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FYS101 Research Exercises - 2022/23

This guide contains the 6 research exercises for SNHU's First Year Seminar class, FYS101, for the 2022-23 academic year.

Welcome to FYS Research Exercise #5!


How to do this Research Exercise

To complete Research Exercise #5, you will:

  • Read down this page, following each step
  • Download the assignment for Research Exercise #5 below. Complete it, and submit it to Brightspace

Searching in Library Databases

It is not as easy to search the library databases as it is to search in Google, however, once we learn the tricks, we will be able to find better quality information for this project and others in college (and beyond).

Keywords as Search Terms

To search effectively in library databases, we need to pull out the keywords in our research/priority questions and then connect them using special terms and symbols to tell the search engine exactly what we want it to find for us.
WATCH THIS VIDEO to learn why it is important not only to select keywords from a research topic to search with, but also to choose synonyms (words that mean the same thing) for each keyword.

Finding Keywords

You may begin searching in the library databases using the SAME search terms and/or search strategies you used in your web search in Research Exercise 4, although you are focused on finding sources to answer your remaining unanswered priority questions about your Primary Source. You are also trying to find information to connect your Primary Source to your Collection Card's theme, and/or past or current efforts to raise awareness or remedies for your Collection's "hard history."

Below is a reminder from Research Exercise 4 of strategies for selecting SEARCH TERMS about your Primary Source

  • Use suggested search terms from your tertiary source searches 
  • Use the search terms you created in Research Exercise 3 
  • Look at the description of your Primary Source on your Collection Card - and choose key words
  • Look at your unanswered priority questions - Circle important words in each question to try as search terms
  • List synonyms for each of your "key" words in your priority question(s) to try as search terms in the library databases

Search Tricks for Library Databases

There are three main tricks to use with searching:

Trick #1. Boolean Operators

As mentioned in the video, how you CONNECT your keywords will also impact your search results. Boolean Operators are the words AND, OR, NOT which when used between keywords tell a search engine what to look for. Boolean operators are CAPITALIZED in your search phrase because some databases will only recognize them if they are capitalized. Also, it helps remind you that you are using those words AND, OR, NOT intentionally to guide the search engine to do a particular thing.

  • AND - Connecting all your keywords with AND tells the search engine to find ALL those words in each result it brings up
  • OR - Connecting keywords with OR tells the search engine to find either word in each results, so it will bring up MORE results. When there are two or more words used to mean the same event, place, concept, etc. or there is more than one spelling for a word, you will want to include both and connect them with the word OR to enable finding all relevant resources.
  • NOT - Using NOT before a keyword tells the search engine to leave out results with that word in them from the results list.

Example: This search will bring up all results that contain the three words: racism, socioeconomic, and status. This means results about different types of status may appear like marital status, academic status, professional status, etc. If you see a lot of results about marital status, for example, you could had NOT marital to the end of this search phrase.

blue background with white letters: racism AND socioeconomic status

Trick #2: Phrase Searching

Putting two or more words inside quotation marks tells the search engine to find that phrase in each result it brings up, instead of each individual word anywhere in the document.
Example: This search will bring up all results that contain the word racism and the phrase socioeconomic status so those other types of status mentioned above like marital status will likely be excluded.

blue background with white font saying: racism AND "socioeconomic status"

Trick #3: Truncation

Putting an asterisk after the root or "trunk" of a word tells the search engine to find ALL words that begin with that group of letters in each result it brings up. Be careful to include only the letters that would appear in all forms of the word.
Example: This search will bring up all results with the words racism or racist and the phrase socioeconomic status.

blue background with white font saying: racis* AND "socioeconomic status"

Sample Search - Putting all the tricks together

When there are several different words or phrases used for the same concept/idea, you may include them all in your search at once by connecting them with the Boolean Operator "OR" and entering those synonyms in parentheses before you connect with an AND so the search engine will look appropriately for the words you want. This search will bring up all results with the words racism or racist, and the phrases socioeconomic status or social class or both.

