LibGuides: UGS 302: Art, Criticism and Society / Stroud: Search strategies (keywords, advanced search)

You get what you ask for

The words you choose to search dictate the results you get back - straightforward, right? But in reality, it's a common mistake to search the same unhelpful terms over and over again without any regard of related terms and ideas, without regard to where you're searching or whom you are asking.

Because library resources have to be searched differently than Google, it's best to brainstorm keywords before you start. Choose keywords which represent the main concepts of your topic. Then for each concept, choose a number of keywords, including synonyms and related terms.

Then combine them using AND and OR

AND narrows your search by looking for articles with all of the words
OR broadens your search by looking for articles with any of the words

TIP!
Use * to truncate (ex: identi* finds identity, identification, etc.) in most databases

Sample Topic:	Social Media as art
	Larger Concepts	Specific artists / works / venues	Controversies
	online digital art performance art NFTs	Richard Prince snapchat instagram facebook Man Bartlett Kim Kardashian	collecting gallery copyright advertising archiving preservation