ENG BC3172 Marxist Materialisms

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: Using NOT will narrow a search by exclusion. (Some search engines, like Google, recognize the minus (-) symbol, instead of the word NOT)

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.

From a Citation

If you are trying to locate a specific article starting from a citation (ideally, one with the article's title, author(s), place of publication and date of publication), there are a few different ways you might go about your search:

• Use CLIO Articles Search to search for the article by title. If the library's subscriptions give access to the article in full text, you should see a link that will lead you to the article. 
• If the CLIO Articles Search does not lead you to the article, try the CLIO e-Journal Search to search for the library's holdings of the periodical in which the article is published. This search will show you both print and digital holdings of journals, magazines, and other serials in which articles are published. 
• If neither of the above searches leads you to the article you are looking for, try requesting a digital scan of the article using Interlibrary Loan. Make sure that you indicate the title, author, and inclusive page numbers you'll need (Note: You can also request book chapter scans using ILL). 

If you are interested in tracing where an article (or book, or book chapter) has been cited, try searching for it in Google Scholar. You can click on the "cited by" link under the source listing to lead to citations for these citing sources.

CLIO is the online search system for Columbia University Libraries (CUL), designed to improve information discovery and deliver enhanced services for students and faculty. 

It has several sections that allow you to search various types and sources of information:

• Catalog: Books, journals, online resources, videos, and more
  • Databases: More than 1,500 databases including archives, articles, conference papers, dissertations, e-book collections, government documents, image collections, audio and video collections
  • E-Journal Titles: E-journals can be searched for by title or keywords in the description
  • Archives: Archival collections in six repositories - Avery Library, Department of Drawing & Archives, Burke Library Archives, CU Archives, Health Sciences Library Archives & Special Collections, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Starr East Asian Library Rare Books & Special Collections
  • New Arrivals: Searches the catalog for titles ordered or received in the past six months.
• Articles+: Journal articles, e-books, dissertations, and more
• Academic Commons: Digital repository of Columbia research
• Libraries Website: Information about the libraries from the CUL Website

Exercise:

1. Brainstorm Questions and Keywords relevant to your topic. You can use a Concept Map to think through your topic: link research questions to key words, think about alternative phrases, broader and narrower terms, and so on.

2. Select a specific database and do the search (see specialized database tab for a shortlist)

3.  Keep a Research Log to keep track of your process (and to help prompt you to search strategically)
              

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You can also search CLIO to find books (available through CUL and other partner libraries, and all sorts of other articles using your keywords and using limits!