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History 4971.1 - Karl Marx: A 19th Century Life: Searching Tips

Truncation, Wildcards

MERLIN and many other databases use the * symbol to indicate truncation.

Marxis*  will search for:

  • Marxist
  • Marxists
  • Marxism
  • ...but NOT Marx.

MERLIN and some other databases also use word-internal wildcards:

workingm?n will search for:

  • workingman
  • workingmen

Subject or Keyword?

When looking for... Use
Books about a person Subject, e.g., Bakunin, Mikhail
Books about an organization Subject, e.g., International Workingmen's Association
Books about an event Subject, e.g., French Revolution (watch for "see" references)
Books including something
about a person-maybe a
chapter or part
Keyword(s), e.g. Saint-Simon
Books about an idea Keyword(s)  Examples:
(freedom or liberty) and 19th century and philosoph*
(wom?n or femin*) and John Stuart Mill
Books on X that mention Y

MERLIN: use X and Y as Keywords
OR
Google Books (Advanced): use X in Title, Y in an upper box
such as "All the words" or "Exact Phrase"

Finding Focus: Fielded Searching and Limiting Your Results

    Look for your historical figures as both AUTHORS and KEYWORDS, and, if available, as SUBJECTS.

    If the author wrote in a language other than English, you can locate English translations by limiting language to English after running the search.

    Look for ways to limit dates, especially in the UM LIBRARIES CATALOG, JSTOR and Google Books.

     

      AND - All the Words

       

      Venn Diagramm: Boys AND China

      A search for boys AND China or an "All the Words" search for boys China will only give you results containing BOTH words.

      Use AND or All the words searches to narrow or focus your results.

      OR - Any of the Words

      Venn Diagram: Heart OR Cardio

      A search for heart OR cardio* or an "Any of the Words" search for heart cardio* will give you results containing EITHER word.

      Use OR or Any of the Words for synonyms or closely related words.