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Research Guides

CIN451: Queer Asian Cinema

How to Choose Keywords

Tips for Building your Search

Choosing your Search Terms

Enter search terms on separate lines e.g., enter title of film on the top line, director's last name below, so as to articulate your search request. Use Boolean Operators to improve your search:

  • Quotations marks (search for specific phrases or names)

    • "suburban life"

    • "Sam Mendes"

    • "American Beauty"

  • The Asterisk * (widens your search by telling the database to seek the root word with any type of ending)

    • femin* = feminine, feminist, feminists, feminist's, feminism

    • film* = films, filmology, filming, filmmaker's, filmmaker

  • AND (narrows your search) 

    • sex AND "motion pictures"

    • porn AND distribution

  • OR (widens your search)

    • film OR movies OR cinem* OR "motion pictures" 

    • media OR "mass media"

    • transgender* OR transex*

    • MGM OR "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer" OR "Metro Goldwyn Mayer"

  • NOT (exclude term from your search)

    • sex AND "motion pictures"   NOT porn

  • Brackets (instruct databases on how to combine search terms)

    • femin* AND (film* OR movies OR cinem* OR "motion pictures") 

    • "feature films" AND (queer OR LGBT* OR gay) 

Entering Key Terms

The search you enter can be very simple, without using any expert techniques.

Basic search interface with the two word phrase Stonewall riots entered

If you are a more experienced researcher, Basic Search also allows you to use search operators that broaden or narrow your results.

Basic search interface with more complex search including Stonewall riots in quotations and Marsha P Johnson in quotations with both phrases separated by the world and in all caps

If you would like to learn more about using "search operators" to improve your results, visit the Using Search Operators page of this guide or book a consultation with a librarian.

If you would like additional options to help you narrow your search to the most relevant results, select Advanced Search.

Basic search interface highlighting location of Advanced Search button to the right of the search box

Refine Results using Filters

Your initial set of results will be automatically sorted by "relevance".  LibrarySearch relevance ranking is determined by: 

  • Frequency of keywords matched in the record
  • Hierarchy of keywords in the record
  • Proximity of keywords to one another 
  • Keywords matched in author, title, subject, or date field

You may want to change this default setting to sort in other ways. Alternative sort options include Date-newest, Date-oldest, Title, or Author. Each of these options are available through the Sort By dropdown menu highlighted in the following image. 

Alternative sort options.

Choosing a Filter

Choose any filter option from the left side menu to narrow your search results. 

Results page with location of filters highlighted.

Applying selected filters

Once you have selected one or more filters, you must click the Apply Filters button highlighted in the following image before the list will be updated with your search preferences. You may need to scroll down to the bottom of the filter section to locate the Apply Filters button. 

Results page with apply filter button highlighted.

Follow citation trails

A citation trail is one way to describe a search that:

  • Examines the bibliography, references or works cited section of a specific article to identify relevant sources published previously. This is sometimes called Backwards Searching.
  • Identifies any sources that have cited or referenced a specific article since that article's publication. This is sometimes called Forwards Searching. 

Within LibrarySearch, you can follow a source's citation trail by taking the following steps. 

Step 1. Open the more detailed article record by clicking on the title.

A brief article record highlighting the title: Adapting to the Effects of Climate Change on Inuit Health.

Step 2. Select "Citations" from the menu on the left.

Detailed article record using an arrow to highlight the Citations menu option.

Step 3. Click "Citing This" to find relevant sources published previously or "Cited in This" for relevant sources published since. In the following image the number 1 indicates the location of the "Citing This" feature and the number 2 highlights the "Cited in this" feature. 

Detailed article record showing the location of the citing this and cited by this features.

One trail leads to sources that cite the work. The other trail lists the references cited in the work.

Citation trial tools may not include all citations to or from a given work. Find out more about Citation Trails.