When the librarians have a resistant topic they start to look at some creative ways to shift their thinking about it.
For example:
- How might one express the topic in a different way?
- What are some other keywords or short phrases that could be used?
- Since you are searching an author’s words, how would an author say it?
SYNONYMS
Using synonyms will both broaden your search but also help to really refine your topic and retrieve relevant content on that topic.Using synonyms in different combinations ensures that you have a range of keywords to search under.
Ask yourself these questions to develop a list of synonyms:
- Is there another way to describe my topic?
- What are some of the topics that are related to it?
- Is there an umbrella term that is broadly descriptive of this topic?
If you are still stumped:
- Look in your course textbook or relevant readings to see how the authors express concepts around this topic
- Do some preliminary research in reference books, such as dictionaries or encyclopedias
- Read the first book or article you find to glean synonyms for further research,
- Use an online thesaurus to come up with synonyms.
TIP: Databases try to help with providing alternative subject terms, usually after your search and as you narrow your search, they will revise the list. Look at suggested subjects, related subjects or subject headings for ideas.
ANOTHER TIP: Remember you need to use OR to combine and retrieve both keyword concepts. Combining with AND will exclude content that doesn’t mention all of the keywords. For example: "global warming” OR "climate change” will look for either phrase. "global warming" AND "climate change" will look for results that contain both phrases.
ACRONYMS
Another great reason to consider synonyms is when searching on a concept known best by its acronym.Trying linking acronyms with the full name to search on:
- IT OR “Information Technology”
- HR OR "Human Resources"
TRUNCATION
Use truncation when there is a common root prefix. A good example is the word child. Adding the asterisk * will truncate the word, searching for all variations of the word (child, childish, children etc). This will help to broaden your search if you are having trouble finding relevant results.
- child* AND [whatever other keyword you had in mind]
PROXIMITY QUOTES
Place phrases in quotation marks to keep the words together in your search, thus returning relevant results:
- "United States"
- "Climate Change"
