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Honors 200 Tokyo: A Cultural Biography

Information resources to complete research and coursework for Honors 200: Tokyo Cultural Biography

Create a Search Strategy

Search strategies are the terms and syntax (symbols) you use for your search.

 

Choosing search terms

Consider your topic and the most 2-3 important concepts of your research questions to identify terms and their synonyms. You can use keywords for your subject or search specific titles, people, periods, events, movements, geographical locations, theories, concepts, ideas, etc. Consult a reference text (like an encyclopedia) for background information on your topic and to identify additional terms.

For example, if you want to research depictions of Japanese ghost stories from the Edo period, in addition to "ghosts" you might also search "supernatural."

Boolean operators

 

Venn diagrams of Boolean Operators, AND, OR, and NOT, created by a librarian

Cecelia Vetter, CC BY-SA 4.0

AND includes both terms

Example: Japan AND ghost stories

OR includes either term

Example: ghost OR supernatural

NOT excludes term*

Example: "supernatural" NOT "zombie"

*Note that NOT may exclude results with the term even if a result contains a search term you want included

Database syntax

Searching with syntax or symbols instructor the database to search your terms in a specific way can help refine or expand your search. Using "double quotations" will searching only for that specific phrase, narrowing your search. Using truncation (*) can expand your search by searching for all terms that begin the the characters before the * symbol.

Symbol Use Function Example
"..." Double quotation marks Searches exact phrase "ghost stories"
* truncation Adds none or more characters art* searches art, arts, artist, artists, artistic, artesan, artful [but also articulate, article, etc]

Different database platforms (i.e. EBSCO, ProQuest) may use different syntax. Review a more complete list of database syntax.

Building a search strategy

 

A search strategy (or search string) are the keywords, terms, and syntax used in your search. A typical search strategy includes 2-4 concepts, but may include more keywords.

For example, an initial search for information on female artists who participated in the federal arts project might be:

"federal art project" AND women

But you may want to expand your search to get results on artists in the Federal Art Project and all associated programs, but also narrow results to only female graphic artists. So instead you might try:

("federal art project" OR "works progress administration" OR "new deal") AND (female OR wom?n) AND (design OR art*)