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2. Search Technique
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Research Librarian

Business, Commerce & Economics
Library Skills Tutorial

Search Technique - generic

Why do I need this?

This guide focuses on generic search techniques relevant to all databases.  "Databases" includes any online collection of records: for example: journal article indexes; newspaper indexes; statistics; Internet; Catalogue; etc.  These skills are important to you, not only as a student but also for your professional career and personal life. Problem solving, decision making, report writing, communication are all activities that require accurate, up-to-date information from reliable sources. 

Knowing how database software is processing your search words will help you achieve the best possible results.

Keywords are specific words that define your topic. Choose just two words to begin searching and add a third word to reduce the result if the first result has too many records.

Keywords are NOT words such as:
           evaluate, impact, discuss, influence, affect, improvement, changes, 
These words are redundant as discussions on any topic are assumed to include these aspects of the topic.  Including this type of word in your search will eliminate useful articles from your results.

Boolean searching ( AND; OR; NOT)
Searching online (electronic) involves Boolean search commands.  Boolean is a mathematical function used by search software to control the way in which keywords are processed.  To search intelligently you need to be aware of the search strategy used by the search software of the database you are using.

Search software usually has a default  method for processing your search request.  Most internet search engines automatically(default) search all words with the AND command between each word; but some commercial databases and website searches automatically perform a phrase (" ") search, unless your search strategy includes the command words: AND; OR. 

AND command
When you put the AND command between each word the software performs a keyword search.   A keyword search finds each word in any field of the record (author, title abstract etc) but not necessarily side by side. 

Each word additional word added to your search strategy using the AND command reduces the number of records found. Begin with just two keywords separated by AND.

The demonstration below uses the Business Source Complete database but the same search function applies to all online searching.

	Using the AND command (1 min video / 1st in a series of 4)

OR + ( ...  ) command
The OR command is used for synonyms (words with the same meaning) or for a report that needs to compare two items (eg: countries, industries, companies, products etc).  The OR command is always used in combination with brackets to direct the search software on how to perform the search.

Each word you add using the OR command increases the number of records found.

The demonstration below uses the Business Source Complete database, note that the same search function applies to all online searching.

	Using the OR command  (1 min video / 2nd in a series of 4)

NOT command
Avoid using the NOT command as useful records will be eliminated.  The keyword you want may be present in important articles/reports that also contain the word you wish to eliminate.

Truncation
Most commercial databases have a symbol that tells the software to search for any additional characters to the right of a string of characters.  Start with at least 4 or 5 letters or more and then put in the symbol required by the database you are using.  Generally databases use the asterisk truncation symbol (*) for example:  econom*    will find:
economic; economics; economical; economically;  economy etc.

Each additional word  that you truncate using this symbol, will increase the number of records found.

The demonstration below uses the Business Source Complete database, note that the same search function applies to all online searching.

	Using the truncation symbol (1 min video / 3rd in a series of 4)

Phrase
Phrase searching finds words only when they appear next to each other.  This is very useful for retrieving names (ie: person, company, product, place etc) or words that are usually found side by side. NOTE: Phrase searching will significantly reduce the number of records found. 

Use quotation marks ("  ") for a phrase search - for example: "world bank" or "interest rate*".

NOTE: add a truncation symbol before the quotation mark if you want to find singular and plural etc.

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Field limits
Database software usually allows you to search for your words in a specific field such as the author, title, journal, subject etc. 

	Using limits  (3 mins. video / 4th in a series of 4)

Subject headings :  (some databases call these: Descriptors,  Keywords etc)
Limiting keywords to the Subject Heading field is particularly useful as this field is a brief description of  the main focus of the articles or books. 

Some databases (eg: Business Source Complete and the Library Catalogue) have controlled vocabulary (thesauri) Subject Headings.  Jargon changes over time and from one country to another.  By selecting search words from the "Subject Headings" field (also known as Descriptor or Keywords etc) your search should be more comprehensive.

However, first you must discover the words and spelling (English or American) used by the database you have chosen.   Find a few relevant records from your initial search result and click on the title to display the full record.  Select equivalent words from the Subject heading field.

Then modify or refine your first search by adding the Subject words (using the boolean search techniques) to perform a new search and limit these new words to the Subject field.   

See more information in the "Help" or "Tips" instructions for the database you are using. 

NOTE: this also applies to searches in the Library Catalogue

Other Limits
Most databases have a number of options to further limits results - such as: format (eg: journal article, newspaper, review); date; language.  Warning do not click the "fulltext" limit as the Library supplies many journals electronically (via the "check fulltext" button) which will not be displayed if you select this option. 

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Proximity Operators
Proximity operators are used to find your keywords closer together but not specifically as a phrase.   Generally the lower the number (ie closer the words are together) the lower the number of records found however, results in a a higher percentage of relevant records.

To see if, or how, your database handles this function check the online Help for the database you are using.  Many databases provide Near (n#) or Within (w#) operators combined with a number to specify how close together and the order to search the words.  These examples show the most common format for this search technique:

business n5  crime*
     finds business and crime up to five words apart in any order

business  w3 crime*
     finds business, followed by crime, up to three words apart, only in this order.

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Wildcard
A "wildcard" symbol is employed to specify variants for one or more letters in a word. The most common symbol for this function is the question mark (?). For further instructions check the online Help for the database you are using.

  eg: wom?n finds:  women or woman

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Always begin by searching the Library Catalogue
Every resource (print or online/ electronic resources) that the Library has purchased can be found by searching the Catalogue.   

Journal article reference.  If you have a reference/citation, first search the catalogue for the journal title, to see if the library subscribes to either online, or print. Display the full record to see which volumes our subscription covers.  For an online journal record check, before clicking, the link to e-resource in the catalogue record, to see how much fulltext is available.  Often there is more than one supplier due to package deals.  At the publishers site follow the publishers links to "archives", PDF etc. 

If the journal is only available to us in print scroll down to see the information in the : "Library has" field.

Journal articles in a databases
Articles, books, reports etc found in databases may have fulltext links in the database where the reference/citation was found.  Where fulltext is not provided in a database, the library's Article Linker software enables you to .  Article Linker opens a new catalogue window which may have "Article" for you to click  and this link takes you to the Library's subscription at the publishers web site. 

Abbreviated Journal titles
Guessing the full title can waste time as you may not find the journal even though  the Library may have a subscription.  Please contact your Research Librarian   Bernadine Hardin or the Library Information Desk on  83035372  for further assistance with abbreviated titles.

Abbreviated journal titles are usually standard abbreviations and may be found in print resources in the library, or on the internet by using the Abbreviations.com web site. 

If the record has an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) you may be able to search by that number.  This is useful in cases where a number of journals publications have the same journal title.

The Ulrichs International Periodicals database may also help to identify /locate the correct journal.   

Document Delivery

Reminder: check the Catalogue before resorting to Document Delivery. 

For more detail see How to Request:

• a book that is on loan
• an item from Joint Store
• an item from another University of Adelaide campus
• an item we don't hold (ie: not found in our library Catalogue)

Updated: 22nd July, 2009  , Bernadine Hardin