Conservation Medicine: Getting Started

Use the BLC Catalog to request books not available at Tufts.  Search for book and vidoes available through the Boston Library Consortium or at libraries wordwide.  Use the Advanced Search to search by title, author, subject, ISBN, etc.

Use more words

When you search the web, a one or two word search often will find hundreds of thousands of websites. To narrow your search and find more relevant web sites, think about your topic and how people might be writing about it. Then use at least three or four keywords or concepts in your search.

Search for phrases

If you can describe your topic with words that could also be used as a phrase, narrow your search by enclosing your phrase in quotations:

"animal testing alternatives"

"cell culture"

Limit your search

Most search engines have advanced or expert features that allow you to limit your search. Search limits can vary depending on the features of the search engine you are using. A few common ways of limiting include:

• Type of web site  or domain name (.edu, .com, .org, .gov): If you are finding too many web pages from commercial sources, you can limit to pages that come from an educational institution by typing .edu as a search limit.
• Date: You can search for pages updated within a certain range of time.
• Location: Many search engines allow you to find web pages published in a particular country.
• File type: Reduce search results by limiting to .doc, .pdf, .ppt, etc.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Use Google Scholar Settings to link to Tufts University libraries resources, set your bibliographic management tool (Endnote, BibTeX, RefMan) and other customizations.

Use Google search tools for more precise searching.

Think of keywords as something the author said, in exactly the way they said it. Computers accept what you type in a literal fashion. When you search, consider:

• how a word is spelled, i.e. American vs. British spelling;

• single, plural or possessive word endings, ex: Alzheimer / Alzheimers / Alzheimer's;

• word ending variations, ex: ethic / ethics / ethical / ethicality;

• word order, ex: bird song / song bird;

• alternate words, ex: turtle / terrapin.

Keyword Search Rules for the Library Catalog and Databases

Using AND/OR/NOT (Boolean Search Operators)
AND	Use AND to focus search and combine different aspects of your topic. Example: Ebola and outbreak
OR	Use OR to expand your search and find synonyms/related terms. Example:  stakeholder or constituent
NOT	Use NOT to exclude a word or phrase from your search Example: United States not Canada