WRTG 105 Venturing Out (Coyne)

Boolean Operators are short words used to combine search terms in logical operations. Most databases, discovery layers and search engines recognize them and use them to to bring search results that fulfill the requested operations.The most common are AND, OR and NOT. They are written in capitals to differentiate them from regular keywords. 

Check the image below to understand how each of them affects the results of your searches. Parenthesis are used to combine different sets of instructions and to signal the order in which they should happen. 

Things and Terms to Know: 

Research Consultation-- Meet with a librarian and talk through your assignment! Any question you have is the most interesting thing to us. PLEASE schedule an appointment if you hit any hurdles with your work! We are here to help! 

DiscoverUR-- this is the name of our library search function; the way you can locate any item we have in the library! Articles, books, and more (both physical and electronic sources) can be found through this. DiscoverUR searches all the databases we have to find sources that are relevant to your search. 

Database-- These are typically more discipline-specific than DiscoverUR and can be very helpful when you want to search within a specific topic or field of study. Databases collect and organize information, often

Scholarly Source-- these sources consist of journal articles and original research that helps to contribute to the body of knowledge about a particular topic. These articles and research are created by scholars or experts in the field. 

Peer Reviewed-- When a scholarly source is created, peer review is when the new source is verified by team of experts in the field. Experts check the work of other experts, making these one of the most trustworthy sources you can find! 

Interlibrary Loan-- Sometimes the library doesn't have a specific item you want. That's okay! We have an Interlibrary Loan system which means our library ask another library to send that resource along! Whether it's a physical item or an electron scan, we can still get it for you! 

DO

• Look up any unknown words in the article! Academic jargon can be difficult to understand. A keyword or a key point to the article may be a work you haven't seen before! 
• Engage with the article/book. React! Make connections! Ask questions! Doubt! The more of this mental processing you are able to do, the further along in the research process you get :) 
• Use these reactions to inform your next search. What was surprising or interesting? What connections do you want to flesh out? What questions needed answers? What doubts needed clarity? 

DON'T

• Read the entire article until you know it's useful! You can skim and scan the abstract and other key sections of the paper to gauge how useful it will be. Further instructions for this are below. Save yourself time by using this method!