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 Agricola or Biological Abstracts a search strategy must be developed.
1. Identify key terms for your search - to identify the terms to be searched, write a 1-sentence description of the topic:
What are the concerns about using antibiotics in livestock feed?
What are the rules regarding growing genetically modified crops?
Identify the key terms in those questions. These are the terms that will be searched in the indexes:
What are the concerns about using antibiotics in livestock feed?
What are the rules regarding growing genetically modified crops?
HINT: AGRICOLA has a list of terms that they use for their subject headings. The AGRICOLA Thesaurus is available online. It sometimes helps to find the key terms used for a specific topic.
2. Use quotation marks to search phrases - some examples could be common or scientific names of plants or place names.
Example: "Genetically Modified Organisms" "Bison Bison" "Illinois River"
3. Combine key terms using AND.
impact AND "global warming" AND agriculture
rules AND "genetically modified crops"
antibiotics AND livestock
4. Combine terms with similar meanings using OR. Some concepts can be described using different terms, such as Global Warming or Climate Change. Search terms that describe similar concepts using OR.
Example:
("Global Warming" OR "Climate Change") AND Agriculture
(rules OR regulations OR laws) AND ("Genetically Modified Crops" OR "Transgenic Plants")
(Livestock OR Cattle OR Swine) AND Antibiotics
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 (see examples above).
6. To search various forms of a word, use Wildcards and Truncation symbols. The wildcards used in AGRICOLA are: ? # and *.
? - replaces a single character
impact? will find impact or impacts
wom?n will find woman or women
# - looks for alternate spellings
colo#r finds color or colour
* - serves as a truncation symbol to search for different forms of a word or a phrase that is missing a word.
agricultur* finds agriculture, agricultural
gene* finds gene, genes, genetic, genetically
environment* finds environment, environments, environmental, environmentally
7. Use NOT to eliminate items that might not be appropriate for your research. For example, it is possible to eliminate items that are written in a language you don't read by entering the language and then using the pull-down to specify the language.
("global warming" OR "climate change") NOT ("remote sensing" OR satellite*) - will find information on global warming or climate change that does not make use of satellite or remote sensing data to analyze climate change.
8. Use the Find It Button to see if a journal article is available in the WIU Libraries. 
In Agricola 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 sometimes used in agricultural 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.