Malmö Theatre Academy - Master’s Programme in Performing Arts as Critical Practice

Before you start searching, take the time to reflect about the following: 

What am I going to use the information for? 

What kind of sources will I be needing?

In which search facilities can I find suitable material?

How do I search for that material? 

Which limitations should I apply?

Finding the right keywords:

Think about synonyms, language, broader or wider terms

Basic techniques

Truncation

• astron*
      - astronaut
      - astronomy

Mask

• wom?n
      - woman, women

• Lind??ist
      - Lindkvist, Lindqvist, Lindquist

Exact phrases

• ”climatic change”
      - not: climatic changes, changes in the climate

Combine search terms - Boolean logic

It´s easy and logic to combine search terms using the words AND, OR and NOT, also called boolean logic or boolean operators.

In databases and search engines you can often combine these by choice, in drop-down menues, but sometimes they can be pre-defined.

•  AND is used to exclude, in most databases this will be added automatically if you do not write anything, Google for example automatically adds an AND between your keywords.
• OR is used to include, this way you expand your search. For example searching for Street art OR Graffiti.
• NOT is also used to exclude but in a different way.
• 

Information on searching from LU

 Illern

An online course that helps you develop search skills and improve your "information literacy". It has been developed by Lund University and is available in both Swedish and English.