NUR 309 - Principles of Pathophysiology

A powerful way to search for books on a particular topic is to perform a keyword search, which looks for records containing the words you use in your search.

 Example keyword search: gene

• This search will find all records which somewhere contain the word gene.  
• Records normally include a title and author, as well as descriptions of its subject matter. In addition, a record may include a chapter headings or a summary of its contents. 
• Therefore this search will retrieve all records with gene in any of these areas--even books by an author named Gene!

 Narrowing your search with and.  Example keyword search: gene and disease

• This search will find all records which somewhere contain both the word gene and the word disease.
• By using and between keywords, you've specified that all of your keywords must be present in the record for it to appear in your results.  
• One major reason to use and is that it lets you narrow broad searches (gene) to more specific topics (for instance, books on genetic diseases).

Using truncation.  Example keyword search: gene* and disease

• Using an asterisk at the end of a keyword is called truncation, and lets you search for word variations.
• This example search will find all records which somewhere contain both the word gene and any words beginning with gene, such as genes, genetics, genome, etc.
• Truncation may save you time by letting you search for multiple word variations via a single search; however, searching the truncation gene* without appropriate modification by and, not or or may also return records containing generation or Gene Kelly so choose your truncation carefully.