HIS 132: Latin America and its People

Here are some strategies for search statement language for searching in library databases:

• Use an * to search for multiple forms of a word in a single search:​
  • coloni* = will search for: colonial, colonization, colonists, colonialist(s), etc.
  • econom* = will search for: economic, economy, economies, etc.
  • democra* = will search for: democracy, democratic, democratization, etc.​

• Use "quotation marks" to have multiple words searched together as a phrase:
  • "el salvador"
  • "state formation"
  • "cuban missile crisis"

​

• ​Use the word OR (in capital letters) to search for words with similar meaning -- always place within (  ):
  • (women OR female)
  • (18th OR eighteenth)
  • (21st OR twenty-first)

​

• Use the word AND (in capital letters) to combine different topics/concepts:
  • mexic* AND independen
  • peru AND ("state formation" OR "state building")
  • nicaragua AND econom* AND (19th OR nineteenth)