Databases are not like Google and cannot answer questions or interpret sentences. Databases like OneSearch are literal and will look for ALL words you type into the search box.
It is best to use KEYWORDS when searching for books and articles. Try using words and short phrases to ask your research question.
For example, if your research question is:
"What are the effects of social media on the mental health of teenagers?"
Try searching:
social media, mental health, teenagers
Also, you can try putting the words into quotation marks to get a specific phrase. This can also help to focus your search. For example:
"social media" will give you less results but they'll be more relevant than using social media
You can use Boolean operators to combine your keywords in different ways to get more or less results.
Putting AND between keywords will give you results that contain both terms. For example:
social media AND mental health
Using OR between keywords will give you results with at least one of the terms. This is good for synonyms or related terms. For example:
social media OR TikTok
teenagers OR adolescents
You can use both ANDs and ORs in your search to create a more focused search string. For example:
( "social media" or tiktok or instagram or snapchat ) AND "mental health" AND ( teenagers or adolescents )
Databases like OneSearch have filters that help to make your search process easier. Some common filter types are:
These work like hashtags to help identify and group together similar resources.
You can look at these examples in a particular resource's record to get ideas for terms to search with your keywords!
Look to the left side of your results screen to see and use available filters.
Each time you click on a filter, it should give you less results and help to narrow and focus your search.
