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:
- employee retention AND airline industry= This will give you results that includes both employee retention and airline industry.
- employee retention OR airline industry=This will give you results that includes all the words.
- employee retention AND airline industry NOT job satisfaction=This will give you results that include employee retention and airline industry but excludes job satisfaction.
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:
- "employee retention" (phrase search)
- "The impact of human resource practices on employee engagement in the airline industry" (Title of an article)
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
Keyword Techniques
Have a question about Library terms?
- Glossary of Library TermsA web page explaining library terminology.
Author: Christal Young, Librarian, University of Southern California