These tools will help you to either locate items in our collection (DOI Search, Journal Finder, LibKey Nomad) or to request a copy of an item we don't currently have access to (Interlibrary Loan).
To get the most out of your searches in library and public databases (or even Google!), it helps to know how to search using keywords and operators. Instead of trying to use full sentences, select the most important terms in your query (usually nouns or noun phrases) and join them to other terms in order to control the results you get. For example: if you're trying to learn about craniofacial surgery, you'll get the same or better results in PubMed using the phrase "craniofacial surgery" rather than "what is craniofacial surgery." Here are some ways to use and combine terms to get better results (links go to illustrative search results in PubMed):
Example: Use "craniofacial surgery" instead of craniofacial surgery. Notice that using quotation marks generates a much smaller and more focused set of results.
Example: Instead of doing two separate searches for "green tea" and "black tea", combine them: "green tea" AND "black tea" [Note: PubMed and some other databases assume that any terms you enter in the search box are joined by an AND unless you ask them to do otherwise]
Example: Heart attacks can be described in different language depending on context and usage. You'll get different results searching for "heart attack" than you would searching for "myocardial infarction". Using OR, you can combine them to cover both options, like so: "heart attack" OR "myocardial infarction". This is also a good trick to use to cover variant spellings (UK vs US English), plurals, and other forms of words.
Example: Sometimes, your search will include results that aren't quite what you need. You can use NOT to get rid of them. To test this, first look at this search for "oral health", then compare it to the number of results and visible options in this search for "oral health" NOT pregnancy
While it is fairly common for countries to have a publicly available website (or several such sites) for their various departments and agencies, not all do. Among those that do, some are more complete than others, some provide greater access to documents and tools than others, etc. While many have sites or documents available in multiple languages (including English), some do not. This can make it a bit tricky to find what you're looking for!
Some ways to find official government sites:
Be careful not to confuse a tourist site (which may be run by a foreign affairs or tourism ministry) for a main government site. When you do find a government or government agency's site, take some time to click around on it to find links to other agencies or parts of the government. Some national governments (like Ghana, for example) have individual sites for their particular ministries and offices, but no single portal site through which to reach them; these are cases in which finding ministry names and searching for them along with the ccTLD code would be useful.
This work is licensed by the David L. Rice Library under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8037-7120