Agricultural Systems Management: Search
 Tips

• Evaluating Information Sources
• When evaluating a website, check these basic points:
  • Author or contact person - usually located in the footer
  • Link to local home page - usually located in either header or footer
  • Institution - usually located in either header or footer
  • Domain - the last segment of the "root" of the URL (e.g., http://www.missouri.edu)
  • Date of creation or revision - usually located in footer
  • Intended audience - determine by examining the body
  • Purpose of the information - determined by examining the body

• Truncation symbol -- *
  • evaluat* retrieves
    • evaluate
    • evaluated
    • evaluating
    • evaluation

• Phrase search --  Use quote marks
  • "diverging diamond interchange"

To search for a classification code in expert search, use the following syntax (432.4) WN CL  as seen below.

Below is a short video explaining how to use the boolean operators, AND, OR and NOT  to make searching for articles and books more effective by broadening or focusing your search.

The Brief Guide to Research Resources provides more database search tips.