Public Policy

Library tools use different language than the one we us everyday, so it's important to adapt our thesis statement or topic to the language that they will recognize. Here are some tips to help you create a good search strategy.

• Think about your topic, what are the main concepts?
• You can use a concept map to help you come up with your topic and relevant keywords.
• Use the boolean operators below to combine your keywords together.
• Select the best tool for your topic and begin your search.

AND: Combines two concepts, both will be represented in the results.

• Lowers the numbers of results

• Ex: Canada AND policy

OR: Joins two concepts or synonyms

• Increases the number of results

• Ex: policy OR governance

NOT: Removes the results that include the word that follows it

• Lowers the numbers of results

• Ex: North America NOT United States

* truncation or wildcard: Place at the end of the root of a word and all the words with a different ending will be represented in the results

• Use instead of plurals / can also replace a letter

• Increases the number of results

• Ex: Wom*n = will show results with woman and women. Canad* will show Canada, Canadian, canadien, canadienne, etc…