7 Tools for Effective Searches

Whether you’re using a web search engine, such as Chrome or Firefox, or you’re fine-tuning your search within a database you accessed through the library website, there’re a few expert moves that you can incorporate to get more useful results. Note that not all search engines use these features in the same way, but they work often enough that it’s worth learning about them.

A recent New York Times articles, 6 Google Tricks That Will Turn You Into an Internet Detective, recaps a few of these with some additional tips thrown in as well!

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Boolean Searches: AND, OR and NOT

As you sharpen your skillset as a researcher, you’ll want to make sure you know how to deploy the terms: AND, OR, and NOT

NB: Not all search web browsers and databases use these terms, but enough do that it can be handy to know how to use them when they might help you.

The MIT Library has a good overview of the Boolean search terms we use in searches.

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Check Your Understanding of Boolean Searches

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Baby, You’re a Star!
(or “Why is there an asterisk in my search box?”)

Truncation is another tool that can help you get the results you want in web browsers like Firefox and Chrome, or in research databases through the library such as JSTOR. Just as is the case with Boolean operators and phrasing, not all search engines follow the exact same rules, but these tools for refining your searches work more often than not.

Use one of the following resources to learn about how to use asterisks and other forms of truncation in your search strategy:

Asterisks and Truncation in Searches (MIT Library)

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Check Your Understanding

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Using Phrases in Your Searches

Setting off some of your text with quotation marks can be a powerful tool for honing in your results. For example, in a sample Google Scholar search I just did of

Byzantine icon painting

over 18,000 results were returned, many if which might not be relevant to my research questions. If I wanted to learn specifically more about the technique of icon painting, for example, it might help to put the terms in quotation marks so that only results with that exact phrase in them would be returned.

“Byzantine icon painting”

This search would yield only 184 results. Use one of the following resources to learn more about how quotation marks and other kinds of phrasing can focus your search results:

Database Search Tips: Phrases (MIT Library)

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Check Your Understanding

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