The Great Debate 2023: Where to Search

Keywords and Search Terms

• Use 1 to 3 words as your search terms
  • Example:  "social media"
• Use Searching Tools such as Boolean Connectors
  • Example: AND, OR, NOT
  • Keep Boolean connectors all caps 
  • Example: "social media" AND government restrict*
• Searching Tips
  • Place quotation marks around multi-word search terms for exact forms of a word
    • "social media" AND government restrict* AND "mental health"
  • Place an asterisk * symbol at the end of a root word for the library catalog or library database to search for all variations of that root word
    • government restrict* AND "mental health" AND "social media"

More Search Tips

• Tweak how you enter your search terms
  • Example: change "government restrictions" with quotation marks to government restrict* without quotation marks and the asterisk.
• Watch the Publication and/or Creation and/or Copyright date for Relevancy

NOTE: If your keyword search terms are not resulting in resources you find useful, play around with the way you enter the search terms in the search box. 

Some suggestions: remove all quotation marks and Boolean Connectors.  You will see different results that are still relevant even though you change what and how you enter your keyword search terms.

Library Catalog

Use the HCC Online Library Catalog to search for different types of resources:

• Articles from Peer-Reviewed Academic Journals
• Books, both in Print and Electronic
• Streaming Media/Videos

General

Subject Related 

Pro/Con Databases

Newspapers

Streaming Media/Video Databases