Ask a librarian
Google doesn’t have everything! We love Google too, but don’t forget that it doesn’t contain much of the rich information contained in web databases held by libraries and many other organisations around the world. Read more about the deep web, and why internet search engines don’t find everything in web databases.
As well as the operators AND, OR and NOT, Google offers several search operators to narrow or broaden your search:
| ~like | history ~religion finds information about history and religion, Christianity, Islam, culture,etc. |
| alternate spellings | gold-field finds all forms of the term gold, whether spelled as a single word, a phrase, or hyphenated |
| define: | define:whenua finds definitions of the word whenua from the web |
| site: | site:ac.nz English papers finds results for English papers across all ac.nz websites |
| music: | music:shihad finds music-related info about the band Shihad |
Google filters
You can search for particular types of files and within particular parts of a web page using filters in your Google searches.
| <[#]..[#] number range | recipes 1820..1850 finds recipes from the years 1820 and 1850. Number range also works with currencies |
| filetype: | filetype:xls GDP
finds .xls (excel) documents with GDP information. This works with lots of file extensions such as .doc .pdf .html .mp3 |
| allinurl: | allinurl:manuka bee finds results with the keywords manuka and bee in the URL |
| allintitle: | allintitle:tui song finds results with the keywords tui and song in title |
| using multiple search operators |
plato “the republic” shows how to bring together multiple search operators |
Google calculator
You can use the Google search box to perform simple calculations:
+ – * / | basic calculation for plus, minus, multiplied by, and divided by |
% of ; | 75% of 498 gives a percentage of a figure |
| ^ or ** | 7^3 or 7**3 raises to a power |
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Find specific web databases
Most libraries will have lists of their research databases. Starting with a web database is a great place to start:
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Start with a general search
It’s often useful to throw out a wide search term to get a feel for what’s available. If you’re interested in mining then a search on it will give a general sense of how much information is available. Try searching some of the National Library’s websites for material on mining:
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Two words are better than one
Once you know how much is out there you might narrow your search by adding one or more words. Try the same websites but this time look for gold mining Otago:
Search Papers Past for newspaper articles on gold mining Otago
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Use database features to refine your search
A lot of databases let you select which bits of a document you want to search. These are usually things like titles, full-text, or illustration captions. Try searching Papers Past for gold mining Otago in illustration captions:
Search Papers Past for illustration captions about gold mining Otago
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Look for alternatives
You can use OR to search for alternative spellings or similar words, but in some database searches you can also use * to search for variant forms of words. A search for gold* will return results for gold, goldfield, goldmine, and so on:
Search operators are terms added to narrow or broaden a search query. The most common are AND, OR, and NOT.
AND
Most website search tools assume an ‘AND’ between search terms. A search for:cabbage tree
will get results that contain all of your words. This narrows the search and is the same as searching for:cabbage AND tree
OR
To get results that include at least one of the search terms insert an ‘OR’. This widens the search and is the same as asking for any of these words:cabbage OR tree
Phrase
To search for words that match an exact order, enclose with quotation marks or use the exact match button if available:“cabbage tree”
NOT
To exclude an unwanted term from results, insert a ‘NOT’ in front. This narrows the search:cabbage NOT tree
cabbage -tree
