Electronic Searching--A Quick Guide

To search most electronic sources…

• select databases or resources from the Libraries’ Web site
• think of keywords that describe your topic
• connect the keywords with AND, OR, NOT
• print out, email, or download the article that you want

For example, you want to find articles with the words "hammer" and "key." This is how you would use AND, OR, NOT:

Hammer AND key -finds articles containing both words

Hammer OR key-finds articles containing one or both words

Hammer NOT key -finds articles containing the first word but not the second.

*Special Trick: If you are searching for a phrase, you can enclose the phrase in quotation marks (Example: "due process of law")