1. How to construct a search? (1)
Step 1 – Identify key concepts
 You should be clear about the key concept(s) you are going to search
 Key concepts can be:
 author’s name of a literature work
 keywords of your research theme
 country/place of a phenomenon appeared/an incident happened
 You could also decide what sorts of Library materials you will use. For
example, are you searching for :
 some journal articles about your research topic?
 a book for your self-interest?
 a local TV programme for presentation use?

2. Step 2 – Selection of search words
 Use related words/synonyms to build up a series
of keywords for searching
 If you cannot think of the synonyms, you can use
the Thesaurus or dictionaries to help
 Always combine different keywords to have more
search results
Step 3 – Use of the operators to control the search
 Boolean Operators
 Wildcards/Truncation
 Parentheses
How to construct a search? (2)

3.  AND: searches records that contain both
search terms, this narrows down the search
e.g. “sales tax” AND “hong kong” (同時出現有關
“sales tax” 及 “hong kong” 的結果)
 OR: finds records in which anyone of search
terms appears, this broadens the search
e.g. vat OR “value added tax” (出現有關 vat 或
value added tax 的結果)
 NOT: finds records in which a specific term is
excluded, this narrows down the search
e.g. vat NOT “hong kong”(出現只有有關 vat , 但沒
有 “hong kong” 的結果)
3
Step 3(1) - Boolean Operators
(AND, OR, NOT)

4.  Wildcards / Truncation: retrieves all variant endings
of that keyword, this broadens the search
 Most systems regard * as a truncation mark
 OPAC: *
 1-Search*
 EBSCOhost: *
 ProQuest: *
 LexisNexis Academic: !
E.g. form* - retrieves all words that start with form
such as form, formal, formality, formation, formula,
formulate, etc.
4
How to Construct a SearchStep 3(2) - Wildcards / Truncation

5.  Parentheses( ): group words together, and gives
priority and order in a search statement, this
broadens the search.
E.g. (sales tax OR vat OR value added
tax OR gst) and hong kong
5
How to Construct a SearchStep 3(3) – Parentheses

6.  Quotation Marks “ ”: search the words as an exact
phrase, this narrows down the search.
Try the following examples to see the difference in the
results got in 1-Search :
“social movement theory”
VS
social movement theory
6
How to Construct a SearchStep 3(4) – Quotation Marks

7. Scenario in constructing a search (1)
I would like to do a research paper on the impact
on children’s behavior by domestic violence. How
can I construct a search for this theme?
1. Identify keywords from the research theme:
 domestic violence
 child
 behavior
 impact

8. 2. To form related keywords. E.g.:
 domestic violence => family violence
 impact => effect
3. To combine keywords and use the Boolean
operators /wildcards/parentheses to form a search
 “(domestic OR family) violence” AND child*
AND impact
 “(domestic OR family) violence” AND child*
AND behavior
Scenario in constructing a search (2)

9. Result page of 1-Search after conducting the search
Further
refine
your
search
results by
using
these
functions

10. More Search Tips
 Make use of the Library Resources (e.g. Thesaurus
or dictionaries) to search for keywords
 Be prepared to narrow / expand your search results
by using database-specific features / changing your
keywords
 “Practice makes perfect”!
You will be more skillful in conducting searches
after you have tried more!