• be aware of the differences among keyword, subject, and text searching

• keyword usually pulls from a FEW fields, such as article title, journal title, author, and subject
• subject pulls from ONE field only (usually entitled either "subject" or "descriptors" in the drop-down menu)
• text (sometimes called full-text) searches EVERY WORD of the article and citation (beware of too much information!

• start with keyword, and then look in the citation records for good subject headings; searching by subject will result in fewer and more accurate results

• use the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to search more accurately

• truncate your terms by using an asterisk to form a word stem; eg. child* will retrieve child, child's, childhood, children

• ensure you have no typos

• double-check your spelling, especially of names, places, and events

• if words need to be kept together, put quotation marks around them

• think of other ways to say the same or similar ideas

• instead of putting all your terms in one search box, break them up into two or three search boxes

• ensure that the drop-down menu reflects what YOU want it to reflect (keyword, subject, etc.)

• when you get too many hits, you need to refine your terms by narrowing your focus and/or adding another search term

• if you don't get enough hits, your terms are too specific and you need to broaden your subject

• know the terminology:

• abstract:brief summary of the article that allows you to decide if the full article is something you could use
• citation: consists of the author, title of the article, title of the magazine or journal, volume number, issue number (sometimes), page numbers, and date
• full text: this refers to the complete electronic text of an article; images such as photographs, pictures, charts, and other graphics, are not always included
• PDF: the best version of an online article is the "Portable Digital Format" since it is a total replica of the print version of the journal, including all text, page numbers, illustrations, graphs, charts, etc.

• if the database doesn't includelink to the full-text article, look for the title of the JOURNAL in Journal Finder. If it's there, then see if the article you want falls in the full-text date range.

• search multiple databases: EBSCOHost, PowerSearch