Boolean Operators and Wildcards
AND – means you want both terms in your results; tends to narrow results’ list
Ex: Weimar Republic and film
OR – means you want one or the other terms in your results – use with synonyms; tends to broaden results’ list
Ex: film or cinema
NOT – use when you are getting a reoccurring term that you are not interested in
Ex: NOT propaganda (when you are interested in films but NOT propaganda films)
? or * -- used to expand your results without having to type in multiple words; different databases use these differently. The library catalog uses the ? but some databases use the *. Play around with them to see how your results change.
Ex: wom?n – will return results for woman and women
Ex: Nazi - will return Nazi, Nazis, and Nazism
“quotes” – use to search for a phrase
Ex: “Weimar Republic”
Subject Headings, Subjects, and Descriptors
Subject headings are created by librarians to describe exactly what the materials are about. They connect materials with similar topics or themes together. They are called different things depending on the catalog or database but most have them. Click on them to find more materials on your topic.
With historical research keep in mind that terms change over time. Change your search terms accordingly.
If you are finding that you are getting a lot of results in a language you cannot read, try using limiters to limit your results to things only in English, each database and library catalog has an advanced search option that will allow you to choose limiters. Other limiters such as peer-reviewed journal articles are also helpful to limit the types of results you are getting.