Skip to Main Content

Find & Evaluate News Sources

Find magazine & newspaper articles

Boolean Operators/Connectors

AND

Type AND between your keywords to narrow your search. The database or search engine will only retrieve those articles or web pages that contain both words. Using AND will decrease the number or hits or articles or web pages in your result list.

Example: school AND crime

Note: Some databases and search engines (such as Google and Craigslist) allow you to type a plus sign (+) in front of a keyword when doing a basic search. This works the same as AND.

Example: +school +crime

 

School And Chrime search

OR

OR Type OR between your keywords to broaden your search. The database or search engine will retrieve those articles or web pages that contain at least one of these words. Using OR will increase the number of articles or web pages in your result list (especially if not used in combination with AND or NOT). Use OR between keywords that are synonyms or have similar meanings. Example: baby OR infant

 

Search for Baby or Infant

NOT

Type NOT before a keyword to exclude that keyword from your search. Using NOT will decrease the number of articles or web pages in your result list. The best use of NOT is when you are searching for a keyword that may have multiple meanings.

Example: bat NOT baseball

 

Search for bat Not base ball

Combining Boolean Operators

Use parentheses ( ) to keep combination searches in order. In the example below, the database or search engine will retrieve articles or web pages that must contain the word law and at least one of the words in parentheses.

Example: (ecstasy OR mdma) AND law

 

Search combining law ecstasy mdma

Truncation

Truncation, also known as stemming, uses a character such as asterisk (*) or question mark (?) at the end of a word, which allows you to search for a root form of a word and pick up any ending.

Example: typing teen* will find teen, teens, teenage, teenager, teenagers.

Notes:

  • Be careful not to end the stem or root of a word too early to retrieve too many results. Example: typing cat* will find cat, cats, catalog, catastrophe, catsup, etc.
  • Different databases use different symbols to truncate words. However, most of our popular databases, such as our library catalog (QuickSearch), Academic Search Complete and Access World News (NewsBank) use an asterisk (*) as their truncation symbol. If in doubt, check the "Help" screen for the truncation symbol.
  • Some search engines, such as Yahoo! and Google, automatically use truncation without you having to type a truncation symbol.

Wildcard Symbols

Wildcard symbols can be typed in place of a letter or letters within a keyword if you are not sure of the spelling or if there are different forms of the root word.

Example: wom?n will find both women and woman.

Note: Again, check the Help or Tips links available on most library databases and Internet search engines to verify the wildcard symbol that should be used - usually an asterisk (*) or question mark (?)

Exact Phrase Searching

To look for an exact phrase, use quotation marks (" ") around the keywords.

Example: "attention deficit disorder”

Note: this works in most search engines as well. If you type an exact phrase without quotations when doing a basic search, most search engines will look for each word separately. This means your result list will include web pages that not only contain the exact phrase (ex: attention deficit disorder) but also web pages that contain a word or words from the exact phrase appearing separately (ex: attention may appear in one paragraph or sentence and disorder will appear in another paragraph or sentence).

Limiting your Search to Type of Article

  1. Under the search boxes, click on the arrow next to All Subjects.
  2. When the menu drops down, click on the + (plus) sign next to Content Types.
  3. When the Content Types menu appears, scroll down and click on a specific content type. Content types include Advertorials/Sponsored Content, Commentaries/Opinions, Editorials, Letters, Page-One Stories, and Reviews.

Masterfile Premier Database Search Tips

  • Limit your search to magazine articles by selecting Periodical from the Publication Type menu under the search boxes.
  • Limit your search to newspaper articles by selecting Newspaper from the Publication Type menu under the search boxes.
  • Limit your search to a document type by selecting a specific document type from the Document Type menu under the search boxes. Document types include Book Review, Editorial, Entertainment Review, Film Review, Letter, Literature Review, Music Review, Poetry Review, Product Review, and Television Review.

 

Newspaper Source Plus Database Search Tips

  • Limit your search to magazine articles by selecting Magazine from the Publication Type menu under the search boxes.
  • Limit your search to newspaper articles by selecting Newspaper from the Publication Type menu under the search boxes.
  • Limit your search to a document type by selecting a specific document type from the Document Type menu under the search boxes. Document types include Book Review, Course Review, Editorial, Entertainment Review, Establishment Review, Exhibition Review, Festival Review, Film Review, Letter, Literature Review, Music Review, Opinion, Poetry Review, Product Review, Television Review, Video Game Review and Web Site Review.