Upward Bound- History: How to Search

• Be specific!
• Databases have too much specialized information in them to be appropriate for background research
• Combine your ideas effectively using:
• AND, to combine terms for specific results
• OR, to allow for synonyms, and to broaden results
• NOT, to exclude terms from your search

Click on the following links to view a short tutorial on each topic. For flash-free mobile and Apple devices click on

Introduction to Online Databases  (2:00)  

Search Strategies for  Finding Articles  (3:50)  

Finding Full-Text Articles  (2:46)  

The Different Types of Articles (Magazines, Journals and Newspapers)  (4:40)  

Scholarly Articles  (3:09)

• Remember to seperate your keywords (ideas)
• Notice that the word AND is already there for you
• At least to start with, don't change anything in the drop-down menus

• Look at the number of results your search brings you
• If there are more than 100, you're not being specific enough
• try adding another keyword to your search
• If there are no results or too few results, you're being too specific
• take some keywords out of your search
• Remember to consider whether the publication date is important
• Remember to check the box next to "Scholarly (Peer-reviewed) Journals

• Remember, you don't have to search perfectly everytime-- there's a lot of hit and miss involved
• Don't be discouraged if you have to start over and modify your search

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