QUOTATION MARKS

• Put exact phrases in quotation marks but remember SPELLING COUNTS!
  • “gun control”
  • “black lives matter”

KEYWORDS

• Brainstorm some additional search terms
  • equal rights: equality, social justice, suffrage
  • philanthropy: altruism, charity, generosity, endowment

BOOLEAN OPERATORS

• Use operators to link ideas and narrow/broaden your search
  • “gun control” AND politics
  • “national rifle association” OR “NRA”
  • “united states” NOT europe

TRUNCATION

• Use an asterisk (*) to expand your search to other variations of a root word
  • succe* - returns results for "success", "successful", "succeed", etc. 
  • determin* - returns results for "determined", "determination", etc.

Restricts results to websites from a certain domain (.edu, .gov, .org)

The ARC Library uses a service called "OneSearch" that lets you search all of the library's books, journal articles, and databases from one place. While this is very convenient, it can overwhelm you with results. Don't despair! Combining a well-crafted search and using the options available to limit your results in OneSearch can get you just what you need!

The Internet is huge and not all search engines are created equal!  It is easy to be overwhelmed by information online. The following guides can help you search more effectively and evaluate your results to get you what you need.