SPC 1608 - Stein (Dale Mabry): Search Tips

Library search tools, such as  PRIMO and the individual databases, usually work best by starting with just a few important search terms, or keywords. If using PRIMO, be sure to sign in first with your NetID.

Using the question, "Are driverless cars safe?" here are some example searches.

• driverless cars safe*
  • start with the most important words of your topic
  • ending a word with an asterisk as the last character searches multiple endings - includes safer, safest, safety
    • this is called truncation or wildcard searching
• driverless OR self-driving AND vehicles AND safe*
  • adding or replacing search terms based on what we've found so far
  • inserting OR to search one or the other broadens the search
  • inserting AND applies another term to the previous ones
• driverless OR self-driving AND vehicles AND safe* narrowed down by the following options in the filter menu:
  • publication date
  • language
  • resource type, such as articles or books

Results default to most relevant at the top. Reducing results through filtering may push more relevant results higher up the list.

Therefore, you may not need to look at more than the first 20 or so items before trying something else.