Watch the videos below to learn how to use OR to broaden a search and use synonyms and related keywords in your search use "phrase searching."
| Example | What the database does |
| Indigenous OR Aboriginal | Finds results that contain either the word Indigenous, or the word Aboriginal. Some results may contain both words. |
| First Nations | Finds the word 'first' and the word 'nations.' The word 'first' could appear in one paragraph, the word 'nations' in another, or these words could appear together. |
| "First Nations" | Finds these two words together, in that exact order. The phrase "First Nations" will appear somewhere in your results. |
When you type your keywords into the library's search bar, it will automatically look for the words anywhere within the results. This means you find an article where your keywords appears somewhere in an article's reference list, but nowhere else.
You can use field searching to tell the database where to look for your keywords, so that you only get results where your keywords are mentioned in places like an article's abstract or title.
Watch the video below to learn more.