About this Page: Get better at searching in Google, Databases and Citing Sources
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ASSOCIATION FOR LIBRARY SERVICE
Complete database of the
book publishing industry
Before you Search
Citing References
1. Write down what you are looking for.
2. Use as many descriptive nouns as possible (up to 32 in Google)
3. Decide which nouns are the most important, put them first.
4. Determine where you want to search
5. Open up the search engine.
6. Use the tips on "How to Search Google" (Scroll down)
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Quick Reference
APA Citation
A colored coded reference to help decipher the APA format
Mine Bibliographies: If you find a great book, article there are other great sources attach to it. Look at their bibliographies for leads.
Wikipedia: Not all sources are credible.
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Does the site have a lock?
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The lock indicates this page is semi-protected and limited access is granted to change the information.
Teacher Resource
Teacher Resource
Step by Step for Student Guidance in Research
Grammar
Assist clients in their development as writers. Ages 7th +
Google Scholar - Check your Settings
1. Turn on Safe Search in Google Search Settings
2. Google Scholar page -
Collections - search articles include patents
Bibliography manager - show links to import citations
Click on Library link tab - Show library access links for
Type in MIT to gain access
3. See below for helpful tips.........
How to Search Google & Google Scholar
Basic Searches -
Advance Searches -
Click on picture to find more tips on Google searches.
You will find your information quicker if you use these following helpful tips:
Quotation Marks only searches for this phrase. Example: "bulldog size" gives you the weight and size of only bulldogs.
Boolean Search: Always use capital letters!
- AND narrows your search, but the words may not be next to each other. Example: tigers AND elephants will find websites that have both subjects.
- OR expands the results. Lists all websites from each word. Example: tigers OR elephants will find websites that have tigers or elephants, not necessarily both the subjects.
- NOT = get rid of terms that need to be excluded. Use a minus sign instead of the word NOT. Example: tigers-elephants will find websites about tigers that do not mention elephants.
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Looking up Definitions to Words:
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Math Conversions
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Truncation – use a wildcard or symbol. Google assumes the wildcard. Databases you have to use the asterisks.
Nesting – Order of operations, use of Boolean Searching, truncation. For example: geology* AND (Utah OR Colorado OR Nevada), Baseball AND (Dodgers OR Yankees)
Wildcards – expanding search for similar words: for example Wom?n = women, woman = use this because databases automatically do, not used as much. Use the * in the middle of the word.
Narrowing Search pertaining to Google. For example: look for a particular filetype = Filetype:ppt, Site= site:time.com”apollo13”, First word ranks slightly higher than 2nd.
