Find sources about a topic

Learning Outcomes

• Enter keywords in SCOUT.
• Combine keywords and Boolean Operators to perform a search on a topic

• Identify why you might have difficulty finding sources.

Find Sources on a Topic in SCOUT

Start

This is an interactive tutorial. Click the button on the top right to find interactive elements. If the tutorial instructs you to click an element, please do!

Currently, SCOUT (the library catalog) and most of USMA Library's databases require the use of

KEYWORDS - words or phrases that express the most important concepts of your topic

Looking for books or articles on a topic?

Looking for a specific book or article?

Once you have found keywords, combine them with

Boolean Operators

for more targeted results

Next

Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators are specific words that are used to connect search terms and refine search results in databases and search engines.

knee pain AND injury

• AND
• OR
• NOT

knee pain OR injury

knee pain NOT injury

" " Quotations are a Boolean Operator that force a search only on the specific terms inside the quotes

Next

Combine Boolean Operators and keywords to target your search

• Topic: Urban gentrification and its impacts
• Keywords:
• Gentrification
• Urban neighborhoods
• Displacement
• Urban development history

Using two keywords (phrases) and a Boolean Operator returned 4,407 results

To narrow down results even more, view this tutorial on Using Filters in SCOUT.

Next

Having trouble finding sources or getting the results you want from SCOUT?

1. Try different terms, broaden, narrow 2. Look at it from a different perspective 3. It's just not there

Next

Thank you for completing Find Sources on a Topic in SCOUT

Look at it from a different perspective

Annexation or Reunification

Revolution or Uprising

Liberation or Invasion

Try different terms: narrow or broaden your search

• plants
• house plants
• indoor plants
• snake plant
• fern
• money tree
• succulents
• home botany
• indoor gardening
• tropical plants
• drought-tolerant plants
• low light plants

• social media
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Tiktok
• digital social platforms

• Russia
• USSR
• Soviet Union

The words in bold are the keywords you could use to search for these sources

• The book's title: The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan
• Main words from the book's title: Taliban, Afghanistan
• The author's name: Robert Crews

• The article's title: West Point: Teaching Leadership and Risk Management Through Investing
• Main words from the book's title: West Point, leadership
• The author's name: Aaron Stark, Isaac Wisniewski

When searching for sources on a topic, think of the main words and ideas of that topic

• Topic: The impact of the Black Death on European social structures
• Keywords:
• Black Death
• Social structures
• Feudalism
• Mortality rates

• Topic: Urban gentrification and its impacts
• Keywords:
• Gentrification
• Urban neighborhoods
• Displacement
• Urban development history

• Topic: The social determinants of health disparities in rural communities
• Keywords:
• Health disparities
• Social determinants
• Rural health
• Access to care

It's just not there

West Point Cadets, class of 1789

Bolivian spice trade

Icelandic civil war

Coastal erosion in Oklahoma

Results with include resources that either the term knee pain or the word injury

1,520,486 results

Results with include resources that include both the term knee pain and the word injury

13,315 results

Results with include resources that include the the exact phrase knee pain.

12,630 results

Results with include resources that include the the term knee pain but not the word injury

48,377 results