Skip to Main Content

CITY 217: Research Methods

CITY 217: Research Methods; Prof. J. Hurley; Fall 2023

Locating Books in Tri-Co and Beyond

Need help navigating Tripod, the library catalog, and the libraries?  Go to the Library Basics Research Guide

Tips for Searching

Search Tips

Deconstruct your topic or research question to select keywords, phrases or concepts. Think of synonyms of these terms as well.

Boolean Operator: AND, OR, NOT, NEAR

  • Use AND to connect your main concepts
  • Use OR between related concepts
  • Use NEAR to find two concepts that are in proximity to each other (an option on JSTOR)
  • Put quotations around a term to search for that exact phrase e.g. "migration policy"

Use nesting by adding parentheses around your OR phrases and quotes around multi-term phrases      

     Examples: (urban OR city) AND plan*

                    (city AND planning) AND (America)

                    America* AND (“urban layout” OR “city planning”)

Truncate your word to get more results and alternative endings by adding an asterix * to the word
•creat* = creature, creation, create, creating, creator, etc.
 
Use a Wildcard (?) for alternative spellings
•wom?n = woman or women
•hono?r = honor or honour
•?nquiry = inquiry or enquiry

Reference works