CNX 132: Material Culture
- Library
- LibGuides
- CNX 132: Material Culture
- Search Tips
Constructing Search Strings
Remember: Databases don't speak English.
Construct search strings to effectively find resources in databases.
Research Question: "What effect does media have on teens' body image?"
A good example of a search string:
"body image" AND media AND teens
A not great example of a search string:
media's effects on teen body image
Tips for Constructing Search Strings
- Use AND, OR, or NOT to expand, refine, or edit your search. AND will join two words or phrases together and search for both. NOT will search for one topic but not the other. And OR will search for either term you enter.
- Use quotes around phrases with two or more words.
- Boil your research question down into main ideas. For example, in the research question above, the main topics are: body image, teens, and media.
- Try using wildcards if you're looking for multiple spellings of a word. Like this: search wom*n, and you'll get results for woman, women, and womyn.
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. Keep in mind that the name of your language may be spelled in different ways.
Don't forget to use words like AND, OR, and NOT (boolean operators) between your keywords to broaden or narrow your search.
Examples of keywords: (name of your object), technology, identity, "material culture", clothing, object,
Possible synonyms: artifact, (other names for your object), materialism, consumerism, fashion.
Sample search strings: (name of object) AND identity; technology AND "material culture"
Subject Terms
se Subject Terms (assigned by the Library of Congress) to find like items in the library catalog and in journal databases. If you find a useful book or article, its catalog record usually will include Subject Terms under "Description" that you can use to find related research material. Below is a screenshot of a catalog record with subject hyperlinks. In the actual record, you will be able to click on the links to find related material.
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.
Limit to Franklin & Marshall College
Limit to last ten years of publication
Limit to the subject area of anthropology
Limit to articles