Blue background with white font saying: racis* AND (“socioeconomic status” OR “social class”)

Spelling counts!

Databases will not correct your spelling the way Google will offer you suggestions spelled differently than what you have entered.

For example: In Collection #1 "Personal Property" when researching Sally HEMINGS in the political cartoon, A Philosophic Cock, you will want to be sure to spell her name with one "M" as "Sally HEMMINGS" will not bring up results.

Using the Shapiro Library Multi-Search


The library has many databases, but most researchers begin by using the "Multi-Search" box on the Shapiro Library home page because it will search nearly half of the resources the library subscribes to all at once which saves time! Watch the following video  for a basic overview of using the Multi-Search tool. 

Once you conduct a search in the Multi-Search box, you will see a list of results. Below is a breakdown of the "limiters" and "tools" to help you narrow down your search results to the best possible sources.


Search Limiters

The following are some of the "limiters" to refine your search results, called that because they will "limit" your results to certain categories. These are located in the left hand margin of the list of results that come up after you conduct a search in the Multi-Search.

Peer Reviewed/Scholarly

Selecting this button will leave only sources that are published in "peer-reviewed" or scholarly resources like academic journals, videos and books. "Peer-reviewed" means that other scholars in the same field (peers) have evaluated each article or information source that is published in that journal or volume. Professors often ask you to find "peer-reviewed" or "scholarly sources" for your research papers and projects.

Publication Date

Using the slide bar, or entering beginning and ending dates in the boxes will narrow the results to those published in a specific time frame. Sometimes you want to see historical sources published at the time an event took place or a new theory was being developed. In other instances you want to see the most recent studies on a certain phenomenon.

Limit by Subject Term

Your initial search is just a KEYWORD search meaning the search engine is looking for the words you type in and bringing up results that have those words in them. When sources are put in a database, they are given "subject headings" to indicate what the source is ABOUT. This means you can narrow your keyword results down to those that are ABOUT certain topics.

Be sure to click on "Limit by Subject Term" and then click on "Show More" at the bottom of the six terms that appear in the margin. Now you will be able to see the complete list of Subject Terms and click on all that apply to your topic before you click the "Update" button.

Image of list of subject terms with boxes on left and directions to click all that apply and click "update" button after selecting subject terms. Numbers next to each subject term are how many of the results are about that topic.

Search Tools

Citation Feature

In the Multi-Search, AFTER you click on a title in the results list, a landing page for that source will come up. Click on the yellowy piece of paper icon in the right hand margin that says "Cite" next to it. Scroll down the list of citations that appear at the top to find the MLA 8th Edition. Copy and paste that citation into your Research Exercise 5 document.

Results page with MLA 8th Edition and the Cite icon circled in blue.

Permalink/Stable URL

Because the databases are being paid for and their content isn't available on the open web, the links to database sources are protected behind a proxy (firewall). To find the "permalink" for an article in a database, after you click on the title of the article, click on the the chain link icon (Permalink) and the URl will appear above the article title.

Article landing page with Permalink icon and Permalink circled in blue.

Full Text

To get to the actual article, select "HTML Full Text" or "PDF Full Text" or "Link to Full Text" or "Full Text Finder" beneath the source's citation in the results list. This is also available in the left margin after you click on the title.

Full text links circled in blue on results list

FYS Research Exercise #5


  1. Step 1: Conduct a search in the Multi-Search
    • Select search terms and enter them in the Multi-Search box on the library home page.
  2. Step 2: Use the database limiters and tools to find one best article about your Primary Source
    • Use the limiters and tools you learned about above to help narrow your results to one source that answers your unanswered priority question(s) or provides information to connect your Primary Source to the "hard history" theme of your Collection Card and/or information about efforts to raise awareness of, or remedy, your Collection's "hard history" theme.
  3. Construct/paste a MLA8th citation for your best article into the Research Exercise #5
  4. Step 4: Complete and submit the Assignment for Research Exercise #5 to BrightspaceStep 7:Ssubmit your Research Exercise 5 document to Assignment 5 in your FYS101 Brightspac