MY LIBRARY
My Library Privileges
My Library Record

QUICK LINKS
Citation Style Guides
Copyright Information
Finding Articles FAQs
Finding Books FAQs
Help A to Z
Locating Library Materials
Off-Campus Access
RefWorks Help

RESOURCES
Users' Guide
Xtreme Subject Guides
xu.tutor
26 Steps

HelP: Search Engine Tips & Tricks

The following "rules of thumb" are employed by most search engines.

Typing this . . Returns pages containing . . .
academic medicine the words academic medicine next to one another, then pages containing academic and medicine, and finally pages containing academic or medicine
"academic medicine" the word academic next to the word medicine
+academic medicine the word academic, and maybe the word medicine
+academic +medicine both academic and medicine, although not necessarily next to one another
Bart Simpson the name (remember to capitalize proper nouns)
+Simpson -OJ the name Simpson; pages containing OJ are ranked lower (some search engines will exclude pages with the name OJ)
1-800-999-9999 the telephone number (dashes link the numbers together as a phrase)
paris paris, Paris, and PARIS
Paris only Paris
wish* wish, wishes, wishful, wishbone, and wishy-washy
image:spine the image named spine
url:gov the word gov in the host name, path, or filename
Note: If you are using a plus (+) or minus (-) search operator, there is a space before the operator, but no space between the operator and the search term.

Copyright 2008 : Xavier University : McDonald Library : 3800 Victory Parkway : Cincinnati, OH 45207-5211 : 513 745-3881