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Common Searching Errors
- Thinking that library databases search like Google. With a bibliographic database listed on the University Libraries homepage, what you type is what you get. Literal search. Google does not operate this way. Google allows for typos, anticipates synonyms, and ranks results by relevancy. Though some library databases use relevancy ranking, many do not. Construct your search statement carefully and beware of misspellings.
- Typing your search in the search boxes in the form of a sentence, such as What is the role of the prostitution in the Japanese occupation of Korea during WWII? Reduce a natural language search statement to key concepts. This search statement can be reduced to Korea in GE AND Japan* in SU and prostitution. Note the use of the asterisk (*). This is a truncation symbol which allows for all words that have the root, such as Japan or Japanese. There is no need to use other words such as WWII, as most of the documents will already be about this period (though not all) It is implied by the nature of the subject. You may not always know this. But understand that less is often more when searching a bibliographic database.
- Using AND instead of OR. For synonyms, use OR. For example, Chinese or Han. I usually put synonyms in the same search box by using OR and combine concepts between search boxes. The default Boolean operator or connector between boxes is AND. I rarely use NOT, but it can be helpful in specific situations.
