Journal databases and library catalogs are content-rich and constructed for many different types of inquiries. Use the searching strategies and techniques outlined below to capture relevant content. This will produce more focused results than a simple keyword search.
In putting together search terms, think about the topic and how specific you want it to be. You will find often that there is more material than you expected and that you actually want to focus your search by adding a further concept.
Subject Headings allow you to find relevant material grouped together including titles that do not use the keywords you may have been searching.
Finding subject headings
Look at a book record in Tripod, check the subjects assigned to it, and choose whatever ones are relevant for your research.
Example: A decade of dark humor: how comedy, irony, and satire shaped post-9/11 America
edited by Ted Gournelos. University Press of Mississippi, 2001.
Subjects:
Political culture United States History 21st century
September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001 Influence
Mass media Political aspects United States
American wit and humor History and criticis
Political satire, American
United States Politics and government 2001-2009 Humor
United States Politics and government 2001-2009
Subject search "political satire american" = 165 results
Refining subject searches
You can combine different concepts into a single subject search for precision. The results are more focused than a keyword search.
But all the words have to be terminology used in library subject cataloging.
To ensure this, you can use subject headings you have already found in Tripod searches.
Combination subject search:
polit* satire (television OR media) = 17 results
Searches political satire within the context of the media
Searches on the Open Web can often return irrelevant or non-scholarly results. Nonetheless, Google and other search engines can still be useful—if limited—discovery tools if you know how to refine your searches. For example, you might try limiting your search by various domains or using another one of the search tips offered here:
Use quotation marks to get more exact results:
Search any one of multiple terms (as opposed to searching all terms, which is the default) and/or combine sets of terms:
Limit your search to words in the title:
Remove unwanted results:
Limit your search by domain or website:
Limit results to the Google News tab:
Limit by date:
Use the the Google Advanced Search screen to conduct advanced searches including, but not limited to, those on the left.
See Google's Cheat Sheet for further tips on constructing and refining your searches.
See Nancy Blachman's GoogleGuide for even more tips.
