F&M College Library

CNX 150: Quarks to Quasars

Subject Terms

Use Subject Headings/Terms to find similar items when searching the library catalog and databases. If you find a great source the record will usually include relevant subject terms which you can use to continue searching. 

Examples of subject terms:

Sustainable development

Business enterprises -- environmental aspects

Keywords

Remember that you need to use keywords when searching in library resources. Think about keywords that might be used to describe your topic and brainstorm synonyms for those words to include in your searching as well. Use "" when you want to search multiple terms as a phrase. 

Example:

"natural environment" AND business

Boolean Operators

Don't forget to use words like AND, OR, and NOT (boolean operators) between your keywords to broaden or narrow your search. 

Example:

business AND ("natural environment" OR sustainability) 

Limiters

Many databases provide ways for you to limit your search results. If your initial search returns too many results try limiting these results using these features such as limiting by date, type of publication, subject, etc.