Effective Search StringsContinued

Truncated Searches

• A special symbol (*) which allows you to search simultaneously for several words with the same stem

computer

Comput* computers

computing

computer careerscomputations

Wildcard Searches

• Let you search for numerous word versions

• Use the “?” symbol in your search word

• Example: m?n = man or men or msn wom?n = woman or women

Boolean Searches

• Let you to broaden a search

• Let you to narrow a search

• Operate differently in each search engine

Boolean SearchesHow do I narrow a search

using “and”?

• Using and will only provide links to sites which have BOTH of these words present

Boolean Searches How do I narrow a search

even more?• Using and twice will limit the search even

more

• You will only get

pages that include

all THREE of the terms

Boolean Searches How do I narrow a search

using “not”?• Using not narrows the search by telling the

search engine to exclude certain words

• AltaVista uses the

form and not elementary

Boolean Searches How do I broaden a search?

• Use of the word or will broaden a search

• Use or if two words

may be used

interchangeably

• Can use or more than once to get very broad

Google: Advanced Search

HotBot : Advanced Search Options

Yahoo Canada : Advanced Search Options

What is a ‘Meta’ Search Engine?

• does not create its own information database

• It searches the databases of other engines

• Allows you to look through many pages from different search engines at once

• Best to use only when you are having trouble locating information on your topic

Hints for searching

• Use unique keywords

• Check your spelling

• Use quotation marks around phrases

• Try using different search engines

• Read the help files

Remember

• Hits are returned and ranked according to –• How many times terms appear on the page

• How often terms appear

• How close terms are to each other

• How near the top of the page the terms are found

• The best results will appear on the first page or two of hits

• No two search engines are alike. Try another search engine, or rephrase your terms if you don’t get good results.

Adapted from: Kathy Schrock

http://www.capecod.net/schrockguide/

M. Rosettis - School Library Information Centre - St. Augustine C.H.S.