Finding the Right Search Terms
The language we use to talk about gender and sexuality changes rapidly, which means that you won’t always be able to use the most current and preferred language to find the information you need. Be aware that you're likely to encounter outdated and possibly offensive terms when you're digging into this literature, particularly in historical texts.
Tips for Finding Effective Search Terms
- Do some "pre-search" by reading about your topic in a reference source or textbook.
- Wikipedia can be a great resource at the early stages of research. You can use it to identify vocabulary for your keyword searches, give you some background information, and point you toward scholarly sources and reporting on your topic.
- Wikipedia can be a great resource at the early stages of research. You can use it to identify vocabulary for your keyword searches, give you some background information, and point you toward scholarly sources and reporting on your topic.
- Look at the subject tags on your search results to identify additional search terms.
- You'll find these under the search result in most databases, and on the item page.
- You'll find these under the search result in most databases, and on the item page.
Consult the reference source below for current and historical terms:
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Oxford Dictionary of Gender Studies
Publication Date: 2017Definitions of a range of terms from within the fast-developing field of Gender Studies. It covers terms which have emerged out of Gender Studies, such as cyber feminism, the double burden, and the male gaze, and gender-focused definitions of more general terms, such as housework, intersectionality, and trolling. It also covers major feminist figures, including Hélène Cixous, bell hooks, and Mary Wollstonecraft, as well as groups and movements from Votes for Women to Reclaim the Night.
General Search Strategies
- Use specific keywords and phrases that get to the core of your topic:
- For the research question, "Why are LGBTQ books the particular objects of book bans?"
- Search for the keywords: book bans, LGBTQ
- Put phrases, names, and titles in quotes to keep them together:
- "book bans"
- "Heather Has Two Mommies"
- "LGBTQ books"
- Brainstorm synonyms and related terms:
- gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer
- "children's literature"
- censorship
- Anchor your search with a specific time, place, and/or concept.
A search for censorship AND LGBTQ AND "United States" will return more targeted results than a search for censorship.
Advanced Search Strategies
- Use wildcards to search for related words.
- Use ? to replace a single letter:
- wom?n searches for "woman," "women," "womyn," and "womxn"
- Use * at the end of a word to search for multiple forms of a word (truncation):
- sexual* searches for "sexual," "sexuality," "sexualities," "sexualize," "sexualization"
- sexual* searches for "sexual," "sexuality," "sexualities," "sexualize," "sexualization"
- Use ? to replace a single letter:
- Use boolean operators to craft your search string.
- Boolean operators--the words AND, OR, and NOT--connect your search terms to add, combine, and exclude terms from your search. You can type them into the search field (use all caps!), or use the dropdown menus on the advanced search. Click the links below to see sample searches in Scout.
- AND combines search terms: Searching, "book bans" AND "LGBTQ" returns items that contain both of these terms.
- OR adds terms to your search. Searching, "book bans" OR "censorship" returns items that contain either of these terms.
- NOT excludes terms from your search. Searching, "book bans" NOT "picture books" returns items about book bans that do not contain the phrase "picture books."
- Use field searching for a more precise search.
- Use the dropdown menus to search for your terms in the title, author, subject, or abstract fields only.
- Use the dropdown menus to search for your terms in the title, author, subject, or abstract fields only.