How to Search Like a Pro

UW Libraries Search and other library databases can be finicky when it comes to processing search entries. In a typical Google search, you can type in whole sentences or questions and the Google AI will find results that most closely match and/or answer your question. However, library databases will try to find results that contain all of the words in your search entry, which will often result in failure. This can be frustrating, but there are ways to work around this issue!

Keywords

While UW Libraries Search and databases don’t accept full sentences, they do accept keywords. Keywords are the main points of your topic, and are often single words, such as “environment” or “impact.”

For example: What is the impact of the soda tax in Seattle on public health?

Keywords: impact, soda tax, Seattle, public health

Subject Headings

Databases often have their own specific keywords (subject headings) that they use to group like items together; you can find links to subject headings in article records or in the database’s thesaurus.

highlight of Academic Search Complete's Subject Terms in the top menu bar

Watch this video from UW Libraries to learn how to use keywords and subject headings in your research:

Limits & Filters

Limiters and filters allow you to narrow the focus of your search so that the information retrieved is limited according to the values you select. Each database will vary slightly, but all will have a variety of options to limit your search. Limiters can be commonly found in Advanced Search settings, as well as on the left or right side of the search results.

Common filters include:

Full-text: selecting this filter will retrieve only results with full-text available
Source/document type: academic journals, magazines, newspapers, etc.
Peer-reviewed: will retrieve only items that have been peer-reviewed
Date published: use this option for materials published within a specific date range
Subject: some databases will give you options for narrowing your search within a specific field of study

screenshot of the advanced search feature of the UW Libraries Search

How to Access Full Text

As you browse your search results, look for these icons in order to access the full text of articles:

Image of Adobe PDF icon Image of HTML page icon Image of Open Access icon

You can also click on the 'Check for Full Text' icon to be redirected into the UW Libraries catalog. This lets you see if UW Libraries has access to the full text version of an article:

Image of the UW Check for Full Text icon

If the full text of an article is not available in the UW Libraries, you can request it from Interlibrary Loan Links to an external site. at no charge.