HIST 82B / 182B: Childhood in the US (Gudgeirsson): Secondary Sources & Articles

Once you've chosen a specific database (see the box List of Databases for this Topic for suggestions), you can use the tools in the database to get to articles on your research question.  The suggestions below only work in the individual databases, not in the search bar for the library catalog.

1. Don't search on your whole research question:

The library databases don't deal well with a whole English sentence.  And they don't recognize synonyms.  So you will want to break your research question down into concepts and search on the concepts.  Here's an example:

Research Question:  How did ancient Greek democracy influence the writers of the US constitution?

Concepts:  ancient greece   - democracy - US constitution

Each one of these concepts would go into its own search box so that you can adjust each one as you see the results.

2. Use shortcuts to help the database search more efficiently

Here's a screenshot of the same search concepts from the example above:

The quote marks around "ancient greece" tells the database to search that exact phrase, not two separate words.   The asterisk on the second search box "democra*" tells the database to choose any results that use words that are variations of democra- which means you would get results with both the words "democracy" and "democratic" .   Databases have a number of shortcut tools that can help you narrow or expand your searches exactly how you want them.  Check out the other boxes on this page to see different shortcuts.

3.  Use the autocomplete!

Different authors will use different terms to refer to the same ideas.  Some author might write an article about "traffic patterns" while another might cover the same concept using the term "traffic systems".  Library databases don't understand that the two terms refer to the same things.  But you don't have to know all of the possible variations!  By using the autocomplete the database will tell you what search terms are attached to articles you are looking for.    Using the same search as above, I decided to check out the autocomplete to see what options there are for searching for "Constitution".  Here's the result:

The autocomplete suggests both "constitution" and "constitution of the united states", but I don't see "US constitution".  So this helps me find the right keywords quickly.

Search Fields

When you first visit the Advanced Search page, you are presented with several search fields. In each field, you can type the keywords you want to search for. Search operators are allowed.

Each field is accompanied by a drop-down that lets you specify the type of data (title, author, etc.) you are searching for. You can mix and match search types however you like.

The "Match" setting lets you specify how multiple search fields should be handled.

• ALL Terms - Return only records that match every search field.
• ANY Terms - Return any records that match at least one search field.
• NO Terms -- Return all records EXCEPT those that match search fields.

The "Add Search Field" button may be used to add additional search fields to the form. You may use as many search fields as you wish.

Search Groups

For certain complex searches, a single set of search fields may not be enough. For example, suppose you want to find books about the history of China or India. If you did an ALL Terms search for China, India, and History, you would only get books about China AND India. If you did an ANY Terms search, you would get books about history that had nothing to do with China or India.

Search Groups provide a way to build searches from multiple groups of search fields. Every time you click the "Add Search Group" button, a new group of fields is added. Once you have multiple search groups, you can remove unwanted groups with the "Remove Search Group" button, and you can specify whether you want to match on ANY or ALL search groups.

In the history of China or India example described above, you could solve the problem using search groups like this:

• In the first search group, enter "India" and "China" and make sure that the "Match" setting is "ANY Terms."
• Add a second search group and enter "history."
• Make sure the match setting next to the Search Groups header is set to "ALL Groups."

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators allow terms to be combined with logic operators. The following operators are allowed: AND, +, OR, NOT and -.

Note: Boolean operators must be ALL CAPS

AND

The AND operator is the default conjunction operator. This means that if there is no Boolean operator between two terms, the AND operator is used. The AND operator matches records where both terms exist anywhere in the field of a record.

To search for records that contain "economics" and "Keynes" use the query:

economics Keynes

or

economics AND Keynes

+

The "+" or required operator requires that the term after the "+" symbol exist somewhere in the field of a record.

To search for records that must contain "economics" and may contain "Keynes" use the query:

+economics Keynes

OR

The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching record if either of the terms exist in a record.

To search for documents that contain either "economics Keynes" or just "Keynes" use the query:

"economics Keynes" OR Keynes

NOT

The NOT operator excludes records that contain the term after NOT.

To search for documents that contain "economics" but not "Keynes" use the query:

economics NOT Keynes

Note: The NOT operator cannot be used with just one term. For example, the following search will return no results:

NOT economics

-

The - or prohibit operator excludes documents that contain the term after the "-" symbol.

To search for documents that contain "economics" but not "Keynes" use the query:

economics -Keynes

 

Wildcard Searches

To perform a single character wildcard search use the ? symbol.

For example, to search for "woman" or "women" you can use the search:

wom?n

To perform a multiple character, 0 or more, wildcard search use the * symbol.

For example, to search for test, tests or tester, you can use the search:

test*

You can also use the wildcard searches in the middle of a term.

te*t

Note: You cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a search.

Fuzzy Searches

Use the tilde ~ symbol at the end of a Single word Term. For example, to search for variant spellings of "Tchaikovsky," use the fuzzy search:

Tchaikovsky~

An additional parameter can specify the required similarity. The value is between 0 and 1, with a value closer to 1 only terms with a higher similarity will be matched. For example:

Tchaikovsky~0.8

The default that is used if the parameter is not given is 0.5.

Proximity Searches

Use the tilde ~ symbol at the end of a Multiple word Term. For example, to search for economics and keynes that are within 10 words apart:

"economics Keynes"~10

Range Searches

To perform a range search you can use the { } characters. For example to search for a term that starts with either A, B, or C:

{A TO C}

The same can be done with numeric fields such as the Year:

[2002 TO 2003]

Boosting a Term

To apply more value to a term, you can use the ^ character. For example, you can try the following search:

economics Keynes^5

Which will give more value to the term "Keynes"