Keyword searching is used by internet search engines, databases, and the library catalog. Keep in mind that the search will find matches for specific words, not concepts. The default in the library catalog (and most databases) is find results that include every word in your search. Think of this as using AND between the words:
The two searches above are the same, and will find all books in the library catalog that have all three words in the description of the book.
If you want to find a specific phrase, with the words next to each other in order, use double quotation marks around the phrase:
You might want to broaden your search to include synonyms or other related words. To find either of two words or phrases, use OR between them:
You can also use truncation to search for different forms of a word. The asterisk * is used in the library catalog and many databases for this.
In the above searches, horticultur* will find the words horticultue, horticultural, horticulturist, horticulturists, etc.
When combining searches, use parentheses () around different parts of the search, as in the examples above.
The default in many library databases is to find results that include every word in a basic search. Think of this as using AND between the words:
An AND search generates results for that include ALL of the AND-ed terms.
An OR search generates results for that include ANY of the OR-ed terms.
Use the filters or limits to see just a subset of your search results. Depending on the tool you are using, search limits may show up in the left margin, at the top of the results, or below the search box.
Date limits are especially useful to filter out older, outdated material. You can usually choose a preset limit such as "current 5 years," or set a custom range of publication dates.
This will limit to only journals that publish articles that have undergone a rigorous peer-review process. These are usually articles that report on a specific study, analysis, experiment, or other piece of the research. Some scholarly/peer-reviewed articles are systematic reviews which survey a wide range of published peer-reviewed articles to give an overview of the current state of knowledge on the topic.
The Subject limit will help you narrow your results by subject terms. These are like tags or labels; they indicate that the book, article, or other source focuses on the subject of interest. Without this limit, you may find items that include your search words but are not about your topic. Keep in mind that different databases may use different subject terms.
The Full-text limit is already applied for most searches. It is very useful to filter out articles where you only have access to a citation or a description of an article, not the full the full article. Unless you are required to find everything out there is published on a given subject, this limit should be applied every time you search. If you do find resources that are not full text but would be useful to you, STLCC Libraries may be able provide them. See the Borrowing from Other Libraries page for details and the form for requests.
Learn to think critically about the source of information and the information within each source by using the Evaluate Your Sources guide.
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