Key Takeaways:

If you have too many results try:

Adding additional concepts using the term AND.
Using Subject or Title fields to make sure the results are relevant.
But make sure not to exclude relevant results by using terms that must show up where you are searching.

Craft your search terms carefully.

The best way to find relevant results is to use terms that appear the most frequently or prominently(think title) in the document you want. Think about the language subject matter experts would use and use those terms. If you are not sure what terms you should use, try googling the subject and putting terms you find in the library databases.

Combine concepts using AND.

If you are searching in a library database and your search has too many results it is probably because your search terms are too broad. One way to fix this is by adding additional concepts using the term AND. (Sometimes you have to capitalize the term AND sometimes you don’t depending on the database. So just always capitalize it just in case.) A search for video games AND dyslexia will return less results and more relevant ones than a search for video games alone. Each time you add an additional term using the term AND you will get fewer results.

A search for video games alone has 326, 245 results.

326,245 search results for video games

A search for video games AND dyslexia has 47 results.

47 search results for video games AND dyslexia

But remember. That exact term has to show up in any result. So if you use a word and it is expressed differently in your document. It may not come back in your results. For instance a search for the “benefits of video games” will not return an article about how video games help students with dyslexia read better if that article does not use the word benefit. Think of the exact words that must appear in a document and use those.

Use quotes to combine terms that must appear together.

Search engines will search separately for each individual term. To search for words as a phrase put them in quotes. For example a search for crisis actor on the library website will give you books about debt in Greece and the Iraq war. A search for “crisis actor” in quotes will treat both terms as one concept.

An example of an ineffective search:

~~crisis actor~~

An example of an effective search:

"crisis actor"

Use Subject and Title Search Fields.

When you enter search terms into Google or a library database, the search engine will look for those terms anywhere in the document or document record. (Depending on the database, it might only search the document record). A good way to limit your search to the most relevant results is to search your keywords in the subject or title of the resource so that way the article, book, video--whatever you find is actually about your topic and doesn’t just mention it somewhere in the document.

Most library databases will have an advanced search feature that looks something like the image below. Sometime it will automatically appear after your first search, sometimes you have to look for the advanced search option. Even Google has an advanced search option. Limit your keywords to subject or title to get more relevant results.

A search for video games AND dyslexia in the subject fields produces fewer but more relevant results.

Search results for video games and dyslexia in the subject fields

But remember, if you are using a concept that can be expressed in many different ways, you might lose a lot of relevant results by searching only within these fields. For example if you search for an article about bias in search engines, but limit your search to title or subject then your search won’t return articles on the same topic that use the terms discrimination or racism or sexism, terms that might appear elsewhere in the document or document record.