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Shakespeare Research Guide: Keyword Strategies

A guide to scholarly sources for the study and teaching of Shakesepeare's works.

OMNI Search

Keyword Search Strategies

Keyword Search Strategies

There are a few ways to improve your search results whenever searching any of the Libraries' databases.

1. Write down your topic and identify the major concepts.

Example: The role of race in Othello

There are two key concepts here: race and Othello. These key concepts will provide the foundation for a keyword search. 

2. Think of synonyms that you can use as keywords to search for your concepts. For the above example, there are synonyms that provide good keywords for the concept of race. Some examples are: race or racism or Black. 

3. Databases retrieve better results when you use the proper syntax to create a search. This special syntax uses something called Boolean logic, which defines the logical relationship between your keywords. For most search purposes, using AND and OR between your search keywords will allow you to create a good search.

AND: tells a database to retrieve results where all search keyword(s) occur. For example,  race and Othello will retrieve results where both keywords (or in this case, key phrases) appear in either the title, author, subjects or somewhere else in the record for the item. Using AND focuses your search and shows where concepts overlap.

OR: tells a database to retrieve results where any search keyword(s) occur. For example,(race or racism) will retrieve results where any of the keywords appear in either the title, author, subjects or somewhere else in the record for the item. Using OR widens your search and allows you to search for several synonyms concurrently. Important: when using OR, be sure to use round parentheses around all terms connected with OR.

4. Build your keyword search using your concepts (and their synonyms) and Boolean logic. For the above topic, some good keyword searches are:

  • (race or racism or Black or African) and Othello
  • (race or racism or Black or African) and Shakespeare
  • (race or racism or Black or African) and (Othello or Shakespeare)

Most databases (such as the library catalogue, periodical indexes, search engines such as Google) use Boolean logic. Most Internet search engines such as Google automatically insert AND between all your search terms. The specialized databases available from the library's website usually require you to insert the operators yourself.