Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words AND, OR, NOT (known as Boolean operators) to limit, broaden, or define your search. A good researcher should know how to do a Boolean Search.
AND: Using AND narrows a search by combining terms.
OR: Using OR broadens a search to include results that contain either of the words you're looking for.
NOT)
NOT: Using NOT will narrow a search by exclusion. (Some search engines, like Google, recognize the minus (-) symbol, instead of the word
Soviet OR Lenin is broader than Soviet AND Lenin. Etc.
Asterix * For example, therap* will search for therapy, therapies, therapist, therapists, therapeutic, etc.
Quotations: Placing quotations around a specific phrase will help you narrow results in order to find information containing that exact wording.
When you search by keyword in a database:
Searching by keyword can be a flexible way to find a large number of results. You can use keyword searching as a way to find targeted results: slang, jargon, and new terms work well in keyword searches
When you search by subject, you are using a term from a pre-defined controlled vocabulary determined by that database. Many databases feature a subject-specific thesaurus of subject terms that relate back to the contents in that database. You will only receive articles that were assigned the subject heading you searched with. For this reason, articles found via subject heading searches can be very reliable. The subject will appear in the record item's subject heading or descriptor field.
Searching by subject can be a very specific way to find targeted results within a specific discipline or research area. This can be very beneficial to your research; however, searching by subject only works if you know which subject terms to search with.
Note about the issues of LOC description -- it doesn’t handle race, gender, class well.
From The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Research Guide Advanced Library Search Strategies
Refining a Search
Participatory Action Research (PAR) challenges the belief that only academics or trained professionals can produce accurate information, and instead recognizes information as POWER and puts that power in the hands of people seeking to overcome problems in their daily lives. The people most affected by the problems, sometimes with the help of “experts”, investigate and analyze the issues, and ultimately act together to bring about meaningful, long-term solutions.
Ethnography cuts a middle path between journalistic travel writing and traditional scientific
objectivity, blurring the distinction between the two. Oftentimes ethnographers choose to use a first-
person perspective in their writing to acknowledge their presence as both observer and active participants
in the culture they are studying." Autoethnography is a form of ethnographic research in which a researcher connects personal experiences to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings.
A zine, short for fanzine or magazine, is a DIY* subculture self-publication, usually made on paper and reproduced with a photocopier or printer. Zine creators are often motivated by a desire to share knowledge or experience with people in marginalized or otherwise less-empowered communities. -- (Barnard Zine Library Home Page)