General search strategies
There are some other general search strategies to be aware of when finding information. Not all apply to search engines, but some can be used when searching the SSKS website, for example.
Broadening your search
If you would like to broaden the scope of your search, an easy way to do this is to enter the first part or 'root' of a keyword, followed by a * symbol.
- Examples include:
- femini* - feminine, feminist, feminism
- child* - children, childhood, childish
This is a quick way of finding information on lots of key words without having to type them all in separately.
Narrowing your search
If you would like to narrow or refine the scope of your search, an easy way to do this is by placing quotation (" ") marks around the key words or phrase.
For example, by placing quotation marks around "child protection", only results with that exact phrase will be returned.
If you remove the quotation marks and type in child protection, the search engine will return results where 'child' and 'protection' occur, which will return a lot more results.
Quotation marks are great for finding a specific book or article. If you place them around the words in the title - "Learning disabilities in young children", then it should bring back any results for that exact title.
