaccine, vaccines, vaccinate, vaccination, vaccinations, etc..  You can use a wildcard to look for alternate letters within a word, such as wome*n to find woman as well as women.  The asterisk * is used in the library catalog and many databases for this. 

  • vaccin*
  • vaccin* AND wom*n

To build a search to combine the concepts, use a nested search:

  • vaccin* AND (influenza OR flu) AND wom*n

When combining searches, use parentheses ( ) around different parts of the search, as in the example above.  Just like algebra :)

Subject Heading Searching

Think of subject headings as labels or tags that someone has used to identify the subject of a book or article. The subject headings are standardized so that only one term is used for a specific subject.  St. Louis Community College Libraries follow the Library of Congress Subject Headings as standards. 

St. Louis Community College Libraries

Florissant Valley Campus Library
3400 Pershall Rd.
Ferguson, MO 63135-1408
Phone: 314-513-4514

Forest Park Campus Library
5600 Oakland
St. Louis, MO 63110-1316
Phone: 314-644-9210

Meramec Campus Library
11333 Big Bend Road
St. Louis, MO 63122-5720
Phone: 314-984-7797

Wildwood Campus Library
2645 Generations Drive
Wildwood, MO 63040-1168
Phone: 636-422-2000