Information Resources in Mathematics: Search Tips

Try these strategies to refine and enhance your search results…

• Use a specific phrase.

smart phone will give you much different results than iPhone 4S

• Use a less specific phrase. Sometimes, expanding your query will bring in more of what you’re looking for.

animals with hooves retrieves more than ungulates

• Use quotation marks. If you want to search for a specific phrase or name, put it “in quotes.”

• Use (+) to make sure a specific term is in the results of your search.

“Ben Franklin” + printing

• Use (–) to exclude a certain term.

“Ben Franklin” – electricity

• Use both (+) and (-) to further refine.

“Ben Franklin” + printing – electricity

Try a “Subject” search to find all resources about a particular subject.

• Use parentheses and brackets around your search terms to combine them.

[ “cats” AND (black AND fat NOT grumpy) ]

• Use the capitalized words AND, OR, and NOT to refine your search.

E.g., AND, NOT

• Use (*) at the end of a phrase to bring in all possible endings for that phrase.

E.g., Smit* will return results for Smith and Smithson.