Research Guides: How to Write a Literature Review: Searching Article Databases

Searching in Google vs. Library Databases

Searching in databases isn't always like searching in a search engine like Google. Many databases work with natural-language searching (for example, what is the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on the atmosphere?) but not all of them do. For many databases, you'll want to try a variety of approaches including connecting your keywords using the AND, OR, and NOT operators (for example, "greenhouse gas" AND emissions AND atmosphere). These operators are sometimes called "Boolean operators" after George Boole, a mathematician who came up with their logic and they help make Google and many other search interfaces work!