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Library Search Tips

The Child Welfare Information Gateway Library has an extensive collection of documents you can access on topics related to protecting children and strengthening families. To find a document in our Library, you may search by:

• Keyword
• Title of publication or part of the title
• Author(s) last name or part of the last name
• Year published
• Subject

Use any or all of the following techniques in any combination to achieve the results you seek.

Using punctuation with multiple keywords
You may expand or narrow your search by using multiple keywords with punctuation. Commas (,) are read as "or" and ampersands (&) are read as "and." For example: "child, abuse" will be read as "child or abuse" (either one must be present), while "child & abuse" will be read as "child and abuse" (both must be present).

Using the modifier box to narrow or expand your search
Expand or narrow your search by using the modifier box to the right of the search field.

To narrow your search, use the default AND in the modifier box. Use OR to broaden your search. For example, for documents with a keyword of "Adoption" and written by "Jane Smith," use AND in the modifier box. For documents with a keyword of "Adoption" or written by "Jane Smith" use OR in the modifier box. AND NOT will narrow your search. For example, to find documents with the keyword "Adoption" but not written by "Jane Smith" the modifier box should be set to AND NOT.

Using exact phrases
It is not necessary to use quotation marks to find an exact phrase. Entering sexual and physical abuse will result in documents that contain that exact phrase.

Using wildcards
Wildcards are symbols that act as placeholders in a keyword. Wildcards can help when you are unsure what you are looking for, unsure how to spell a keyword, or want to search for related keywords or terms.

The two most common wildcards that can be used to search are * (asterisk) and ? (question mark). Using * in a keyword allows the search to look for any number of letters before or after the * (depending on where it is used).

For example, entering adopt* tells the search to look for any words that begin with adopt (such as adopt, adoption, etc.). Another example, entering *treat* tells the search to look for words that have treat somewhere in the word (such as maltreatment, treatment, etc.).

Using ? in the keyword tells the search to look for a single letter where the ? is. For example, entering adop? tells the search to look for any words that have a single letter after adop (such as adopt but not adoption).

Search for author's last name or part of last name followed by an * (asterisk)
See using wildcards for more information.

Search for title of publication or part of title
Search for a publication by typing in the full title, or by typing in a word, words, or phrase in the title. The tips for keyword searches apply for the title search field. If commas are in the title, do not enter them in the search field.

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• Library policy

Updated on July 3, 2008