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HIST 100-01: Africa as an Idea (Spring 2023)

Database Searching

Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.

AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: Wakandan AND film

OR - searches for one of the words. Example: Film OR movie

NOT - exclude a term. Example:  Film NOT comic

Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: (Film OR "Motion Picture") AND "Black Panther" = search for Black Panther film or Black Panther movie.
Example: ("Black Panther"  NOT "the Black Panthers" ) AND "Motion Picture" = search for motion pictures about Black Panther, not the Black Panthers.

Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "black panther"
Example: "motion picture"
Warning: You might exclude results. A search for "depiction of Africa" will exclude all results for "depictions of Africa"

Asterisk * - Allows you to search several word endings at once, without using OR.
Example: Africa* will cover Africa, African, Africans, Africana 
Example: film* will cover film, films
Warning: You may get unexpected results. Brit* will also yield Brittany, Britons, and Britches. Virginia* will bring up articles on the Didelphis virginiana (Virginia opossum)