Shapiro Library Badges
Strategic Searcher Badge
Do you know all about keyword and Boolean searching? Are you an old pro at truncation and phrase searching? Know your way around Shapiro library's A-Z Database list? Prove it today to earn the Strategic Searcher badge!
Learners who complete the Strategic Searcher Quiz with a score of 80% or more earn the Strategic Searcher badge. You'll know right away if you passed the quiz, but it may take a few days for badges to be awarded. You can take the quiz as many times as you like. If you miss a question, consult the linked resources below.
Need More Information?
All the information you need to earn the Strategic Searcher badge is covered in the Search & Research Virtual Research Workshop recordings.
Keyword, Boolean & Phrase Searching
Truncation Searching
When you search, often times the database or search engine you are using may index articles under different forms of the word. For example banking and bankers. In order to avoid missing out on some good results, you should try truncating your search topic. In the above case, you'd revert to a root, such as bank and place an asterisk after it, like this: bank*. This will retrieve all variant endings of a word, including bank, banks, bankers, banking Be careful of truncating too much, which may lead to results you don't want.
from the HIS 270 - American Environmental History Research Guide.