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Middle & Upper School Library: Online Research

Power Teens

Database Searching Techniques

Basic Search - Subject or keyword search (keyword will produce more results)

Advanced Search - Use of Boolean Operators (and, or, not)

  • Use "and" to limit your search and produce a smaller set of items that may be more relevant to your subject
  • Use "or" to expand your search to produce a larger set of items.

Wildcards -

  • An asterik (*) may be used at the end of a word to search for words with the same root word with different endings. A search for "heat*" will produce results that may include heater, heated, heating, heater, heats. 
  • An asterik may be used in place of a word in a phrase.