Search Methods

Before the research part of the project begins, it is essential to have a plan of action covering how and where to find the accurate information needed about your historical figure. We call that the search strategy. Pick a notable person from the historical periods you studied in class. This is your topic. Thinking about that person and their time period, you will formulate your strategy using keywords, subject headings, classifications, Boolean expressions, and natural language. Let’s look at what each of these are.

• Keywords are the main words and phrases for your topic. Think of keywords as the key to opening the door to the most relevant information.

• Subject headings are a lot like hashtags. Many people assign words or groups of words to a topic, so using them helps bring up information related to your topic. This creates a standard or common language we all understand. Subject headings put your topic keywords in context.

• When calling a friend, we need their phone number to get them. If the number is wrong, we get someone else. Dewey Decimal Classifications are like phone numbers. We use the Dewey call numbers to find the correct book.

• Boolean expressions are like water filters, removing what we do not want and leaving what we do. Boolean expressions are used when searching for information in databases like Explora. These search phrases combine a topic’s keywords and subject headings, creating the filter. For example, using the connectors AND, OR, and NOT allows you to control the amount of information a database provides after a search. 

• Natural Language Expressions are everyday expressions. For example, if my topic is how long George Washington served as president, you would enter that into the search bar. You have been using natural language expressions to search without even knowing it! 

Below is an example of a search matrix. Here, we see all of the pieces of the search strategy - keyword, subject headings, boolean expressions - come together.  Now, we can take this information and use it to search for information.