English Language Institute (ELI) Library Guide

There are may ways to approach research. Here are just a few suggestions to keep in mind:

• Be flexible
   
• Think about who might create information on your topic
   
• Brainstorm synonyms (you describe your topic one way, but someone with a different perspective might describe it differently)
   
• Use the advanced search
   
• Use boolean operators
   
• Keep track of your results (citation management tools like Zotero can help with this)
   
• Consider information skeptically, but keep an open mind

AND

• Useful for narrowing your results (because all search terms must be present in the resulting records).
• Ex: bridges AND history AND civil engineering (the black triangle in the middle of the Venn diagram below represents the result set for this search).
• Note: Most search engines and databases will assume your search terms are connected with AND.
   

OR

• Useful for broadening your results (because search results may contain either or both search terms).
• Ex: university OR college OR higher education (the entire Venn diagram below represents the result set for this search).
• Note: OR is especially useful if your search terms have synonyms.
   

NOT

• Excludes results with whichever search term follows it.
• Ex: mercury NOT planet (the dark green section in the Venn diagram represents the result set for this search).
• Note: The order of your search terms matters when using NOT (results with the second search term will be excluded).
  
   

Need research help? Just ask!

• Email librarian@binghamton.edu
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