Hello,
This guide is designed to help you with your upcoming research project.
Below you will find resources on how to find an idea and come up with keywords to use in the databases.
Books- will show you how to find e-books in our library collection
Databases- will show you how to use our databases and will give you a few suggestions on which one to use based on your topic
Need help- Still have questions? Want to talk to a librarian? We're still available- our hours have changed (Mon-Fri 8-8, Sat 10-4) but someone is on Chat waiting to hear from you. So contact us if you need help.
There are two main ways to search the library. The way you choose will depend on the types of sources your professor has asked you to find.
Brainstorm keywords that represent the main concept(s) of your topic. Think about what words you would want to see in an article that may indicate it would be useful for your research.
Topic: | credit card debt among American college students | ||
Key concepts: | credit card debt | American | college students |
Related keywords: | personal finance | United States | undergrad |
consumer debt | USA | young adults |
Need more help? Try the Keyword Generator from California State University, Fullerton. It walks you through the process of finding keywords relevant to your topic.
Combine the keywords you brainstormed into a search strategy. Put phrases in quotation marks and/or use AND, OR, NOT (Boolean operators) to get more precise results.
Broad Search
Search for information using the single most important term related to your topic.
Narrow Search
Search for information by combining keywords you brainstormed.
Too many irrelevant results?
Add more keywords.
Too few relevant results?
Remove or change keywords
Adapted from: UT Arlington Library