Approaching your Keyword Search

Now that you've seen a catalog record you've also seen the grand total of what you are searching when you enter keywords in a library catalog. Contrary to popular belief, you are not searching every word in the book.

Be Flexible with your Search

In Module 2 you learned about narrowing your topic, which will come in handy when searching the catalog. However, you may also need to consider broadening your topic at times. For example, if you had the topic

Is the electric chair cruel and unusual punishment?

A search for electric chair in the catalog will find few results. You will have much better luck with a more general search: capital punishment.

Here are some other examples:

Remember that using a truncation symbol ("?" in the FLO Catalog) after the root of a word can also be a way to make your search broader.