Conducting Advanced Electronic Searches
Search engines contain millions of records on Web sites, much as a database or library catalog contains records on books, periodicals, or other materials found in a library. Generally, search engines can be searched by broad categories such as education or health or by more specific keywords.
See sample keyword searches. 667.
Limit the Search. When you limit your search to keywords and broad categories, you may be overwhelmed with information. For example, Figure 32.1 illustrates a keyword search for sources on foster care on Google that produced more than 200 million entries. A keyword search may be ideal for a highly specialized term or topic, such as training for distance runners. For a more general topic — such as foster care — limit your search to find more relevant results. As Figure 32.2 shows, an advanced search produced fewer sources on one aspect of foster care — placing teenagers.
Select Limitations for Advanced Searches. Google and Metacrawler, for example, allow you to limit searches to all, exactly, any, or none of the words you enter. Look for directions for limitations such as these:
- a phrase such as “elementary school safety,” requested as a unit (exactly these words) or enclosed in quotation marks to mark it as a unit
- a specific language (human or computer) such as English or Spanish
- a specific format or type of software such as a PDF file
- a date range (before, after, or between creation, revision, or indexing)
- a domain such as .edu (educational institution), .gov (government), .org (organization), or .com (commercial site or company), which indicates the type of group sponsoring the site
- a part of the world, such as North America or Africa
- the location (such as the title, the URL, or the text) of the search term
- the audio or visual media enhancements
- the file size
Hover over pink letters to see various components of each search.
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