Hints for searching in an article database:
- Put phrases in quotation marks (“ ”). A phrase is any two or more words next to each other.
For example: “united states”; “sierra leone”
- Use the truncation symbol to get alternate endings to words
For example: imperial* = imperial, imperialism, imperialist
- The most common truncation symbol in the article databases is the asterisk (*). However, the symbol can be different, so if you don’t know for sure which symbol to use, ask a reference librarian.
- Think of synonyms or other ways to say the same thing or to convey the same or similar ideas
For example: corruption; fraud; profiteer
- Then link the synonyms together with the word OR (this expands your search)
For example: corruption OR profiteer*
- Narrow your search by joining ideas together using the word AND
For example: madagascar AND military
- Combine the AND and OR search by putting the synonyms in parentheses
For example: war AND (fraud OR profiteer* OR corrupt*)
- Use the
button if the article you want isn’t available in full text in the current database you are searching.
- Use Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad) to request an article that we don’t have online or in print from another library.
