Education Subject Guide

Finding the right words to use when searching is the hardest and most time consuming aspect of library research. 

Tips:

• Use Keywords, not Sentences: Spend a few minutes (time yourself!) thinking about your topic and the key terms within your research question. Pick out the most important words.
  Example Question: How can teachers use social media to enhance learning?
  Example Keywords: "social media" and teaching and education
• Use Synonyms: If your initial search doesn't yield results, try to think of synonyms for your search.
  Example: "high school students" or "secondary school students"
  Example: footwear or shoes
• Subject suggestions: If you find a couple of good articles or books, look at their subject headings. Use them as keywords to see what other resources you can find. 
  • The "Subject: Thesaurus" in article databases can show you what subjects appear most often in your searches to help you think of additional keywords.
  • In the library's catalog (books), these are in the "Suggested Terms" tab.
    
• Use Booleans: Try using the "or" search to search for multiple keywords or subjects at once.
  Example: "corporate citizenship" or "social responsibility of business" will find any articles with either of those keywords in their title, abstract, or subjects. See "Precision in Searching" below for more details about using Boolean search operators (and, or, not).
• Still stuck? Ask a librarian for help! We've spent many years trying to hone our search skills, and we love a challenge!