Introduction to Searching | Library | University of Waterloo

4. The Toolset

Each individual develops a personal style of searching. Some try to search as broadly as possible, then start narrowing down the retrievals until a core of "good" references remains. Others try to capture that core in one step. You will also find that some search systems allow you to build searches step-by-step while others force the search to be a one statement effort. Here are some of the tools at your disposal.

Parentheses

Parentheses can be used to keep groups of terms together or to nest logical operations that might otherwise be performed separately.

1> APPLES or PEACHES
2> PICKING or HARVESTING
3> #1 and #2
Use parentheses to replace three steps with one statement.

1> (APPLES or PEACHES) and (PICKING or HARVESTING)
It is often desirable to break up some searches into parts if you are permitted. This has the advantage that if you make a typing error, only that part of the search must be re-entered. Many systems force you to enter the entire search as one statement.

Fields

Fields are the parts, or elements, of the records, such as author, title, source, subject headings, or language. Narrow searches by restricting the search to a particular field. This is usually done with a label tacked onto the search term. Otherwise many systems default to searching the entire record.

Field names and how they are used are usually listed in the online help for the database. Names for a given field can vary from one database to another.
You may want to search for alliteration as a title word or subject heading but not necessarily anywhere else in the record.

ALLITERATION(TI) OR ALLITERATION(DE)
It is a way of distinguishing between, for example, Mark Twain as an author and Mark Twain as a subject.
- as an author use TWAIN(AU)
- as a subject use TWAIN(DE)

Subject Headings

(Also known as descriptors) are unambiguous terms used to describe articles in the database. Restricting the words in a subject search to the descriptor field will often lead to greater precision of retrieval.

Truncation

(Also known as stemming, root, or wildcards) are symbols, such as an asterisk (*), used during the search to indicate to the computer to substitute any character(s) for the asterisk. It is an easy way to include plurals or variant endings.

Use COMPUTER* to retrieve COMPUTER, COMPUTERIZED, COMPUTERISED, COMPUTERIZATION, . . .
Using truncation may result in retrieving terms not relevant to your search; it may be faster to list the one or two desired variants than to use truncation. However, the other terms in your search will often cause the unwanted terms to be eliminated.

But CART* (wanting cart or carts) will also retrieve CARTOGRAPHY, CARTILAGE, CARTEL, CARTRIDGE, CARTHAGE, CARTWHEEL, . . .
Truncating on words less than 3 or 4 letters long is not recommended. Instead, try using the Expand command and select the exact words you want.

Search for exactly what you want: CART OR CARTS

Looking at the index

(Sometimes called browse, expand, dictionary, neighbor, or index.) Almost all databases use an index of some sort as part of the search process. By looking at the index you can see what variations there are on such things as subject headings or author's names. Only by looking in the index can you get an indication of what your search might be missing.

Most systems allow you to transfer terms from the index to the search query line, saving typing.
Looking for articles by the author John Douglas Doe, we find
Doe Edward, Doe J, Doe Jane, Doe John, Doe John D, Doe John Douglas, Doe Milton . . .

June 20, 2005

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