Q. I need help searching a database.

Here are some basic tips. View our brief search tutorial for additional tips.  See this FAQ in Chinese.

Pick the best place to search: Choose a database that focuses on your broad topic or major, such as Nursing or HHP. On the alphabetical list of databases, click the Subject menu, select the topic, and click Search to see a list of the best databases for that topic/major. If you are unsure, use a General database like Academic Search Premier or use the search box on the library's homepage, which searches most of our databases at once. 

Use Keywords: Break your topic down into the most important words (keywords) instead of typing in a question. For example, instead of typing "How can you manage a grade school classroom?", you could search "classroom management" AND elementary.

Use quotes around short phrases. You will get more relevant articles with "classroom management" than searching those terms without quotes, as it may pick up articles with only classroom or only management.

Use AND, OR, or NOT: Combining terms with AND will narrow your search. Broaden your search by using synonyms connected by OR so you find all relevant articles, even though some may use a slightly different term for your topic. For example, "classroom management" AND (elementary or primary or "grade school"). Some databases will suggest synonyms when you start typing a term. You can exclude terms using NOT, such as "classroom management" NOT "high school".

Search Limiters: Most databases will let you limit your results to full-text (i.e., the entire article is available to read online), peer-reviewed, by date, etc. Use these to make your search quicker and more targeted to your needs. Note that if you limit to full-text articles, you may miss some relevant ones available in databases other than the one you're searching. You can check on the availability of these articles by clicking Find it at Forsyth under the article title/information, which will search our other databases for the item. If the article is not available, you can usually get it by making an Interlibrary Loan request.

If you are still having trouble finding what you need, Ask a Librarian for help.