Searching in 8 Easy Steps
This information is specifically written to provide information on searching GeoRef on the EBSCO Platform. Other database platforms may have different proximity operators and truncation symbols. Some scholarly indexes can be searched using a system similar to Google: enter words to retrieve information on a topic. However, to search indexes such as GeoRef a search strategy must be developed.
1. Identify key terms for your search - To identify the topics to search, write a 1-sentence description or question about the topic:
Where can I find information on water resources in McDonough County, Illinois
I am looking for information on the geology of Rock Island, Illinois
Identify the key terms in those questions. These are the terms that will be searched in the indexes:
Where can I find information on water resources in McDonough County, Illinois?
I am looking for information on the geology of Rock Island, Illinois
2. Use quotation marks to search phrases. Some examples include place names that have multiple words, the genus and species of a fossil or a rock unit name).
"McDonough County" "La Moine River" "Rock Island" "Quad Cities"
3. Connect search terms using the words AND or N##. AND finds terms anywhere in the record. N## finds terms in the same field of a record. When using N##, replace the ## with a number (try 8 or 10). Try the following search using N## or AND. NEAR is more precise than AND.
water N8 "McDonough County" N10 Illinois geology N10 "Rock Island" N10 Illinois
4. Combine similar terms using OR. There are multiple ways to describe places. For example, Macomb, Illinois is in McDonough County, which is located in the LaMoine River Basin (which sometimes might be called La Moine River Basin).
water AND "McDonough County" OR "LaMoine River" AND Illinois
geology AND "Rock Island" OR "Quad Cities" AND Illinois
5. Use Parentheses to group parts of a search together. Terms in parentheses will be searched before the rest of the terms in a search.
water AND ("McDonough County" OR "LaMoine River" OR "La Moine River") AND Illinois
geology AND ("Rock Island" OR "Quad Cities") AND Illinois
6. To search various forms of a word, use Truncation symbols and Wildcards. The truncation symbols and wildcards used in GeoRef are the question mark ? and the asterisk *.
? - replaces a single character
reuse? will find reuse or reused wom?n will find woman or women
# - replaces a 0 or 1 characters
colo#r will find color or colour pal#eontology will find paleontology or palaeontology
* - serves as a truncation symbol to search for different forms of a word or a phrase that is missing a word.
hydrol* will find hydrology, hydrologic, hydrological (and various other forms of the word -- including a variety of German spellings)
stratigraph* will find stratigraphy, stratigraphic, stratigraphically (and other forms, including German spellings)
7. Use NOT to eliminate items that might not be appropriate for your research. This is especially useful for eliminating abstracts of papers presented at meetings.
NOT (ZT "Abstract Only") - will eliminate abstracts of papers delivered at conferences.
8. Use the Find It Button to see if a journal article is available in the WIU Libraries. 
In GeoRef and some other WIU indexes, when search results are displayed, the button displayed above will be seen. By clicking on this button, it is possible to link to the full text of journal articles. If the journal is available through the WIU Libraries, you will be prompted to connect to the journal or directed to the print publication.
The Find It Button only works for journals. It does not work for government publications or reports (which are often used in geological research).
If the item is not a journal, search the title in WestCat to see if it is available. If the item is not available in the WIU Libraries, see if it is available in I-Share. If so, you can request it using the I-Share request system. If not, it can be requested through Interlibrary Loan.