Library: Smarter Searching: Going Beyond Google: Searching Smarter

PIRATE SEARCH: Searches dozens of Park Library databases simultaneously

Quick Search

Building a Better Search

Identifying the major concepts and similar terms (synonyms) for your research topic...

Example topic: "The effects of media violence on children"

	Original Term		Synonym #1		Synonym #2
	Media	OR	Television	OR	Movies
AND	Violence	OR	Aggression
AND	Children	OR	Youth	OR	Adolescents

...can help you construct a better search query, which yields better search results!

AND, OR, and Punctuation

Need help Searching? Check out these Search Tips!

These tips pertain to many library databases including the "Advanced Search" screen of Pirate Search.

Boolean Operators (AND / OR)

	AND	OR
How it works:	Search results contain both Term #1 and Term #2	Search results contain either Term #1 or Term #2 (or both)
Effects on search results:	Narrows / Fewer results	Broadens / More results
Examples with diagrams:	Peas AND Carrots Results = the middle area overlapped by both circles	Peas OR Carrots Results = the entire area of both circles

Asterisks and Quotation Marks

Using an asterisk wildcard (*) at the end of a partial word will broaden search results by including multiple word endings.

When searching for a specific phrase (two or more words together), adding quotation marks around that phrase will typically narrow your search results.

For example:

Using child* will search for all variations of the word child, including children, children's, or childhood.
A search on "sexual strategies theory" -- with the quotation marks included -- will retrieve only those records containing these three words together in this exact order.