Do you need help searching the Information Gateway Library? Here are some tips to help you easily find what you’re looking for. Access our thesaurus to find keywords to enhance your search for more tailored results.

Still need help finding what you need? Ask a librarian

Search tips and features

To find a resource in our library, use the search bar on the Library page to search by author’s last name, title, subject, publication date, and more. Try these tips to refine your search results:

  • When coming up with a search term, keep it simple and try to choose a word (or a few words) likely to appear in the document.
  • Filter your results by resource type, peer-reviewed articles, date, and more.
  • Use quotes around your keywords for exact search results.
  • Use the following search operators for more specific results:
    • Use AND between the keywords to narrow your search.
    • Use NOT between the keywords to look for results that exclude more than one keyword.
    • Use OR between the keywords to expand your search.
  • Search terms are not case sensitive, so “Child Abuse” will give the same results as “child abuse.”
  • Fewer words in the search will result in a greater number of results.

Get the most out of your results

  • Use the Pin icon on the right of each search result to save to your favorites.
  • Once your search is complete, select the Pin icon in the upper right to access your favorites. Select the three dots next to "My Favorites" to find options to email or print your results.
  • Easily generate citations for each result.

Using symbols in search

Special symbols can be used as shortcuts to help you search more efficiently. Find out how to use the asterisk, comma, question mark, and ampersand to enhance your searches for similar terms or all forms of a word without performing multiple searches.

Symbol Description Example
* Use “*” at the beginning or end of a search term to search for the base word as well as any words with a different prefix or suffix.

“Child*” will show results containing “child,” as well as “childlike” and “children.”

“*Parent” will show results containing “parent,” as well as “grandparent” and “stepparent.”
,

Use “,” in a search term to mean “or.”

 “Substance abuse, drug abuse” will show results containing “substance abuse” OR “drug abuse.”
? Use “?” in a search to show results with any character substituted into the space the “?” occupies “Adop?” will show results containing words that have a single letter after adop (such as adopt) but will exclude words such as “adoption”.
&

Use “&” in a search term to mean “and.”

 “Parent & community” will show results containing both “parent” and “community.”