Advanced Search Techniques
Proximity Searching (w/, adj, near) allows you to specify how close your search terms are to each other in the results. One problem of a keyword search is that your keywords could be far apart and have no relationship to each other. Each database uses different symbols but the general method is the same. Here are some examples:
alcohol w/2 advertising [This will search for the word alcohol within two words of advertising]
music adj download [This will search for the word music next to the word download]
Field Searching allows you to tell the computer to only look for your keywords in part of a record. Most databases usually start with keywords or default fields. Simply change this using the pull down menu to the title or subject fields for example. If you change it to the title field it will ONLY look for your keywords in the title of the article thus the article is really about your keywords.
Truncation expands your search by searching for different word endings like -s, -es, -ed, -ing. the truncation symbol is usually an asterisk (*), but check the database instructions or search tips.