KINE 231 Library Tutorial

Databases use the words AND, OR, and NOT as search commands to perform certain actions. 

• AND is a way to narrow your search. You are looking for results that have ALL of the search terms. AND is best used between keywords that represent different concepts. It's usually the default option between search bars in an advanced search. 
• OR is a way to broaden your search. You are looking for results that have ANY of the search terms. OR is best used between synonyms and related keywords. 
• NOT is a way to exclude words from your search. You are looking for results that do not include a specific search term.

You can use these search commands within the same search box to link concepts or between search boxes to separate concepts.

In the example below, OR is used to connect alternate terms for the same concept. AND is used between search boxes to link the concepts.

Use "quotation marks" ("inverted commas") to search for a phrase.

For example, if you want to find articles that mention physical activity, try searching for “physical activity”. Doing this means that the database will only show you results where the words in the phrase are together in that exact order. This helps eliminate irrelevant results.

Watch the video below for a demonstration of how to search using AND, OR and phrase searching. 

When you type your keywords into the library's search bar, it will automatically look for the words anywhere within the results. 

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. This can help you narrow your search to articles that are more focused on particular aspects of your topic.

To do this, click on the "Select a Field" drop-down menu next to each search bar. 

Watch the video below to learn more and to also learn how to use filters in your search.