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BUSN 101: Creating and Growing Sustainable Ventures: Search Tips and Strategies

This guide provides links to Library resources.

Search Techniques

Connectors, or Boolean Operators, are words that combine concepts together in a search. These operators allow you to keep your search narrow ("AND"); keep your search broad ("OR"); or exclude words from your search ("NOT").

EXAMPLES:

  • Oprah Winfrey AND leadership= This will give you results that includes both Oprah Winfrey and leadership.
  • Oprah Winfrey OR leadership=This will give you results that includes all the words.
  • Oprah Winfrey AND leadership NOT biography=This will give you results that include Oprah Winfrey and leadership but excludes biography. 

Quotations can be especially useful if you are searching for a phrase. This can also be useful if you are searching an exact match for a title of an article or book. If you don't use quotations the system (internet or library database) will look for each word individually. 

 

EXAMPLES:

 

This technique is using the root or stem of a word and the search will bring back a variety of endings to the word.

 

EXAMPLES:

rac*= race, races, racism, racial, racialized

educat*=educate, education, educated, educating

sustain*=sustain, sustains, sustainable, sustainability