1. Keywords, not sentences. These may need to be “tweaked” many times. Look in the titles and abstracts of articles for more specific/accurate terminology.
2. USE YOUR FILTERS (when changing your search, you might have to reset these).
3. SUMMON searches everything, choose a database by name/topic or a specific journal if known or more appropriate. (you could start with a haystack smaller than Summon.)
4. “Quotation marks” turn a group of words into a single entity for the search software.
5. An asterisk (*) is a "wild card" command you can use at the end of a root word…meaning, it takes the place of a myriad possible word endings and looks for them all. For example: exhibit* looks for exhibits, exhibition, exhibited, etc.
6. Use “advanced search” for multiple search terms. This screen option may make it easier to implement the boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) and/or to add, change, or take-away key words as you tweak your search terms.
7. CTRL “f” allows you to skim the text on your screen.
8. An article's references are like bread crumbs to other helpful articles. Look them over! Cross-reference titles that look promising!
Remember: you're using these tools to help make the "haystack" smaller,
so you can find those "needles" of information that you need
Use of RIT resources is reserved for current RIT students, faculty
and staff for academic and teaching purposes only.
Please contact your librarian with any questions.
