Powerful+Searches

=Powerful Searches=

**Search Tools**

 * Subject directories:** Created by people who select and organize the contents of the sites. The user can then make a series of choices to find the information they are looking for. It is best to use directories when trying to find information about a general subject.
 * Google Directory
 * About.com
 * Digital Librarian


 * Search engines:** Computer programs search the Web
 * Google (Advanced)
 * Killer Info
 * WiseNut


 * Metasearch Engines:**
 * A[|9]
 * Clusty


 * Databases:**

Search Strategies

 * Boolean Operators**
 * +, AND: Limits your search, requires all words appears:
 * Vietnam AND protest AND students
 * Japan +cooking +eagles +habitat + endangered
 * OR: Is used to capture synonyms or related words:
 * Car or automobile coronary OR heart
 * -, NOT, AND NOT: Eliminates possibilities that you suspect will cause problems
 * Martin Luther NOT King
 * +eagles –Philadelphia –football

NOTE: Most search engines let you use “+” and “-“ for AND and NOT (no spaces)

Wildcards

 * Most search engines let you use * to stand for any character (wildcard) which can be helpful when you are unsure of spelling or you want variations of a word. Try a “?” to substitute for one letter either in the middle or end of a word.
 * Teen* (picks up teenage, teenagers or teens)
 * Herz* (for Herzegovina)
 * s?ng (for sing, sang, sung)

Phrases

 * Phrase searching can improve results by locating search terms in a specific order. Quotation marks “ “ set words off as phrases to be searched as one term.
 * “vitamin a”
 * “DaVinci Code”
 * “University of Washington”

Proximity

 * Words are often not meaningful in a search unless they appear near each other in a document. In large documents, words separated by lots of other words are usually not helpful. Many search engines/databases allow proximity searching.
 * Near/25 (Alta Vista, AOL Search and Lycos) finds two words that appear within 25 words of each other: Eric Clapton NEAR/10

Field Searching

 * This strategy restricts searching to certain portions of web documents. You can specify that search terms appear in the title, or URL.
 * Title: cancerURL: epaDomain:edu + “graphic organizers”Inurl: nasa (used in Google)

Case Sensitivity

 * Most search engines are case insensitive by default so use lowercase letters. In some cases using uppercase can be helpful like:
 * Baker gets the proper name and not the profession of baking
 * AIDS eliminates references to helpers

Source: __Power Tools: 100+ Essential Forms and Presentations for Your School Library Information Program__ (Joyce Kasman Valenza)