exercise 5

Exercise 5

Keyword searching and Boolean logic

1. Go to the COCC catalog.

Search A: Start with a keyword search for con artists

How many results did you get?

How many of the results are relevant?

Search B: Now do a Subject search in the COCC catalog for con artists

How many results did you get?

How many of the results are relevant?

Which search worked the best A or B?

Why?

2. You are doing a keyword search and you want to retrieve results with variations of the word crime, such as crime, crimes, criminals, criminals, etc.

State here how you would type in your search term:

3.You want to use the terms labor unions in your search. How would you type them?

a. labor and unions

b. "labor unions"

FOR THIS QUESTION DO NOT USE THE COMPUTER TO DO THE SEARCH - JUST WRITE DOWN YOUR RESPONSES!

You want to research the topic: what is the stance of the Catholic Church on female clergy?

Here are the steps you should follow:

Select your "key" search words. Can you also think of possible synonyms (i.e., words with the same meaning)?
Now combine these terms with Boolean connectors. Use the Boolean AND to combine/require search terms in your results, and the Boolean OR to include synonyms.
Don't forget to use truncation (*) where needed.

Your best keyword search is: