And How to Search Them!
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Why use subscription
databases?
• Selected by librarians – quality control!
• General and subject-focused databases
(e.g. health, business, history, literature)
• Recent articles from journals (scholarly and
peer-reviewed), popular magazines and
newspapers..
• Full-text articles with graphics in PDF format
(Also: citations and abstracts)
• Accessible from campus and home
• Can be printed and/or e-mailed
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Why articles from web sites
are not as good…
• Uncontrolled content (no quality control)
• Web sites include ANYTHING: articles,
commentaries, blogs etc.
• Full text but usually brief
• Aimed at popular/general audience
• Articles in online versions of newspapers,
magazines and journals are not complete
• Can be biased, inaccurate etc. (not peerreviewed)
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Steps for searching databases
 Write down key concepts from thesis statement
 Come up with synonyms and alternative phrases.
 Select a subscription database
 Type in your search syntax using Boolean
(AND, OR, NOT)
 Review search results > Edit the search to
broaden or narrow the number.
 Input the citation in Noodlebib bibliography and
type information in Noodlebib notecards.
 Write down the search strategy you used for
future reference.
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Selecting your subscription
database
 Select by SUBJECT focus:
Health, Literature, Art, History etc.
 Select a GENERAL database:
Expanded Academic ASAP, Proquest Research Library
 Select by FORMAT:
Proquest Newspapers, ProQuest Biology Journals
 Select by Date Coverage:
Proquest Historical Newspapers: NY Times 1851-2005
 Read the information about database:
Expanded Academic ASAP: Expanded Academic ASAP
includes journals and magazines covering a wide variety of
disciplines. Contains more than 4,300 titles including over
2,500 with full text, more than 3,000 peer-reviewed journals.
 http://www.santarosa.edu/library/databases/index.html
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Search Strategy Overview
 Search tools for subscription databases
and web sites use same logic but different
syntax.
 Check HELP pages for each search tool to
find out the correct syntax.
 Write search statements using Boolean
logic (AND, OR, NOT).
 Try different variations (synonyms) of the
search words
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Selecting synonyms for
your search
 Influenza:
flu, swine flu, H1N1
 Vaccination:
immunization, shot, vaccine
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Using Boolean OR
 Broadens search.
 Increases the number of results.
 Retrieves sources that include one
term OR the other.
 Use OR to combine synonyms or
word variations to increase number of
results.
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Boolean OR Example
flu OR influenza
flu
influenza
 Retrieves documents that contain either
one term or the other.
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flu OR influenza
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Practice OR
Topic: law
law OR ? OR ? OR ?
law OR legislation OR regulation
OR edict
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Using Boolean AND
 Narrows search.
 Reduces the number of results.
 Retrieves documents that include BOTH
terms.
 The more terms you combine with AND, the
fewer records you find.
 Use AND to connect multiple search terms
– reduce number of results.
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Boolean AND Example
vaccine AND influenza
vaccine
Both
terms
vaccine
AND
influenza
influenza
 Retrieves documents that only contain ALL
of the search terms.
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vaccine AND influenza
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Practice AND
Topic: law
law AND ? AND ? AND ?
law AND california AND marijuana
AND legalization
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Using Boolean NOT
 Narrows search.
 Reduces the number of results.
 Retrieves documents that DO NOT contain
a particular term.
 Removes documents that are not relevant.
 Some tools may require AND NOT for
syntax.
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Boolean NOT Example
influenza NOT seasonal
seasonal
influenza
 Retrieves documents that exclude a
particular term.
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influenza NOT seasonal
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Combining Boolean
Operators
 Combine different Boolean operators in a
search statement:
(flu OR influenza) AND vaccine
(flu OR influenza) AND (vaccine or immunization)
(flu OR influenza) AND vaccine AND shortage
 Two OR words need parentheses (to treat
OR search independently from AND
search).
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Phrase Searching
 Use quotations to combine two or more
words into a phrase.
 Increases the precision of the search.
(flu OR influenza) AND vaccine AND “United States”
 You can enclose several words to create a
phrase:
“Yosemite National Park”
“swine flu”
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Practice Phrase Searches
Which of the following should be
enclosed in quotation marks?
law AND medical marijuana AND
supreme court AND legalization
law AND “medical marijuana” AND
“supreme court” AND legalization
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What to do when you have:
 Too many results:
• Add more AND words.
• Use phrases rather than individual words.
• Limit by: date, publication, format,
language etc.
 Too few (or no) results:
• Add more OR words.
• Use individual words rather than phrases.
• Use wildcard or truncation symbols.
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Search Queries:
 Query: I need information about cats.
cats OR felines
 Query: I need information about cat behavior
(cats OR felines) AND behavior
 Query: I'm interested in radiation, but not
nuclear radiation
radiation NOT nuclear
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Search Queries:
 Query: I need information about class size in
elementary education.
“class size” AND education AND elementary
 Query: I need information about the
advertising of junk food on TV to children
(television OR TV) AND “junk food” AND
advertising AND children
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In-class Activity:
Use Expanded Academic ASAP
 http://www.santarosa.edu/library/ Click on Articles
 Select Expanded Academic ASAP as your database.
Make sure Advanced search is selected
 Limit to “Documents with Full-Text”
 Try these searches:
law OR legislation
(law OR legislation) AND marijuana
(law OR legislation) AND medical AND marijuana
(law OR legislation) AND medic* AND marijuana
(law OR legislation) AND “medical marijuana”
 When you see the results list, make sure “Academic Journals” is
selected on the tabs
 Write down the number of results for each search
 Now try your own BOOLEAN search!
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