Community Development

1. Maintain a physical list of all search terms, search phrases, and synonyms.
2. Look at the bibliography of other sources (including from Wikipedia).
3. Use a diversity of resources: Google, Library Search, library databases, encyclopedias, colleagues, librarians, etc.
4. Return to the "object" regularly and allow yourself to view it with a fresh perspective.
5. Take breaks to indulge in activities unrelated to your research.

1. Use all spelling variations, translations, and tenses.
2. Double check your spelling. Library databases usually don't help you with spelling.
3. Remove all punctuation (colons, semicolons, periods, ampersands, etc.)
4. Less is more; start with fewer, more general search terms and build from there.

Perform multiple searches at once

use (______ OR ______) for synonyms and like words/phrases

EXAMPLE: (medieval OR "middle ages") AND painting

searches: medieval AND painting, as well as "middle ages" AND painting

EXAMPLE: (woman OR women OR female) AND nude AND photography

searches: nude AND photography with each of the words in parentheses

Quotation Marks

Searches words together as a phrase

EXAMPLE: "northern renaissance"

Asterisk

Adds endings to words

EXAMPLE: fem* (finds: feminist, feminism, feminine, femme, female)

Question Mark

Searches spelling variations

EXAMPLE: wom?n (finds: women, woman, womyn)