CRE281 Popular Music, Technology, and the Human

LibrarySearch in advanced mode

LibrarySearch retrieves many relevant sources, but searches very broadly in multiple collections with descriptions (metadata) for sources which vary in structure and terminology.
A topical search may require fine-tuning or adjusting the search formula for a few search attempts.
SUGGESTION: Start broadly searching for your keywords in "Any field"
If you retrieve a very large number of results, you can change the description field in which it searches for your keywords to surface different sources closer to the top of the results list. Try changing the search filters to "Subject" or "Title" contains [your keyword(s)].
NOTE: searching in "title" will definitely exclude a number of relevant results, and searching "in subject" will, to a lesser extent, exclude relevant results. Nevertheless, searching for your keywords in those specific fields can raise very relevant sources to the top of your results list.

Link to the search formula above.
Colour highlighting above indicates techniques for searching efficiently:

• "quotation marks" around multi-word search terms
• the asterisk to replace zero to any number of letters, to retrieve sources described with variations of that search term
• using "OR" to connect synonymous or related terms (each concept and synonyms/related on each line, by default is connected by "AND")
   

For Subject-Specific Databases/collections:

Searching in a specific subject area with more granular choices as to where in the source descriptions (metadata) to search for your keywords, often leads to a smaller but more relevant (aligned to your keywords) results.

1. Navigate to the library's list of Databases by subject
2. Select your discipline/subject area from the drop-down menu (e.g., science, literature, environmental studies etc.)
3. Click on "Article databases" and you'll see the top 3 recommended databases or collections to search.

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature: sample search formula