If you are either getting too many or not enough results when searching within the library, you will need to either narrow or broaden your search by taking the following steps:
Too many results:
Using the database's Advanced Search option, narrow your topic by adding additional keywords to the search boxes.
For example, a search for Global Warming is a very broad search topic that would retrieve over 600,000 results.
Adding additional keywords such as rising sea levels and “Pacific Ocean” to the search has greatly reduced the results list to just over 1,500 results.
Additionally, you can reduce your results list by limiting your search results to only display Scholarly/Peer Reviewed articles by selecting the Limit to Scholarly/Peer Reviewed box on the left side of the page. You can also use the other limiters, such as Publication Date, to further limit your results to be more current and relevant to your needs.
Too few results:
Try broadening your topic by removing keywords from your search.
For example, a search for “student debt” and impact or effect or influence and first generation female college students is quite narrow and only retrieved 17 results.
But eliminating female and searching for first generation college students has provided significantly more results.
For additional tips and tricks to help broaden or narrow your search results and get the most out of your library research, see the Advanced Search Techniques tip sheet.
If you still have questions you can chat in real-time with a librarian here.