Effective search strategies can shorten your research time significantly. Here are some tips from the pros:
Use quotation marks around a phrase to inform the search engine to look for exactly the phrase you enter-- for example "medical marijuana" or "food desert".
When searching for a keyword with multiple variations (ex. "agriculture", "agricultures", "agricultural") use the root form of the word and add an asterisk (*). This means using agricultur* will retrieve items that have all variations of this word.
Be specific: A search for Confederate statues and protest* and "public space*" is much better than one for "Confederate monuments".
Use the built-in database filters to focus your results! Most interfaces let you limit by publication date, subject, format and more . . .
Before getting started with research, it is a good idea to start with some background and context to the issues you are investigating. The informative sources below will help you get to that information quickly.
