One of the greatest challenges in starting a new research project is deciding which search terms best describe your topic as you begin the search for resources. Try to be really succinct/to the point and use just a couple of keywords instead of typing long sentences. The video explains all of this quickly (less than 2 minutes!), so please watch it now. Here are few more tips:
- Enter keywords that represent your topic:
- Limit searches to two or three keywords: Francis Perkins New Deal
- Don't search with sentences, questions, or long phrases.
- Combine terms with OR to broaden: United Farm Workers OR UFW (this would find items that cover United Farm Workers, UFW or both)
- Combine terms with AND to narrow: Mary Richmond AND Social Work (this would find items with both Mary Richmond and Social Work)
- Place quotation marks around words you wish to be searched as a phrase: "Civil Rights" Whitney Young
