Keyword Searching - Books

(This page corresponds to Section 2 of INF 102.)


Initially, our search string was

concussion AND depress? AND (athletes OR sports)

While this will work well in many article databases, it only turned up one result in the MCPHS Library Catalog. After some trial-and-error, I decide to simplify our search to only the word concussion.

Remember that books are often more general in scope than articles or other sources, so if an elaborate search doesn't provide you with any results (or not enough), you'll want to think more broadly.

This time, my keyword search returns 81 results, which is a much better number than the previous 1.

Then, I simply look through the books that are there, making sure the majority of the results pertain to my topic. If not, I would need to play around with my keyword or words. Remember, research is a process and having to perform multiple searches in order to find good information is completely normal! The results are fine in the example that's shown below.

You already know about accessing a book once you've found it in the catalog from INF 101, whether it's an e-book or a physical book, at MCPHS or elsewhere. But, as always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact a librarian!