Finding Sources Basics: Build your Search

3 students working on a laptop

Build Your Search

Using keywords to search

Summon does not understand when you search by entering your topic as a full question or sentence. Instead, you have to be intentional about what and how you search. To do this, you need to identify the main keywords that represent your topic and combine those keywords using AND. This strategy will also be true for other library search tools, such as databases.

In order to build a search, you will need to use three steps:

  1. Identify the keywords in your topic or research question;
  2. Use AND to combine those keywords;
  3. Use quotes to search for terms as phrases: put quotation marks around terms or concepts that are more than one word, so that it searches for those words together, and in that order.

Example

Research question: What are the effects of fracking on climate change in British Columbia?

  1. What are the keywords?
    • fracking
    • climate change
    • effects
    • British Columbia
  1. Combine those using AND*
    • Fracking AND climate change AND effects AND British Columbia
  1. Using quotations marks around terms or concepts that are more than one word
    • Fracking AND “climate change” AND effects AND “British Columbia”

*This is where you wonder whether the AND needs to be in capital letters, and the answer is typically yes. Officially, Summon will understand your search without the AND being in capitals, but in many other library search tools it really matters that the AND is in capitals. It works either way in Summon, so it is a good chance to get familiar with using this.


Vocabulary

  • Keywords
  • Phrase

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